{"id":8,"date":"2026-10-11T00:07:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/what-to-do-when-a-pipe-bursts\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T00:07:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:07:54","slug":"what-to-do-when-a-pipe-bursts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/what-to-do-when-a-pipe-bursts\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do when a pipe bursts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A burst pipe can let out a lot of water very quickly. Acting in the first few minutes makes a big difference to the damage, so it helps to know these steps before you ever need them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Five things to do straight away<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Turn off the water<\/strong> at the main stop valve (often under the kitchen sink, or where the water pipe enters the house). Turn it clockwise until it stops.<\/li>\n\n<li><strong>Switch off electrics<\/strong> near the leak at the fuse box, but only if you can reach it without touching water.<\/li>\n\n<li><strong>Open the cold taps<\/strong> to drain the water left in the pipes, and switch off your boiler or water heater.<\/li>\n\n<li><strong>Catch and mop up<\/strong> the water with buckets and towels, and move furniture and valuables out of the way.<\/li>\n\n<li><strong>Call a plumber<\/strong> and take photos of the damage for your insurer.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to stop it happening again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Insulate pipes in lofts, garages and outside walls before winter.<\/li>\n\n<li>Keep the heating on low if you go away during cold weather.<\/li>\n\n<li>Find your stop valve now and check that it turns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not sure where your stop valve is? Ask your plumber to show you at your next visit. It only takes a minute and could save you a lot of trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A burst pipe can flood a room in minutes. These five steps limit the damage while you wait for a plumber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/26"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-plumbline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}