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A split pipe doesn't wait while you look for a bucket. Here's the right order to do things in, and the mistakes that make a wet floor into a wrecked ceiling.
The short version: turn the water off at the stopcock — usually under the kitchen sink — open the cold taps to drain the pipes, and cut the electrics at the consumer unit if water is near anything electrical and you can get to it dry. Then ring 020 4577 2888 to be put through to a local plumber, any hour.
Water coming out of a pressurised pipe doesn't slow down because you're mopping fast. Kill the supply first; everything after that is tidy-up.
Two minutes of the right moves beats twenty minutes of frantic mopping. Every time.
If a tap faded to a dribble during a cold snap and a leak showed up as things thawed, you've likely had a freeze-and-split. Around Dungannon that's classic territory for lofts, garages, outbuildings and the long exposed supply runs that feed rural houses — plenty of pipe out in the raw damp cold, a good stretch of it never lagged.
A frozen pipe that hasn't split yet is a warning shot. Lag it once it's thawed and it won't get a second go at you.
Pipe repair tape or a slip-on clamp can hold a small split on a drained pipe long enough to matter, and there's no shame in using one. The trouble starts when the tape gets promoted to permanent fix and the water goes back on. In the older terraces near Dungannon town centre especially, pipework of very different ages sits joint-to-joint, and leaning on one tired fitting to patch another is how one leak becomes two. Keep the water off, keep the patch as a patch, and let a plumber make the proper repair — and ask for a price before that work starts, same as any other job.
One simple test settles most of it: close your stopcock. Leak stops — it's your own system, inside the house. Water keeps coming, or it's bubbling up in the garden, the lane or the footpath — the fault is likely on the supply pipe or the mains. As a general rule, the pipe from the boundary into the house is the owner's responsibility, and the public side belongs to NI Water in Northern Ireland. On the long rural runs out towards Ballygawley or Clogher that boundary can be a fair distance from the front door, so it's worth knowing roughly where your supply comes in. A plumber can help you work out which side of the line the problem sits on, and whether it's a repair job or a report-it job.
Close your stopcock. If the leak stops, it's inside your own system. If water keeps coming — or it's rising up outside the house — the fault is likely on the supply pipe or the mains. In Northern Ireland the public side is NI Water's responsibility, while the pipe from your boundary into the house is generally the owner's. A plumber can help you work out which side it sits on.
If the burst is on the heating or hot water side, or you've drained the system through the taps, yes — turn the boiler off until a plumber has looked at it. Running a boiler on an empty system is a good way to wreck it.
Many UK buildings policies cover escape of water, but excesses and wording vary, and damage put down to wear and tear can be treated differently. Read your own policy, tell your insurer promptly, and photograph everything before you start clearing up.
Water off at the stopcock, electricity off at the consumer unit if you can reach it dry — never touch anything electrical that's wet. Stay out from under a badly sagging ceiling. If there's a small bulge, piercing it with something thin over a bucket lets the water down in a controlled way instead of all at once.
The main page — how the line works and who it covers.
Go to home →Pressure, error codes, frozen condensate — and the gas rule.
Read the guide →What to try, what to never pour, when it's NI Water's job.
Read the guide →How the bill is built and what to pin down first.
Read the guide →Pressure, timers, tripped switches and the immersion backup.
Read the guide →Gentle heat from the tap end back — and never a flame.
Read the guide →Damp patches, dropping pressure and the honest stopcock test.
Read the guide →Ring any hour to be put through to a local plumber covering Dungannon and the surrounding towns and villages.
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