Winter is upon us which for some home owners it brings with it low temperatures and frozen burst pipes in your home.
Here at Claims Assist we have 3 gifts to help you through this winter freeze & hopefully your holidays will be A joyful time spent with family and not contemplating an insurance claim first thing in the new year !
FROZEN PIPE INSURANCE CLAIM PREVENTION TIP#
- Frozen & burst pipes – tips to prevent these problems from occurring.
– Low cost DIY solutions can be implemented to ensure all pipe work in the attic space won’t burst or split under freezing temperatures. These simple jobs take less than a couple of hours to complete and the material cost is nominal (Approx. €100 – €150 euro) - At your builders providers purchase foam insulation pipe lagging material, Duct tape & some cable ties. Also purchase a single roll of either fibre glass (rockwool / ecowool) insulation material, or alternatively buy a water storage (header tank) insulation cover kit.
- Lag all exposed pipes in the attic space (including pipe joints / elbows etc.), wrap the header tank in insulation material or the cover kit making sure you also wrap the lid of the tanks.
- External pipes – i.e. outside tap, again lag any exposed pipe to the tap
- External oil fired boiler housing – lag the flow and return pipes from the boiler unit (inside the housing / metal casing) and from there up to the house if the pipes are exposed or above ground at all.
FROZEN PIPE INSURANCE CLAIM PREVENTION TIP#2
- AS is best practice and allways advised by your insurance company – Turn off the water supply at the mains if you are away from the home over the weekend / week during the holiday season. This includes the stop cock located normally beneath the kitchen sink, in newer homes a circulation pump will be located on the ground floor to pump water to the upper floor storage tanks – Isolate both valves on this pump.
- All newer properties have valve charts with the plumbing valves numbered and labelled – check if any cold water valves should be turned to the off position.
- Heating system – if your house is unoccupied for a number of days during the holiday period it is a very simple operation to set the heating timer to turn on for an hour or two by timer, similarly remote light switching. Depending on how your system is set up this is best practice to allow a short run period for the heating preventing any problems upon your return & also to provide the impression the home is occupied preventing theft and crime while vacant.
- ALLWAYS CHECK WITH YOUR HOME INSURANCE POLICY FOR THE VACANT HOME CHECK LIST REQUIRED BY YOUR COVER POLICY – This will prevent any issue should a claim be necessary in the event of an accident etc.
Finally – if the worse does happen for whatever reason, burst pipes, flooding internally or externally at your property, your first call should be to Claims Assist Loss Assessors – our Teams are available 24 /7 and we have insurance approved trades on standby to call and assess any damage, provide a quote & make all repairs your claim demands.
