How to protect your home from water leaks

Whether it's frozen pipes bursting in the house, or escape of water damage to your home, water leaks can feel like the end of the world. We can't save you from them completely, but we'll cover certain insured events. 

Here's what you can do to help protect your home

• Add lagging to all internal pipework, especially pipes in the loft. This can be done easily and cheaply with pipe insulation covers that you can buy from a DIY store.
• Keep your cold water tank well insulated. A drop in temperature may cause the water within the tank and pipes to freeze and potentially burst.
• Protect outside taps with covers to help prevent freezing.
• Watch out for changes in your home. Drops in boiler pressure or discolouration on floors could all be signs of a leak.
• Keep an eye on the condition of your sealant and grout around the house. You're not covered if the water damage is caused by this failing.
• Check if your boiler has been maintained in line with the manufacturer's instructions. These can be usually be found in your boiler user manual or on the manufacturer's website.
• Keep your home in good general condition and deal with any problems quickly to avoid any issues if you need to make a claim.

Be prepared and check your home cover 

We will deal with the resultant damage of a water leak, subject to confirmation of cover and a £450 excess. You may also be covered for tracing and accessing the source of the leak, if this is necessary, and emergency assistance to stop the leak, if you have Home Emergency cover on your policy. Check your schedule to see if you have this cover.

Are you going away?

If a water pipe bursts when you're not at home, that could mean up to 250 gallons of water an hour escaping into your home. So, if you're going away during cold weather, here are some tips to help prevent disasters. 

• Consider turning off the stopcock. If a pipe bursts, this will limit any escape of water.
• If you can, leave the heating on and set it to 10°C (50F). Pipework shouldn't get cold enough to freeze.
• Open the loft hatch. You want warm air to reach your loft pipes or water tank. 
• Get a lookout. Ask a family member or friend to check in on things regularly. If there is a leak, this could limit the damage.