Utility emergencies

At MyBuilder we’re always impressed when homeowners have the confidence to do some jobs themselves and thanks to the internet there’s no shortage of places to find out how to tackle home repairs and improvements. But how many homeowners know what to do when things go badly wrong?

Gas, water and electricity

Sometimes a job that seems as simple as putting up a picture or nailing down the floorboards can lead to disaster. And often the most expensive and dangerous examples involve the live services supplying our homes: gas, water and electricity.

The reason for that is simple - unsightly pipes and wires are often hidden away under the floors or behind walls so they’re not always easy to spot.

Do you know the basics?

According to a survey we carried out, homeowners could be putting their lives in danger and risk causing thousands of pounds worth of damage because they don’t know what action to take if they accidentally interfere with these live services.

Forewarned is forearmed, so we’ve compiled a helpful advice guide explaining where to find them and what to do.

Turning off the water

If you have accidentally broken a pipe, dripping water can quickly damage your floor, walls or possessions, so you need to stop the water flowing straight away. To do so, you’ll need to find your stopcock, a valve between two pipes that can be turned to stop the flow of water in your home.

External stopcocks

Homes typically have two stopcocks, inside the home and outside. The external one is usually found just in front of your house under a metal cover marked ‘water’, ‘stopcock’ or just ‘w’.

Turning it will usually need a stopcock key - a metal T-shaped bar that can reach into the hole to turn the valve. Turning it will turn off water to the entire building - worth bearing in mind if you live in a block of flats.

Internal stopcocks

Your home should also have a stopcock inside, that isolates the water in your property. It can be in a variety of places, often under the kitchen sink, bathroom, or in a cupboard under the stairs.

They can also crop up in odd places like cupboards, or even boxed in under the floorboards near the front door. If you’re not sure, try asking the previous owners or tenants, or the neighbours if their property is similar.

Turn and test

When you find it, turn it by hand or using pliers clockwise until the water stops coming out of the taps. You can use a lubricant like WD40 if it’s stiff to move, but be careful not to make it too slippery to turn. It’s a good idea to test it every few months to keep it operable.

Anyplumberwill need to know where your stopcock is so they can get to work.

Isolating the gas

Drilling into a gas pipe is thankfully a rare occurrence as most of the time they tend not to be in the places where we want to drill.

However, whether you suspect a leak or you’re tackling a job inside your home or outside at the front where gas enters the property, it is possible to disturb the gas supply - and when that happens, it’s crucial that you know what to do.

If you’re unlucky enough to have drilled into a gas pipe inside you will quickly notice the strong smell plus a noise similar to when you turn on the gas hob.

It’s at this point that knowing how to turn off the gas supply to your home is vital.

Where to find it

In newer houses, the isolation valve is normally outside next to the gas meter, housed in the same meter box or close by. If it's not there, it could be under the stairs, beneath the kitchen sink or in the garage.

If you live in a flat you should have your own secondary gas ECV (shut off valve) where the pipe enters the flat and this should be clearly marked.

Often the valve will be within the plastic casing that houses the meter so make sure you have a meter box key for fast access.

As soon as you suspect that you have pierced a gas pipe you need to turn the handle of the isolation valve so the lever is at 90 degrees to the gas pipe to stop gas from entering the property. They should, in accordance with regulation, have yellow tape on the pipe indicating how to turn the valve off.

Call the hotline

接下来要做的是拨打免费的24小时国家天然气紧急电话0800 111 999(这个号码也应该在仪表上清晰可见);确保你在外面使用手机。

与此同时，让所有人都离开房子，不要吸烟或点燃火柴，不要打开或关闭电器开关，打开门窗让空气流通。

紧急顾问将派遣紧急工程师，他们的首要任务是通过阻止气体流动来保护您和您的家的安全;you will then need aGas Safe registered engineerto repair the leak and test it before turning the gas back on. For more information on gas safety in your home, read ouradvice article.

Finding the fusebox

Just like a stopcock can control water coming into your home, your consumer unit or fuse box can control the electricity coming from the mains.

Like stopcocks, your consumer unit should be easily accessible, but they can be tucked away - sometimes in understairs cupboards, or in a cabinet near the front door.

A modern consumer unit will be fitted with Residual Current Devices (RCDs) and circuit breakers, that will trip or switch off in case of a fault, stopping the electricity flow to a particular circuit.

这是一个安全功能，可以防止像电涌这样的事故，可能导致电线过热，引起火灾，并保护插入插座的设备。

Time for a replacement?

旧型号的保险丝含有一段电线，过热时会融化，需要重新布线。如果是这样，这意味着你的保险丝已经过时了，需要更换。

Consumer units will also have a main switch that controls all the power to your home, and can be turned off to stop the electricity entirely.

2022世界杯预选赛 将需要访问你的消费者单位，这样他们才能安全地使用你的电子设备，所以你知道它在哪里是重要的。

Prevention is better than cure

If you are tackling home improvement work, then you’ll want to make sure you reduce the chances of disturbing your utilities as much as possible.

If you have architectural plans of your home, refer to them as they may give valuable insight into the location of wires and pipes.

If you don’t have plans, before carrying out any drilling, hammering or putting screws into a wall or floor check what’s behind it with a pipe, cable and stud detector If you are in any doubt,post your job on MyBuilderfor a vetted local tradesperson who will have a good understanding of where cables and pipes could be - plus they’ll also have professional tools that help them locate them.