There’s no denying it – winter is here and it’s certainly making its presence felt with the current brutal bout of cold, rainy, blustery weather. It doesn’t seem that long ago when I put my winter woollies away, but now it’s time to root them out and pile on the warm layers!
On a more serious note with the days getting darker, wetter and colder, it’s worth keeping a few tips in mind to ensure that nothing else happens to darken your day if you head away for a few days or leave your home unoccupied for more than a day.
A colder than normal winter is expected for this year and one of the main causes of damage to property will be from escaping water from frozen or burst pipes. Trust me this is definitely something you do not want to deal with, so here are a few simple tips to ensure this doesn’t happen:
Tips:
- If you are leaving your home for a length of time this winter – turn off water at the mains and ensure the pipes are drained. You can drain the pipes by letting the water run on all taps and by flushing all toilets.
- If you don’t want to drain your water system and you have gas or oil central heating, you can set the system to operate continuously for 24 hours a day at 55 degrees Fahrenheit or 13 degrees Centigrade. Please ensure all radiators are on and there is adequate fuel supply
- You should also ensure that the attic door (where fitted) is left open. This will help spread the heat throughout the entire house.
All you need to do is follow the step’s above to help ensure your property is kept safe this winter.
If you are unfortunate enough to suffer damage to your home you can avail of the AXA Home Repair Service. We can organise for an AXA Builder to call to your home to assess the damage and complete the repairs. This service saves you the hassle of trying to find a reputable builder and we can look after all the paperwork, guarantee the repair work, and pay the builder directly…..ensuring your home is back to normal as quickly as possible! Just call us on our dedicated Claims Line 1890 24 7 365.
Brought to you by AXA House Insurance Ireland
Hi Pauric,
I think you should stick this post to the front page come the Christmas holidays to remind all of your readers to avoid these pitfalls! Last Christmas we went away overnight and ended up a month without heating between investigations and repairs. Thankfully our builder was happy to fix the problem at no cost (because we had been happy to recommend him to others!) but we still had to pay a plumber to investigate in the first place – not the kind of expense we needed right after Christmas.
However I thought that had we left our heating to come on at the usual timed intervals that we might have avoided all of this. Is this what you are getting at in the second point? Would it be sufficient to have your heating on for a couple of hours everyday during an absence? I know you’re not a plumbing expert but…
Thanks
Roseanne
Many thanks for your comment, just to come back to you on your query, ideally you should keep the heat on constant at a low temperature. We recommend a minimum of 13 degrees C (55 degrees F). And all radiators in the house should be on.
We have had customers who had heat on a timer to come on once or twice a day for a couple of hours who still ended up with damage caused from burst pipes. The problem here is that over an hour or two the heat can dissipate from the home and if the temperatures are really low, freezing leading to burst pipes can still occur.
So if you want to minimise the risk of loss keep your heating on constant. And if you have a holiday home this is a requirement in your policy wording and not a recommendation
I hope this helps,
Pauric
Hey we created a cool illustration detailing burglary statistics in the United States. I didn’t see a way to email it to you so I hope you don’t mind me leaving it in a comment. http://www.authoritysafes.com/burglary-statistics.html
I think your readers will like it. Would love help sharing this out.
Thanks