Burst Pipe in Ballymoney: The Recipe Card

What's the method for the first five minutes?

• A torch and a dry cloth for grip
• Towels or basins under the worst of it
• Your phone, once the water has stopped

1. Close the stopcock — kitchen sink cupboard first, then hall cupboard, under the stairs, utility room or garage. Clockwise, firm and steady, until it stops.
2. Open every cold tap in the house. The pipework drains down and the pressure feeding the burst falls away within a minute or two.
3. If water is near sockets, light fittings or the consumer unit, switch the electricity off at the consumer unit — but only if you can reach it without standing in water. If you can't reach it dry, leave it and keep clear.
4. Move what you can, catch what you can't, and take a photo or two of the damage for any insurance conversation later.
5. When to hand it to the professional: now. With the flow stopped, ring and describe where the water was coming from, what you've turned off, and what kind of property it is. The repair itself is the plumber's course to cook.

Why do pipes burst in the first place?

Around North Antrim the classic is frost: water freezes in an unlagged pipe in a roofspace, garage or outbuilding, expands as it turns to ice, and splits the pipe — then the flood arrives with the thaw, which is why a burst so often shows itself on the first mild morning after a cold snap. Inland towns like Ballymoney take a harder frost than the coast, and the long supply runs and outbuildings of the surrounding farmland feel it hardest of all.

Age does the slower work. The older terraces and mill rows — Balnamore's a good example — carry pipework in mixed metals that's been altered in stages over a century, and an elderly joint can let go without any help from the weather. High mains pressure or water hammer (that bang in the pipes when a tap shuts) can finish the job on a weakened fitting.

None of this changes the first-five-minutes recipe above — but it's worth mentioning on the call, because "a frozen pipe in the roofspace has split" and "an old joint under the floor has let go" send the plumber to the van for different tools.

Whose pipe is it — mine or NI Water's?

The general split in Northern Ireland runs at the property boundary. The water main in the road and the communication pipe up to your boundary belong to NI Water; the supply pipe from the boundary into and through the house is the property owner's. So water bubbling up through the footpath or the road itself is one for NI Water to hear about, while a soaked patch of garden between your gate and your front door is most likely your own supply pipe.

Rural properties around Dervock, Finvoy or Cloughmills often have a long private supply run in from the roadside — sometimes shared with a neighbour or serving outbuildings on the way — and that whole run is typically the owner's responsibility, which is why a leak on it can quietly run for weeks before anyone notices the meter or the puddle. If you're genuinely unsure whose side the leak is on, say so on the call: a plumber can usually tell from where the water shows and where your outside stop valve sits.

Can I do anything useful while I wait?

1. Keep the cold taps open until they run dry — the less water sitting in the pipes, the less finds its way out of the split.
2. If the burst is above a ceiling and the plaster is bellying, put a bucket underneath and — if you're comfortable — pierce a small hole at the lowest point to let the water through in a controlled way rather than waiting for the ceiling to choose its own moment.
3. Lift rugs, move furniture, and get air circulating: windows open, heating gently on. Drying starts now, not after the repair.
4. A temporary wrap — self-amalgamating tape or a repair clamp — can hold a weep on a drained pipe, but treat it as a lid, not a fix.
5. When to hand it to the professional: the repair, anything involving the hot water cylinder or heating system, and any burst you can hear but can't find. Leave the mains off until the plumber says otherwise.