Prevent pipes freezing in unoccupied house - turn water off or boiler on?

sarah1773

Hi

My mum has just bought a house but it needs damp-proofing before she can move in, in January. All the downstairs radiators have been moved in preparation for the dpc. Due to the very cold weather on its way, she is unsure on what to do to prevent pipes freezing and has had conflicting advice.

1. Should she keep boiler on so that it can maintain a low temp in the house - bearing in mind that there are no downstairs radiators so will it have much effect on the pipes downstairs?

2. Should she switch boiler off and turn the water off? There is a water meter in the the house with 2 stopcocks - the usual one which most people have in their house and the other which controls the water coming in from the street. Would both of these need to be off or just one?

3. Keep the boiler on so it kicks in when too cold AND turn the water off (do combi boilers have their own water system therefore not needing mains water?)

Would be great if someone could help - very confused!

kingstreet

The property should be drained down if unoccupied.

sarah1773

Thanks for your quick reply.

The thing is, the damp-proofers need access to water during their work over the next month so that's why we haven't done that. We're mostly worried about pipes freezing at night and at weekends.

kingstreet

I'd say there's no real solution then.

If there's no heating on the ground floor, leaving the heating on wouldn't have much benefit down there.

SailorSam

Get upin the loft and make sure all the pipes up there are well lagged. If any are going to burst it's usually the ones in the loft that go first.

Inigo_Montoya

if it were me I would definately drain down the central heating sytem
& turn the main stopcock off (& then turn all the taps on to get most of the water out of the pipes)

if the damp proofers need access to water then just show them where the stopcock is & ask them to turn it on at the start of the day & off when they leave