Leaving Home for a Week? Plumbing Checklist

Why a week away is when leaks do the most damage

A leak that would be a mop-and-bucket job while you are home becomes a ceiling, a floor and the flat below when nobody is there for seven days. A mains-fed pipe that fails can release hundreds of litres an hour, and a slow drip from a washing machine hose can soak a kitchen floor and the joists under it before anyone sees it.

Insurers know this. Most home insurance policies have an unoccupancy clause that limits escape of water cover once the home has been empty for a set period, commonly somewhere between 30 and 60 consecutive days, and some require the water to be turned off or the heating kept on while you are away. A week is usually inside the limit, but read your own policy wording, because the conditions differ and a claim can be reduced if you did not follow them.

The checklist for the day before you leave

Work through this in order. Most of it takes five minutes; the stopcock test is the only step that might turn up a problem, which is why it comes first and not on the morning you leave.

• Test the stopcock the day before: turn it clockwise until it stops, check the kitchen cold tap dies, then open it again
• Close the isolating valves behind the washing machine and dishwasher; the rubber inlet hoses on older machines are a common failure point
• Empty the washing machine and leave its door and drawer open so it dries out
• Flush every toilet and check none of them is still running into the pan after the cistern fills
• Look under the kitchen and bathroom sinks with a torch for damp or a drip, and fix it before you go, not after
• Clear anything stored directly under the cold water tank in the loft
• Leave a key and your number with a neighbour, and show them the stopcock

Stopcock off, heating on: how the two work together

Turning the main stopcock off is the single most useful thing you can do. With it closed, a failed hose or joint can only release the water already in the pipes, rather than the whole mains supply. If you have a cold water tank in the loft, that tank still holds a lot of water: if its outlet pipe has a gate valve, close that too. On a flat with its own stopcock, close that. If you share a supply and cannot isolate yours, finding the stopcock in a flat explains where to look.

A combi boiler and most sealed heating systems will keep working with the mains off, because the heating circuit is filled separately and holds its own pressure. So in winter you can close the stopcock and still leave the heating on. Set it so the house stays at about 12°C, or use the frost setting on the boiler or thermostat, and leave the boiler switched on at the fused spur. A house with the heating fully off in a cold week is exactly where frozen pipes and bursts start.

If you have a hot water cylinder with a loft tank feeding it, check the arrangement before you close the stopcock. The loft tank will stop refilling, which is fine for a week, but switch the immersion heater off unless you want it on a timer, since there is nobody using the hot water.

Do not switch off a combi boiler at the wall in winter just because you have turned the water off. It needs power for its own frost protection and for the pump.

What to do when you get home

Before you open the stopcock, walk round and look at the ceilings, the floor under the kitchen units and the area around the boiler. If you can see a stain or damp that was not there before, leave the water off and find the source first.

Then turn the stopcock on slowly, a quarter turn at a time. A sudden surge can knock a loose joint or a tired flexible connector. Listen for water still running once nothing is open. If the water meter is spinning with every tap closed, something is leaking; a meter running with no taps on covers how to tell whether it is inside or outside the house.

Run each cold tap for a minute and each hot tap until the water is properly hot. Water that has sat still for a week in pipes and a shower head is the kind of stagnant supply legionella guidance is written about; the Health and Safety Executive’s legionella guidance says stored hot water should be kept at 60°C or above, and hot outlets should reach at least 50°C within a minute of running. Run the shower with the head lowered into the bath rather than at face height, so you are not breathing the first spray. Then open the washing machine and dishwasher valves and check behind them for drips.

If you come back to a leak or no water

If you open the door to water on the floor or through a ceiling, turn the stopcock off before anything else, then turn off the electricity at the consumer unit if water is anywhere near sockets or lights. If the consumer unit itself is wet, or you would have to stand in water to reach it, leave it alone, keep out of that room and get an electrician. Do not touch a wet switch. Photograph everything before you move it, because your insurer will want to see it. Pipe burst while you were away covers the next hour in detail.

If there is no water at all when you open the stopcock, check whether the neighbours have the same problem before assuming the fault is yours. If they do, it is almost certainly the water company. If only your home is dry, it may be a frozen supply pipe or a stopcock that did not reopen fully; see no water emergency help.

For a leak you cannot isolate, a pipe that split while you were away, or a boiler that will not restart, a 24-hour plumber can come out the same night. The call-out is £60 at any hour and the repair price is agreed on site before work starts; the full breakdown of the cost of an emergency plumber in London is on one page.