Cold water mains pipe burst in cold weather - could be prevented with heating?

[familyguy]

Just a general question but where a cold water mains pipe burst in our loft which did not have any lagging at all, could this have been prevented by having the heating on?

Much appreciated.

Cheers,

David

 

[et0]

If your loft floor is sufficiently lagged and the roof well ventilated, probably not - it would have frozen anyway.

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

depends how cold your loft is

 

[Blackcatgas]

Would have certainly helped.

 

[Gray0689]

Would have certainly helped.

I agree heat rises so would of been a good idea

 

[markproperjob]

sorry to dissagree, but working as a subbie to a national plumbing company, i have seen burst cold supply pipes in attics on insurance call outs literally dozens of times over the past 20 yrs.
always the same thing, loft is lagged well, but some how a section or full run of pipework feeding headers or taking an up and over shortcut for a shower supply has not been lagged at all and is laid over the top of loft insulation..
it WILL freeze if sufficiently cold, especially if water is standing in pipe for any time,will expand and split the copper or crack the plastic, and will then flood everyting below it when the ice plug thaws.
the only sure fire way to stop attic freezing is to get up there and lag all supply/feed pipes with decent thickness pipe lagging and header tanks with a bylaw kit at least.
what is worth remembering, is if loft insulation is correct and doing its job, the heat produced by the heating system WILL BE INSULATED AND KEPT BELOW THE ATTIC FLOOR so everything above, ie the attic space, will become chilly freezing!!
the only pipes that the central heating can protect are those within the direct area of heated dwelling space.
regards,
mark (down in not so sunny cornwall-darned global warming!!)

 

[royston]

The only way it would have helped would have been if you had no fibre glass laid
in your loft and the loft hatch wide open, then maybe as you've hot hair rising into your loft. But if there was a cold draft blowing through then maybe not.

 

[Gray0689]

We not disputing all pipes should be lagged should be 19mm armaflex

 

[Centralheatking]

This last winter was a real wakeupcall on many fronts to plumbers and householders alike.

1. Condensing boilers and their problems - installed properly in the right place they tended to be ok
step outside of the parameters - FAILURE

2. Frozen roof spaces and their equipment - water tanks roof fitted boilers etc SAME AGAIN its no good insulating a ceiling below the roof space and expecting the kit above to carry on working at
-14.

Perhaps the rules about insulation should be re- thought - anyway we kept all 10 of us fully occupied most of the cold time.

centralheatking

 

[WHPES]

My conclusion - any pipework and the tanks should be UNDERNEATH the loft insulation, even if this means constructing a "hut" out of kingspan (just done this - looks a bit like a wendy house!!