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A tap that has faded to a dribble on a frosty morning usually means ice in the pipe, not a fault at the boiler. The clock below thaws it gently — and shows how to stop the freeze becoming a burst.
The one-line answer: turn the water off at the stopcock before you thaw anything, open the affected tap, and warm the pipe gently from the tap end back — hairdryer on low, warm towels, never a flame. If the pipe has already split, keep the water off and ring 020 4577 2888, any hour.
Before any warming starts, shut the main stopcock — clockwise until it stops. Here is why: ice expands as it freezes, and it may already have split the pipe somewhere you cannot see. The plug of ice is currently the only thing holding the water back, so if you thaw a split pipe with the mains still on, you trade a frozen pipe for a flood. Then open the tap the frozen run feeds, so melting water and pressure have somewhere to escape.
Stopcock shut, tap open. Whatever the ice is hiding, it cannot flood the house now.
Follow the pipe from the silent tap back towards the cold. The usual suspects are the spaces the heating never reaches: the loft, the garage, an outbuilding, pipe runs clipped along outside walls, and — in the older stone houses around the town centre — long runs under suspended timber floors where cold air moves freely. A frozen section often feels noticeably colder than the pipe either side, and may wear a coat of frost or a slight bulge. If several taps have stopped at once, the freeze is probably close to where the supply enters the house.
Now thaw — slowly, and in the right order. Start at the tap end of the frozen section and work back towards the ice, so melting water can drain out ahead of you rather than being trapped between two plugs. Gentle heat only: a hairdryer on its low setting kept moving, towels soaked in warm water and wrapped around the pipe, a hot water bottle, or simply heating the room and letting patience do the work. Never a naked flame, never a blowtorch, never a heat gun — fierce heat splits pipes, wrecks joints and starts fires, and central Scotland's frosts claim enough pipework without the help.
As the section thaws, watch and listen. Dripping, damp or a hiss means the ice did split the pipe — keep the stopcock shut and skip to the next step.
If the tap returns to full flow and every pipe stays dry, reopen the stopcock slowly and check the run once more under pressure. If the pipe has split, leave the water off, open the cold taps to drain what remains, and ring with the location of the damage and what kind of space it is in. You will get an honest arrival estimate based on workload and distance, and you can ask about the call-out fee and hourly rate before agreeing to anything. A drained, water-off house is not getting worse while you wait.
The pipe that froze this time will freeze next time unless something changes. Lag every run in an unheated space with foam sleeves — minutes of work per pipe — keep the heating ticking over on low through a hard cold snap rather than fully off, open the loft hatch to let warm air up on the bitterest nights, and label the stopcock while you still remember where it is.
A frozen pipe announces itself as a tap fading to a dribble or nothing on a frosty morning, with no water anywhere it should not be. A burst announces itself as the thaw arrives — damp patches, dripping, the sound of running water. Ice often hides the split it caused, which is exactly why you shut the stopcock before thawing and watch the pipe as it warms.
No — never a naked flame or anything close to one. Fierce heat can turn trapped ice to steam inside a sealed section of pipe and split it, damage soldered joints and plastic pipework, and set fire to whatever the pipe runs through. Gentle heat only: a hairdryer on low, warm towels, a hot water bottle, or simply heating the room and waiting.
The ones outside the heated shell of the house: loft runs, garages, outbuildings, outside taps, and pipes clipped along external walls. Older stone houses often carry long runs under suspended timber floors where cold air moves freely, and any pipe that has never been lagged is a candidate. Wherever your supply slowed to a dribble last time — that is your weak point.
Lag every pipe in an unheated space — foam sleeves from any DIY shop, fitted in minutes. In a hard cold snap, keep the heating ticking over on low rather than fully off, even overnight or away from home, and let warmer air reach cold spots by opening the loft hatch or cupboard doors. And know where your stopcock is before you need it — a freeze found early is an inconvenience, not a flood.
The main page — the whole first hour on one clock, plus areas covered.
Go to home →Stopcock in the first minute — the timed plan for water everywhere.
Start the clock →Pressure, lockouts, frozen condensate pipes — and gas safety first.
Start the clock →Pressure, timer, tripped switch — the safe checks before you call.
Start the clock →Damp patches and dropping pressure — the honest stopcock test.
Start the clock →One plughole or the whole house — how to tell, and what to try.
Start the clock →Honest ballparks and the questions to ask before work starts.
Read the guide →Ring any hour with where the freeze is and what you have tried, and be connected with a local plumber covering Dunfermline and west Fife.
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