I don't have experience of flooding inside the house but the amounts of water that can be involved are enormous.
Back in late 1995 we bought a bungalow and didn't notice one of the garden taps had been put in externally in copper, emerging from the roofspace and down the wall. The wall section was lagged for all the good that would do but the bend to horizontal, out of sight was not.
Forgot to shut off the mains water and went on holiday for two weeks in the winter which was particularly cold.
Pipe froze at gutter level at sometime whilst we were away and water sprayed onto the ground and froze.
We came back to a mound of ice similar in size to a people carrier, with the pipe gushing water during the day and freezing at night.
Took six weeks to melt and was a very powerful reminder and a lucky escape from the advice above to shut off the stop cock (which I knew but forgot to do)
Finally, your hot taps are at mains pressure too so a leak in the hot side will be just as voluminous as the cold.
Back in late 1995 we bought a bungalow and didn't notice one of the garden taps had been put in externally in copper, emerging from the roofspace and down the wall. The wall section was lagged for all the good that would do but the bend to horizontal, out of sight was not.
Forgot to shut off the mains water and went on holiday for two weeks in the winter which was particularly cold.
Pipe froze at gutter level at sometime whilst we were away and water sprayed onto the ground and froze.
We came back to a mound of ice similar in size to a people carrier, with the pipe gushing water during the day and freezing at night.
Took six weeks to melt and was a very powerful reminder and a lucky escape from the advice above to shut off the stop cock (which I knew but forgot to do)
Finally, your hot taps are at mains pressure too so a leak in the hot side will be just as voluminous as the cold.
