Tenants Guide to Winter Property Maintenance

Winter can be hard on your home; with rain, wind, snow and low temperatures causing challenges. Thankfully a lot of issues can be resolved quickly and easily with some preparation work and self diagnosis.

As a Tenant you have a responsibility to ensure you have done all you can to reduce the risk of costly maintenance call outs, so below we give you some tips on how you can be comfortable and ready for the season this winter!

Check Your Heating

Run the heating system for a period of 20-30 minutes and check that all the radiators heat up as expected.

Check Your Gutters

Make sure your gutters aren’t leaking, overflowing or have visible signs of being clogged up by leaves or other debris.

Check Your Windows and Doors

Make sure they are secure and check for any draughts.

Check the Stopcock and Isolation Valves

Ensure these haven’t seized up. If they’re stiff you can easily loosen them with WD40.

If You’re Away for More Than 24 Hours

Turn off your main internal stopcock or isolation valve to prevent frozen pipes.

Leave the heating on a low setting to prevent burst pipes.

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Common Heating Issues and How to Fix Them

Boiler Pipe Issues

Modern condensing boilers produce waste condensation, which is removed via a plastic pipe outside your home. This pipe can often freeze in cold weather and create a blockage or split, which can stop your boiler working.

Typically boilers will show an error message if this happens, but you should also look out for common warning signs, such as:

• The boiler won’t turn on

• Gurgling sounds when the boiler is turned on

• Taps with a low pressure or that don't produce as much  water as normal

• The toilet cistern being slow to refill

If You Have a Frozen Pipe

If you can safely access it, try to thaw it out before switching the boiler on again. You can either hold a hot water bottle on the frozen pipe or pour hot, but not boiling, water over it.

If You Have a Burst Pipe

Turn off the water supply at your stopcock immediately (this is usually located under your kitchen sink or in a cupboard - the location of your stopcock will be listed on your check in inventory) and switch off any electrical plugs or appliances affected by the water.  

Phone the emergency repairs team as soon as possible.

Boiler Pressure Issues

If your boiler isn’t working properly and you’re not getting hot water as normal, you’ll often find the problem is your boiler pressure is too low, or sometimes too high.  

If your boiler pressure reads less than 1 bar, you might have lost water pressure from the system. If it’s above 2.75 bar, this indicates high pressure.

How to Increase the Pressure of Your Boiler

Always refer to the user instructions for your boiler in the first instance. You can usually find these online if you no longer have your printed copy. As a general guide please see below.

If you have a system or conventional boiler with a pressure gauge near your hot water cylinder, you’ll have a valve in the pipework –  usually near the red vessel and the pressure gauge. Open this valve slightly and you should see the pressure gauge gradually rise. Keep filling until it’s between 1 and 1.5 bar, then close the valve.

If you have a combi boiler, follow these steps:

• Switch off your boiler and allow it to cool

• Double check that both ends of the filling loop are securely attached

• Open both valves (or just one, if that’s what your filling loop has) to allow cold mains water into the system. Listen out, you should hear it

• Wait for the pressure gauge to reach 1 to 1.5 bar

• Close both valves, one after the other (or just the single valve, if that’s what you have)

• Switch the boiler back on. If needed, press the reset button

You can see a video of how to re-pressurise your boiler here

How to Decrease the Pressure of Your Boiler

Firstly check is that the pressure valves under your boiler are closed tightly. If they become loose accidentally, this can cause your boiler pressure to become too high.

All you need to do to decrease the pressure of your boiler is to bleed a radiator to release pressure.

You can see a video of how to de-pressurise your boiler by bleeding your radiator here

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If you cannot resolve any issues in your house, please refer to you local branches maintenance contacts to report the problem.