YOUR. How to handle and prevent disasters in the home. Plumbing Drainage Heating Electricity

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1 YOUR KEEP Me IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES How to handle and prevent disasters in the home Plumbing Drainage Heating Electricity

2 Call to claim on your policy Welcome......to the Home Emergency Guide you ll want to keep in your kitchen drawer As a HomeServe customer, your emergency is our emergency. Whether it s a power failure, leaking pipe, blocked drain or loss of central heating, call us and we ll send an approved engineer as quickly as we can. Home emergencies can cause a great deal of worry, but with this guide we ll help you get to grips with the situation fast. It s packed with advice on what to do in an emergency, how to prevent damage, and we ve got some great tips on averting future disasters in all areas of the home. Often, spending a little time on maintenance will save you a lot of time, money and hassle in the long run. Please read this guide and keep it in a safe place, just in case things go wrong Home Emergency Guide homeserve.com

3 Inside YOUR HOME EMERGENCY GUIDE 04 Major leaks From burst pipes to frozen outdoor taps what to do about your water woes 08 Toilet trouble Steps to take when your toilet won t flush, and how to cope with blocked sinks, drains and waste pipes. 10 Broken boiler No hot water? No heating? Here s what to do when your central heating fails, plus boiler service tips. 14 Power failure Often when the lights go out there s a very simple explanation. Follow these simple steps ways to help prevent disaster A little maintenance around the home could avert a major emergency later on. 18 Emergency kit A checklist of tools and other useful items that you might need when there s a problem. Plumbing Drainage Heating Electricity How to make a claim Just follow the steps below. Remember to have your policy number handy when you call it s on your documentation and you can write it on the back of this guide. 1 Call us on , where our dedicated claims call centre is available 4 hours a day, 365 days a year. Please have a pen and paper handy to write down your claims reference number. The person dealing with your claim will ask you a few questions to help identify the problem and whether or not it s covered. 3 If your problem is covered, a HomeServe approved engineer will aim to be with you at an agreed time. 4 Job done, all that s left is for you to sign to say you re satisfied. HomeServe is a trading name of HomeServe Membership Ltd, Cable Drive, Walsall, West Midlands WS 7BN. Unless otherwise stated, policies are provided by and underwritten by Inter Partner Assistance SA and arranged and administered by HomeServe Membership Ltd. For claims, lines are open 4 hours a day, seven days a week. For enquiries, lines are open weekdays 8am to 8pm, Saturday 8am to 4pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm. Calls may be recorded for quality control and training purposes. HomeServe: Duncan Strachan, Bal Thandi, Dean Elliott, Kerrie Lo FuturePlus: Editorial Director Mark Donald Editor Garrick Webster Senior Art Editors Richard Jenkins, Emma Swift Art Editor Chris Stenner Illustration Tom Hughes, Myles Talbot Director of FuturePlus Jayne Caple Client Services Director Fiona McDaniel Account Manager Debbie Blackman The HomeServe Home Emergency Guide is published on behalf of HomeServe Membership Limited by FuturePlus, a division of Future Publishing Ltd (company no ), whose registered office is at 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, BA1 BW. Tel: All information correct at time of going to press. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright owner. No responsibility will be accepted for any errors or omissions or comments. Views expressed in the guide are not necessarily the views of HomeServe Membership Limited, and services and goods mentioned are not necessarily endorsed by HomeServe Membership Limited. We accept no responsibility for the content of third party websites or the goods or services that they may provide to you. The subjects and conditions covered in this guide are for information only and may not be covered by your insurance product should you make a claim. HomeServe 01 03

4 PLUMBING EMERGENCIES MAJOR LEAKS All is not lost. You can try to reduce the damage by taking the following steps: Find your stop valve When there s a major leak in your home, locate the stop valve also called a stopcock, or stop tap and turn it off. Then, call HomeServe. Here s some advice on finding your stop valve: It s nearly always in a room where water 1 will be used, on the ground floor. Usually it s in the kitchen or bathroom. Also check your garage if it s attached to the house. Stop valves are also usually found near an outside wall, or a former outside wall if your house has been extended. Hidden stop valves Sometimes when houses are renovated, stop valves end up behind cupboards, under floorboards or boxed into unusual places. If this is the case you may need some tools handy to get to it. However, if your stop valve is concealed an isolation valve may have been added to the pipes where the water now enters the kitchen or bathroom. Usually it can be turned using a screwdriver. When the groove is parallel to the pipe, it s on, when it s at 90 degress, it s off. See page 6. It will be no more than a foot off the 3 ground. Unless you live in a block of flats, in which case the tap could be at any height. 4 If you have an internal water meter, it will be on the pipe going into the meter. Turning off the water Your stop valve will probably be a metal tap (see the diagram below). To turn it off, rotate it clockwise until it s completely closed. Do not force your stop valve if it s difficult to turn. Seized-up valves can break. It s a good idea to give your stop valve a turn every six months to guard against this. Turn it one quarter to the right, then a quarter turn back again. If it s stiff, spraying some WD40 on the spindle may free it up, and won t contaminate the water. Handy tip Cut the water supply and prevent the damage a leak can cause. Turn the stop valve clockwise: righty tighty, lefty loosey. 04 Home Emergency Guide

5 Preventing damage If you can t turn off the water supply, it might be best to take measures to prevent the leak from damaging your home and your belongings. How you do this will depend on the nature of the leak and its location. IMPORTANT If leaking water might 1 threaten your home s wiring, turn off the electricity at the fuse board. See page 14. Often, the simplest solution is the best solution grab a bucket and put it under the leak to catch the water. If it s a minor leak on 3 some pipework, get a towel and wrap it around the pipe to soak up the water. If you can use a towel to channel the water into a bucket and stop it soaking into the carpet, floor or fittings, all the better. No water pressure? If you have low water pressure, or none at all, check if your neighbours have the same problem. Then call your water company (see the back page) to see if there are any supply issues in your area. A plastic bag on the floor with a towel 4 on top to soak up water is often a simplebut-effective solution, if you can t find a bucket. 5 Sometimes you can reduce the amount of water spraying out of a leak by reducing the water pressure in the system. Turn on some cold taps in the house (hot water is expensive). Handy tip Using a towel to soak up water coming out of a leak is an easy way to prevent damage. 05

6 Isolation valves Handy Often, you can use the isolation valves on your home s pipework to stop a leak until it can be fixed. Most houses have isolation valves controlling the water supply to washing machines, dishwashers, taps, electric showers and toilet cisterns. tip Use isolation valves to cut off a leak and you won t need to go without water in the rest of the house. Dishwashers and washing machines In many homes, the isolation valves for washing machines and dishwashers come in the form of small, plastic taps. If there s a water leak in your appliance, locate the taps they re usually behind the machine on the pipework or on a hose leading to it. When the tap is on, it will be in line with the pipe. Turn the tap 90 degrees counter On Off clockwise to cut off the water supply. Be careful, it s only designed to turn 90-degrees. If you try and force it further the plastic lever may break off. This will make the valve hard to turn on again. Closed Open Taps and toilets Is water gushing out of a tap uncontrollably? Is your toilet cistern overflowing? The best thing to do might be to turn off the water supply to the offending fitting. You ll usually find isolation valves as pictured to the left for your hot and cold taps underneath the sink, on the pipework leading up to your toilet cistern, and on the water pipe that goes into your electric shower. You can turn a valve off with a flat-head screwdriver, coin or knife. When the slot on the valve is parallel to the pipe s direction it s on. Turn it 90 degrees so that it is across the direction of the pipe, and the water supply will be cut off. 06 Home Emergency Guide homeserve.com

7 Leaking pipes If you have a split pipe or a leaky joint and feel confident about fixing it yourself, here are two temporary solutions that are easy to apply. Emergency pipe repair clamps these 1 are available in a range of shapes and sizes from most DIY shops and websites. The two sections of the clamp are placed around the pipe where the damage is, and tightening the screws temporarily seals the leak. Compression tape Another option is compression tape, also called Alfa tape. When wrapped tightly around the pipe it will stop the leak while you wait for us to arrive. Tap protection To prevent damanging limescale build-up in your taps, run them hard every few months. Prevent outdoor taps from freezing Water freezing, expanding and bursting outdoor pipework is one of the most common causes of leaks during the winter. If you have a garden tap, see if you can find an isolation valve on the indoor pipework leading to it. Switch it off (see facing page) at the onset of winter. Once it s off, turn the outside tap on so that no water is trapped inside the tap or pipe when the cold weather comes. If you can t isolate the tap, you can still prevent it freezing by lagging the pipe and using a thermal tap jacket. A selection of tap lagging and insulation kits are available from good DIY stores. Outdoor flooding Water rising outside your house could have many causes, beginning with bad weather! Or you may have a blocked drain which needs to be cleared. Another reason could be that the pipe between the mains water and your home has burst. You may be able to prevent the flooding by turning off your outdoor stop valve. Flooding Some outdoor outside stop valves are hard to Water access, rising so this outside may your be difficult house without a could special have key many for the causes, purpose (see page beginning 19). Usually with the bad stop weather! valve is under Or a metal you may cover have in the a blocked road outside your drain house, which on needs the to driveway, be or in cleared. the garden. Another If you reason can access could it and be turn that it off, the it pipe could save between you a lot of the hassle. mains If water not, wait and for your engineer home has to arrive. burst. You may be able to 07

8 Drainage EMERGENCIES Toilet trouble What to do when your toilet isn t working, plus blocked drains and more A leaking cistern After you ve called HomeServe, there are a few things you can try to take control of the situation if your cistern is cracked, leaking or overflowing. Get a bucket Try to catch the water 1 that s coming out by putting a bucket, bowl or other receptacle under the leak. Isolate the cistern Stop the water supply to the cistern by turning off its isolation valve (see page 6). It s usually on the water pipe going up to the back of the cistern. Handy tip If your toilet won t flush, you can still use your loo. Use half a bucket of water to wash the waste down the outlet. Turn off the water If you can t isolate the 3 cistern, an alternative is to turn off the water supply completely using your internal stop tap. However this will leave you with no water throughout the property until we can come out to solve the problem. Shut the refill valve If your flushing 4 mechanism uses a traditional ball cock system, open the cistern and lift the arm with the ball float on the end until the water coming out of the refill valve stops running. Then put a thin piece of wood a wooden spoon is ideal across the top of the cistern and tie the arm to it so that the valve is held in the off position until we arrive. See the diagram to the left. No flush? Button flush If you have a button flush toilet and the button is on top of the cistern, do not try to lift the lid. You may cause further damage. We advise you to wait until our engineer arrives to fix or replace the mechanism. Lever flush If your toilet has a lever handle, you can take the cistern lid off and check the lever is attached to the flush mechanism. If it has come loose, try to re-attach it and see if it works. 08 Home Emergency Guide

9 Blocked toilet When your toilet s blocked, and the bowl is even half full of water, the golden rule is don t keep flushing. You don t want it to make it overflow. Less water makes it easier to use a plunger to unblock the toilet too. Place the plunger so that it covers the entire outlet in the bottom of the toilet and then pump down hard, using water pressure to dislodge the blockage. Larger plungers specifically for unblocking toilets are available from good DIY stores. Avoid compressed air products designed to create a blast of air to shift a blockage. They can actually compress the blockage making it harder to shift. Also avoid chemical drain cleaners including bleach due to the dangerous gasses they can produce and the damage they can do to your pipework. If you do use one let our engineer know when he or she arrives. Blocked sink If your sink is blocked remove the plug and place a plunger over the plughole. Place a damp cloth over the overflow hole to stop air escaping when you create pressure with the plunger (see below). Pump sharply with the plunger. If this won t shift it you can remove the trap pipe and clean it. Put the plug into the plughole, and place a bucket beneath the pipes under the sink. The U-shaped trap should unscrew and you can clean it. If this doesn t work, call us. Handy tip If plunging fails try 1/3 cup of vinegar and another of bicarb of soda to dissolve grease blocking your drain. 09

10 Heating EMERGENCIES Broken boiler Some great advice for when your central heating is down Turning off the gas! If you smell gas in your home, make sure your gas appliances are off. Open the windows, and don t smoke or use any electrical devices including a mobile phone. If you suspect a gas leak, turn off your gas using the gas cock and call the Gas Emergency Service on The gas cock is usually found on the pipe going into the gas meter. Often, it s a lever aligned with the pipe. Turn it 90 degrees clockwise to turn the gas off. The gas meter for most houses is near an entrance, or in the garage. No hot water? If you have a conventional boiler and it fails, you might not have to go without hot water. The hot water cylinders on many systems may come with an immersion heater meaning you can use electricity to heat the water. Look for a switch near the tank, which will enable you to turn on your immersion heater. Remember that using electricity to heat your water can be expensive. So avoid leaving your immersion heater on for extended periods to reduce costs. The insulated tank will keep the water hot until you use it. The majority of homes with combi boilers don t have hot water cylinders, but if you have an electric shower you can still use this. What type of boiler do you have? There are two main types of boilers used in UK homes conventional and combi, short for combination. The type of boiler you have will affect what steps you take when you have no hot water. Combi boilers heat water on demand. Turn on a hot tap, the boiler ignites and you get hot water to fill the bath or sink, or take a shower. Conventional boilers heat your hot water at set times and the hot water is stored in a cylinder. Both conventional and combi boilers come in condensing and noncondensing forms. Condensing boilers have a condensate pipe see page Home Emergency Guide homeserve.com

11 Handy tip Lost your boiler manual? Find a copy at your boiler manufacturer s website, or try No heating? If your boiler fails, don t remove the casing. You might be able to restart it, or at least pull together some information that will be helpful when you call HomeServe. Try the following: Check the pilot light see if it s lit by 1 looking through the hole on your boiler. Not all boilers have a pilot light. If you re not sure about yours then check your instruction manual. Reset button Try to restart the boiler using the reset button. The reset button, if you have one, can usually be found on the front of the boiler. You just need to press the button on many newer boilers whereas some models require you to press and hold a button until the flame reignites. Sometimes a dial must be turned. Consult your manual for specific guidance. Make and model Write this information 3 down in the handy space provided on the back of this Home Emergency Guide. It might help us get the parts and perform repairs a little bit more quickly. Error code If your boiler has an LCD 4 display, is it showing a readout? If so, tell us what it says when you call us. The type of fuel Most homes use gas, 5 but kerosene, oil and liquid propane gas (LPG) boilers are also used, and solar heating. Again, this information might help our engineer. The manual Sometimes our engineers 6 find it useful to see the boiler s manual and service history when they arrive to fix a central heating system, so if you have this to hand it might help. 11

12 Servicing your central heating Having your central heating system regularly serviced and maintained is a good way of preventing disaster Have your boiler serviced You should have your boiler serviced every 1 months. An ideal time to do it is in the summer, when your central heating isn t being used. Boiler servicing must be done by a qualified Gas Safe Engineer. Ask to see their credentials. During the service the parts should be checked, debris cleaned out, and the oxygen to fuel ratio adjusted to ensure it burns as efficiently as possible. The system s pressure should be checked and topped up if necessary. Water quality check The quality of the water in your central heating system should be checked regularly to ensure corrosion isn t a problem. A water quality check isn t part of a normal boiler service, but you can ask your engineer to carry one out. Corrosion inhibitor can slow down the effects of corrosion. If inhibitor is present in your system then it will turn your water slightly yellow. Your engineer should check the inhibitor concentration levels and top up, if necessary. Do you need a powerflush? A powerflush is the last resort when your central heating is clogged with black, treaclelike fluid. If you do need a powerflush, make sure it s carried out by a qualified Gas Safe registered engineer. The Gas Safe Register is the national standards body for gas engineers. Use a reputable company too, and be aware that a powerflush can cause damage if your pipework is over 15 years old. A powerflush machine should be used and it should take about 0 minutes per radiator. If this isn t happening, you re not getting a proper powerflush. Ask to see fluid from the system once it has been refilled it should be a pale yellow colour with a few bubbles in it. 1 Home Emergency Guide

13 Thawing a frozen condensate pipe If you have a condensing boiler, and it fails during the winter, this could be the result of a frozen outdoor condensate pipe. Here s what to do if that happens... Radiator cold spots If your radiators aren t heating up properly at the top or the bottom then try the following: n If the top of a radiator is cool then air may be trapped inside. If you re confident enough to use a radiator key then you can release that air. n First, turn off the central heating, and let it go cold. Then get a cloth and bucket (or similar) to catch any radiator water that leaks out. n Use a radiator key to gradually open the valve at the top corner of the radiator. Quickly close the valve when liquid bubbles out. n The radiator should now be full. Turn on your heating and check your radiator fully heats up. n Call a reputable Gas Safe Registered engineer to bleed your radiator if you are at all unsure.. n If your radiators don t heat at the bottom, sludge in the system or poor circulation may be the problem. This is a difficult job to fix and may require a powerflush (see left). Heating test Check your heating works in the summer to help avoid a nasty surprise come winter. Switch off the 1 boiler and locate the condensate pipe it s usually outside on the wall your boiler s fixed to. Make sure you can reach the full length of the pipe standing at ground level. If not, call an expert. Warm some water in your kettle but do not use boiling water as it may crack the pipe. Pour a jug of warm water down the length of the pipe. Repeat this until it thaws. As a temporary 3 measure to prevent it from freezing again, tie some old towels or cloth around the pipe. At the next 4 opportunity, insulate it with some foam tubing, or install a condensate pipe heater which coils around the pipe and turns on automatically in cold temperatures. Both are available from good DIY stores. 13

14 ELECTRICal EMERGENCIES POWER FAILURE The lights have gone out. You have no electricity. What do you do next? What kind of fuse board do you have? There are two main types of fuse board in use in the UK at the moment. Most homes have a new, white consumer unit with a main red switch that cuts off supply to the entire property, plus a series of other switches which control the power to specific areas of the home. Older properties that haven t been rewired recently often have the old style fuse box, with one main switch and three or four large fuses. To help you work out which type of fuse board you have, see the pics to the right. If you have a consumer unit it might be easy to restore power, but if it s an older fuse box we recommend you wait until our engineer arrives. Handy tip If a consumer unit trips, you can often restore power by flipping the main switch. Old New The first thing you should do... Before calling HomeServe, take a look outside to see if your neighbours have been affected: 1 Do your neighbours have electricity or not? If it s night time, are the street lamps illuminated, or out? If there is a power cut in your area, then you need to contact your regional electricity network operator see the back page of this guide. Where is your fuse board? It s useful to locate your fuse board before you have a problem. It will often be near your front door, attached to the wall above head height. It might be in a box or housing alongside your electricity meter, or even in the garage. If you live in a flat, it could be on a shared landing, in a utility area or cupboard, or even outside. Restoring power If you are confident about accessing your fuse board, and it is safe for you to do so, you may want to try and restore power. Otherwise, and particularly if you have an older type of fuse box, call HomeServe and we will send an engineer. If you have a new style consumer unit it should have a mains switch and a RCD Residual Current Device. For safety reasons both can cut the 14 Home Emergency Guide homeserve.com

15 B power if there s a fault. If the main or RCD switches trip, you might restore power by simply turning them back on. If that doesn t work, see Isolating a fault (right) to restore power to some of your home. Often the last appliance you used will have caused the fault: A C n Plug this item into a different socket and turn it, and your power, back on. n If the power stays on then the original socket is probably faulty. n If the power goes off then your appliance is most likely the culprit! n Do not use a faulty appliance or socket until it is repaired or replaced. Power failure may also be caused by overloaded sockets, faulty wiring, a blown lightbulb (just replace it), outside lights, water features with pumps, or, if you live in a flat, a blown fuse in the building fuse board. Wiring inspection Have your wiring tested every five to 10 years. Isolating a fault Consumer units split your home s wiring into separate rings for lighting, sockets and key appliances. A fault on one ring will trip the mains, or the RCD switch, cutting power. To isolate the problem: 1 If the mains [A] has tripped, turn off all the switches including the mains. Turn on the mains followed by each fuse switch [B] one at a time. 3 When a switch trips it out again, you ve isolated the fault. 4 Turn on the mains and all the other fuse switches, except the faulty one. 5 The same can be done for fuses protected by the RCD [C] if necessary. 15

16 10 ways to help prevent disaster There are plenty of simple measures you can take around the home to help stop emergencies from happening. Here are some of our top tips and maintenance suggestions Maintenance all year round Spring Check the roof and make sure no tiles have blown loose in the winter. Clear gutters and drains of debris. Check the loft for wasps or other pests. Summer Have your central heating serviced. If you have a conventional boiler, run it for a day to test it. Autumn Clear leaves from your outdoor drains. Ensure your outdoor electrics are waterproof. Draft-proof windows and doors. Winter Isolate or insulate your outdoor tap. Lag the condensate pipe. 1 Electrics Have your wiring and fuse board tested and serviced every five to 10 years. Ask for a periodic inspection by a National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC) approved electrician. Indoor drains Pour soda crystals down your indoor drains every six months to clean them. Be sure to dissolve the crystals as per the instructions on the packaging using them dry can be dangerous. Use plenty of water to wash it down. 3 Magnetic filter For about 00 you can have a magnetic filter unit fitted to your central heating. It magnetically removes impurities in the water that runs through your radiators for a cleaner, saferrunning system. Handy tip A magnetic filter needs to be cleaned out every 1 months. 16 Home Emergency Guide

17 Handy tip Clear fallen leaves in the Autumn to prevent outdoor flooding. 4 Gutters and drains Clear your outdoor gutters and drains annually. If your kitchen waste pipe empties into the outside drain, cooking fats and food can cause nasty blockages. 5 Outdoor taps Isolating or lagging your outdoor tap in the winter will prevent it from freezing. Frozen taps are one of the biggest causes of leaks in the winter, but tap insulation kits are available from most good DIY stores for around 8. See page 7 for more information. 6 Indoor taps Prevent the build-up of limescale in your taps, by turning them on all the way and running them for a few minutes, every few months. Lime grit can cause dripping taps. 7 Plughole protector Use a hair trap on your bath and shower plugholes, and a food trap in your kitchen sink. They re a simple and inexpensive way of preventing blockages. 8 Too many plugs? Don t plug more than one splitter or extension lead into any single socket. An overloaded socket is not only a risk to your fusebox, it can cause a fire. 9 Outdoor sockets Don t let water get into your outdoor electrics. Waterproof boxes can be easily fitted on your outdoor sockets. 10 Condensate pipe To prevent your condensate pipe from freezing in winter, use lagging to insulate it, or get a battery-powered condensate pipe heater. They cost about 80. See page

18 Emergency kit Put together your own set of basic tools and keep it somewhere handy Once you ve called HomeServe and one of our engineers is on the way, you might want to take some steps to limit the damage caused by a home emergency, or to get things up and running again until help arrives. To do this you ll need a selection of everyday tools for tackling the most common household problems. Store them somewhere accessible ready for when you need them. 1 Rubber gloves A spare pair of rubber gloves is always handy for when you have a plumbing or drainage emergency. Screwdriver Keep a flat head screwdriver for turning off isolation valves on your pipes as demonstrated on page 6. 5 Pliers set These multipurpose tools are well worth having in your toolkit. Look for ones with soft grip handles. 6 Radiator key If you need one, you can get a radiator key very cheaply online, or from a good hardware shop. 7 Adjustable spanner Sooner or later you may have to loosen or tighten a leaky plumbing fitting. An adjustable spanner is perfect for the job. 18 Home Emergency Guide homeserve.com

19 3 Torch Make sure your emergency kit includes a sturdy torch in case your electricity fails during the night. Handy tip Regularly check that your torch has batteries in it, and that they haven t gone flat. 4 Plunger Blocked drain? Blocked toilet? Have a plunger to hand and you could solve the problem within minutes. Electric radiator A portable electric radiator will prove invaluable if your central heating fails in the middle of winter. Don t wait for a cold snap to pick one up. Buy one in the summer when hardware shops have plenty in stock, and keep it in a cupboard or your loft. Smaller, low wattage models are available for as little as Compression tape You can use this to fix a leaking pipe. A roll costs around 5 and can create a permanent seal on a pipe. Soda & vinegar If the plunger fails, often a mixture of 1/3 cup vinegar and 1/3 cup sodium bicarbonate fixes a blocked sink. Stop valve key Use it to turn off your outdoor stop valve if your water supply pipe is leaking, or if you can t access the internal one. 19

20 Your emergency is our emergency Plumbing Drainage Heating Electricity Security Pests HomeServe claims line Other claims lines Householders Accident Plan Legal Advice Helpline Keycare Your policy Your policy name Your policy number Your home Where the stop valve is located Where the fuse board is located Boiler make and model Date of your last boiler service Your numbers Electrical emergency number Copy from the back of your most recent bill. National Gas Emergency Service Water emergency number Copy from the back of your most recent bill Floodline (Northern Ireland: ) We endeavour to make the hints, tips and general advice contained in this guide as useful and reliable as possible. However, they are of a general nature and may not be relevant or appropriate in all circumstances. If you are at all unsure of the appropriateness of the advice or of your own DIY skills please do use the services of a professional. Where you have insurance cover in place you should check that your cover is not invalidated by undertaking any initial work yourself.