Winter checks worth doing before the first hard frost

Written for householders rather than trades. Most of it costs nothing, and it's the stuff that turns a January disaster into a January inconvenience.

Find your stopcock. Today.

This is the one.

If a pipe bursts, the difference between a wet carpet and a ruined ceiling is how long it takes you to turn the water off. In the dark, in a panic, is a bad time to be looking for it.

It's usually under the kitchen sink, or in a downstairs cupboard. Find it, turn it — they seize up if never used — and make sure everyone in the house knows.

If it won't budge, that's worth a plumber before winter, not during it.

Outside taps and exposed pipes

Any pipe that runs outside or through an unheated space is the one that freezes. Outside taps should be turned off at the inside valve and drained.

Lagging on exposed pipes in the loft, garage or under the floor costs a few pounds a metre and is the cheapest insurance in the house.

Gutters, before the leaves finish falling

Blocked gutters overflow. Water runs down the wall instead of away from it, gets into the render, and freezes. That's how a £5 blockage becomes a damp problem.

Clear them once the leaves are down. If you're not comfortable on a ladder, don't — it's a cheap job to get done and a very expensive one to fall off.

Roof, from the ground

You don't need to go up. Stand back with a cup of tea and look for slipped or missing slates, and anything sitting oddly on the ridge.

Perthshire gets wind. A slate that's loose in October is a slate that's in the garden in January, along with whatever water followed it in.

Heating, before you need it

Run the heating for an hour now rather than discovering the problem on the first cold night — which is also the night every heating engineer in the county is fully booked.

Bleed the radiators if the tops are cold. If your boiler is due a service, book it in autumn; you'll get an appointment.

The loft hatch

Two minutes: is the insulation still spread evenly, or has it been shoved aside for storage?

And while you're up: any daylight where daylight shouldn't be.

Drains and gullies

Clear the leaves out of the gullies at the bottom of downpipes. Blocked ones back up and freeze, and frozen standing water next to a wall is how you get damage you don't see until spring.

Have a number ready

Not because anything will go wrong, but because finding a plumber at 9pm on a Sunday in January is the worst possible time to be choosing one.

Pick one now, while you're calm and can look at reviews properly. Put the number in your phone.

The short list

1. Find and turn the stopcock, tell the household
2. Drain the outside tap, lag exposed pipes
3. Clear gutters and gullies once the leaves are down
4. Look at the roof from the ground
5. Run the heating, bleed the radiators, book the service
6. Check the loft insulation is where it should be
7. Save a plumber's number before you need it

Nearly all of that is free and takes an afternoon.

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Worth sending to anyone who's just bought their first house. Nobody tells you about the stopcock.