Protecting Your Water Well Or Home Water System This Winter

by | Dec 14, 2020

Here at Borehole Solutions, we’re regularly met with poorly maintained water systems when we go out to properties as part of our water well drilling service. Now, whilst ill-advised, most of the year you probably can get away with not paying as much attention to your water systems as you perhaps should. In winter, however, there’s no such luxury. With that in mind, we’ve written this post full of top tips to help keep your water systems flowing nicely, this festive period.

 

Prevent Deadly Bacteria Build-Up (Legionella)

The last thing you want this Christmas is for an outbreak of Legionella bacteria in your pipes. There are several easy steps that you can take, though, especially if you’ve had a home water well drilled. Firstly, invest in a testing kit. You can purchase a more-than good enough testing kit relatively inexpensively, these days, and this is the easiest way to give you peace of mind over the condition of your drinking water.

 

Just Back From Holiday? Run Your Taps

If you’ve been away, as a family, or you’ve made use of the relaxation in the rules surrounding household mixing over Christmas, then the chances are your taps will have been left for a while. Water that has been left sitting in tanks, undisturbed, provides the perfect breeding ground for the potentially lethal Legionella bacteria. By running the taps for a few minutes before drinking any water, you flush the system through and remove any stagnating water.

 

Wearing Gloves Whilst Gardening

You’re braver than us if you’re planning on getting out in the garden, this winter, but if you are, then wear gardening gloves. Legionella bacteria grows well in soil and so if you handle soil or compost without gloves, you put yourself at exposed risk of contracting a bacteria-related bug.

 

Frozen Pipes

The other main problem faced in winter, is the threat of pipes freezing. In fact, according to ABI, they’re amongst the most common domestic property damage claims, with over £1.8 millions of claims paid out by insurers, every day. Frozen pipes can cause everything from dramatic bursts to more tedious issues like low water pressure, throughout the house.

Burst pipes cost into the hundreds of pounds, on average to fix, with more difficult-to-access spots sometimes reaching the thousands of pounds.  It’s certainly not something you want to have on your hands this Christmas holidays. Just like with preventing bacterial build-up, one of the best ways of preventing pipes from freezing is to regularly run the taps.

 

Other Winter Tips

We should all be looking to save more water where we’re able, and that’s all year round – not just the summer. Here are some simple tips and tricks to be a bit more economical with your usage this winter:

  • Ditch the bath, save water. Now, we know, there are few things nicer than a warm, relaxing soak on a winter’s evening, but by showering instead you could save a serious amount of water.
  • Water your plants with any excess! Has your hot water bottle gone cold? Put that water to good use rather than just letting it glug down the plughole!
  • Insulate your pipes with ‘lagging’ (protective material) – particularly unheated areas of the home, where it gets coldest.

 

Contact Borehole Solutions Ltd

Whether you’ve got your own private water supply, or rely on more conventional means, these are tips you should be following this winter. So, if you’d like to find out more about our well drilling services, then get in touch! Contact Borehole Solutions today on 01733 200 501 or by emailing us at info@boreholesolutions.com. Why not head over to our Instagram to see images of previous jobs that we have worked on?