From insulating your water tank, to safeguarding your pipes, our Winter WISE Guide is packed with handy tips to prepare your business for the colder months, and to help get your business safely through winter.

If you’ve already had to close your business due to Covid-19 restrictions, you may think that you know everything there is to know about closing your business for an extended period. But the difference now is the Winter weather. In the Spring and Summer, there were fewer things to worry about in terms of leaving your business premises empty. So the one thing you need to do now - even if your business is already closed for the festive season - is to download the guide and ensure that your business premises are Winter WISE.

The Winter WISE Guide includes a useful checklist of things you can do now that will help prevent water pipes from freezing, as well as tips on how to plan ahead just in case one of your pipes does burst. The more you do now, the more you’ll lessen the chances of problems occurring even in the most extreme cold weather the UK has to offer.

Winter WISE

WISE stands for Warm, Insulate, Safeguard, and Emergency plan. All the actions you need to take in order to help protect your business this Winter.

When your business premises is in constant use, the heating is usually on, which not only keeps things nice and warm, but it also helps to protect the water pipes from freezing. If your business is closed for an extended time in mild weather it makes sense to turn the heating off, but in the winter when there’s a danger of very low temperatures it’s a different story. The cost of programming the heating to come on at a low setting throughout the period when your business will be closed, could by far outweigh the cost of repairing damage to your business caused by frozen pipes.

If you haven’t already got your water tank and pipes insulated, now’s the time to do it. If you’re leaving your business premises empty over the winter, you can further protect the system by turning the water off and draining the system before you leave. Another safeguard is to schedule occasional visits to your business premises to check that everything’s OK. The sooner you discover a problem, the sooner you can deal with it; and the sooner you sort it out, the less damage it will cause.

Snowy street

What to do if you discover a leak

Our Water WISE Guide also covers what to do if you discover a problem because of a frozen water pipe.

Whether it’s simply frozen or has sprung a leak, you need to:

  • turn the water off at the stopcock
  • switch off the immersion heater and central heating
  • turn on all the taps to drain the system, turning them off again when they’re clear of water.

In the case of a burst water pipe, you’ll also have water to clean up - if there is flooding anywhere near an electrical point, you must also turn off the electricity to keep everyone safe. Then contact a plumber to come and fix the problem as soon as possible. For more advice and help on water management for your business including leak assistance, click here.

Download our free Winter WISE Guide and protect your business in the cold weather