Shelter and home systems

Keeping the building watertight, warm and hard to get into.

• ST1 Turn off water, gas and electricity at the mainsFind all three now, while the lights are on and nothing is wrong. Every one of them is a thing you will need to do in a hurry, in the dark, possibly by touch, and possibly by someone who does not live here.Quick actions, 7 steps
• ST2 Stop a roof leak, from inside and outWater almost never comes in above where it drips out. Deal with the ceiling first, because a saturated plasterboard ceiling comes down in one piece, and only go on the roof if it is genuinely safe, which in wind or frost it is not.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST3 Burst pipe: stop it, drain it, dry itStop tap off, then open every tap in the house to drain what is left, and kill the power before you touch anything wet. A burst is over in minutes; the drying decides whether it becomes a mould problem you are still fighting in two years.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST4 Damp, condensation and mould in a cold houseMost damp in a British house is condensation, not a leak, and a house being heated less produces far more of it. Find out which one you have before you spend anything, because the fixes are opposites: a leak needs sealing and condensation needs opening up.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST5 Make one warm roomHeat the people, then the room, and only then the house. Choosing the right room and sealing it properly is worth more than any heater you can buy, and the room that is easiest to warm is rarely the one people pick.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST6 Thaw a frozen pipe without splitting itOpen the tap first, then warm the pipe gently from the tap end backwards, and never with a naked flame. A frozen pipe may already be split, so have the stop tap ready before you start, because you find out at the moment it thaws.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST7 Board up a broken window or doorClear the glass from the top down, fix into the frame rather than the brickwork, and board from the inside where you can. A window boarded in ten minutes keeps the weather and the next person out; the light you lose is the price and it is worth planning for.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST8 Reinforce a door and its frameDoors almost never fail at the lock. They fail at the frame, where a 12 mm strike plate is held by two short screws into softwood. Longer screws and a London bar cost very little and change what the door is actually rated against.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST9 Draughtproof a house, cheapest firstA weekend and very little money removes most of the uncontrolled air leaving a British house. Do it in the order below, and stop short of the vents that exist for a reason, because sealing those is how a warm house becomes a mouldy or a lethal one.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST10 Flood-proof a doorway, and what actually worksYou cannot make a house watertight, and anybody selling you that is selling you something. What barriers buy is time and depth, and the water that beats them comes up through the floor and back up the drains rather than in through the door.Quick actions, 8 steps
• ST11 Ground floor windows and glazingGlass is the easiest way into almost any house and the hardest thing to harden without turning the place into a cell. Laminated glass and window locks do most of the available work, and the biggest single improvement costs nothing at all: not leaving anything worth taking on view.Quick actions, 8 steps