Your home

No, there isn't a hosepipe ban currently. Hosepipe bans are very rare and only occur during droughts. You are still free to use hosepipes, but please do consider your water use.

With our two-year water resource plans, we plan for the long term to ensure we meet the needs of our growing population and our integrated network gives us the ability to use a range of sources of supply, including reservoir storage when river flows are low.

Despite this, climate change is making it harder to accurately predict and model water usage. We always ask customers to think about their water usage – this saves water, protects our beautiful environment and helps keep bills down.

If someone comes to your property asking to check your water supply, our advice is to check their ID carefully. Any genuine visitor, including Bristol Water employees, will expect and welcome this. Carefully check their name, photo and company markings. If you think the caller isn't genuine, please let us know. 

Every winter, we receive calls from customers about their water pipes freezing, bursting or leaking. We can only offer advice at this stage, as we do not hold responsibility for our customers' private supply pipes.

If there is a leak on your property, it is your responsibility to fix it. We recommend contacting a locally approved plumber, who you can find here through the WaterSafe approved plumbers scheme.

You can avoid frozen pipes by following these simple steps:

1. Wrap up your external pipes with good quality lagging – make sure to check your loft or attic too! You can get lagging from any hardware store.
2. Repair dripping taps and faulty ball valves.
3. Leave plugs in sinks in frosty weather.
4. Stop draughts and keep your home toasty and warm.
5. Make sure you know where your stop tap is.
6. Keep a number of an approved plumber handy.

We often need to dig up roads to maintain our network or to install new parts of the network. Check our live map for work in your area. You can also sign up for notifications on these works.

Preparing your house before the cold months of winter is crucial if you want to minimise the risk of your pipes freezing and bursting. A good preventative measure you can take is to wrap your pipes in good quality lagging. You can get high quality lagging from most DIY stores and this how-to video from Watersafe, shows you how to install it yourself.

If you get stuck, you can call your plumber for some advice.

Here are some more tips for preparing your house for winter:

• The pipes you most need to focus on are your exterior pipes, tap and the pipes in your loft.
• Repair dripping taps. Even a small dribble can increase the risk of your pipes freezing.
• Leave plugs in the sink in frosty weather.
• Block draughts and keep your warm toasty.
• Keep the number of a plumber handy. You can find a list of approved plumbers here.

This is where the supply pipe from the water main is serving more than one property. The responsibility for repair is equally shared between all those receiving a supply from this pipe. More information on pipe ownership can be found here.

We support the Water Industry Approved Plumber Scheme (WIAPS). You can search here for a local approved plumber registered in this scheme. Plumbers registered in the scheme have to demonstrate that they have been suitably trained as a plumber and that they have adequate knowledge of the Regulations by passing an assessment and they must be able to confirm that they have appropriate insurance cover.

The National Flood Forum is a charity to help, support and represent people at risk of flooding. Their objectives are to provide people with information about flood risk and to enable people to take control of their own flooding concerns.