Stop the water
Everything else is secondary. A leak that is stopped is a repair; a leak that runs for an hour is a restoration project.
Local first, if the source is obvious. Every toilet has a valve behind it near the floor. Every sink has two under it. Water heaters have one on the pipe entering the top. Turn clockwise.
The main, if it is not obvious or the local valve will not turn. Usually near the front of the house or at the meter by the street. Turning it off costs you nothing but inconvenience, and you can turn it back on when you need water.
If a valve will not move, do not force it to the point of snapping. A broken valve stem turns one problem into two. Go to the main instead.
Find your main shutoff today, before you need it, and check it actually turns. That single piece of preparation does more than anything else on this page.
Worth knowing
One extra step people miss on a water heater: shut off its supply and turn the unit off — gas to Pilot, or the breaker for an electric one. An electric element that fires in a partly empty tank destroys itself in seconds and adds a heater to the bill.
Then make it safe
Water near anything electrical. Cut power to that area at the breaker — but only if you can reach the panel without standing in water. If you cannot, leave it and call an electrician or the utility. Nothing in the house is worth the risk.
Gas. If you can smell it, get everyone out first. Do not touch a light switch on the way — on or off, a switch makes a spark. Do not use a phone indoors and do not start a car in an attached garage. Call the utility and 911 from outside.
Sewage in the house. Keep people and pets off it, open windows, and treat it as a health issue rather than a plumbing one. Do not run more water — that includes the dishwasher and washing machine, which people forget because they run unattended.
A ceiling holding water. A bulging ceiling is carrying a lot of weight. Stay out from under it. If it is safe from the side, a small hole at the lowest point drains it in a controlled way rather than letting the whole thing come down at once.
Contain and document
Once the water is off and the area is safe, the next fifteen minutes are worth real money.
Move what you can. Furniture off wet carpet, boxes off a wet garage floor, anything of value out of the room. Lift curtains and upholstery skirts clear.
Get water up rather than spread out. Towels and a wet vacuum. The distinction that matters is water sitting on a surface versus water soaking into subfloor and wall cavity.
Start air moving. Fans and open windows if the weather allows. Drying begins now, not when someone arrives.
Photograph everything before you tidy. Wide shots and close-ups, including the source if you can see it. This is what an insurance claim rests on, and once you have mopped, the evidence is gone. Keep damaged items rather than binning them until the claim is settled.
What is actually an emergency
After-hours work carries a premium, typically 25-50%. Worth paying when it buys you something, and it does for these.
- Water you cannot stop. A burst line, a failed supply hose, a valve that will not close.
- Sewage backing up into the house.
- Any smell of gas. Leave first, call from outside.
- No water at all during a freeze — a frozen line that has not burst yet, and there is a short window.
- Water reaching outlets, the panel, or an appliance.
- No hot water in genuinely cold weather with vulnerable people in the house.
What can wait until morning
A dripping faucet. One slow drain, as long as nothing is backing up. A running toilet — shut the valve behind it and it stops entirely. No hot water in mild weather. Any small leak you have contained with a bucket and a closed valve.
All of those cost less on Tuesday and none of them get worse overnight once contained.
If you are unsure which category you are in, call and describe it. We will tell you whether it can wait — that conversation costs nothing, and it is a better use of the call than guessing.
There is more on the line between the two in when it is a real emergency.
The preparation that pays for itself
Four things, none of which take long, all of which are worth more than any amount of reading during the event.
Know where the main shutoff is, and turn it once a year. Valves seize from disuse, and finding that out during an emergency is the worst version of this.
Keep a wrench near the gas meter, since the gas shutoff usually needs one.
Replace rubber washing machine hoses with braided stainless. Rubber hoses are among the most common causes of domestic water damage, and they fail as a burst rather than a drip.
Exercise the shutoff valves behind toilets and under sinks annually. Thirty seconds each, and it tells you now — at your convenience — which ones need replacing.