What to Do in a Plumbing Emergency

The short version

In a plumbing emergency, shut off water at the source first, then address any safety hazard like standing water near outlets or a gas smell, then call for help. Locating and shutting your main water valve is the single most useful thing you can do before a plumber gets involved, because it stops the damage from getting worse while you sort everything else out.

Not every plumbing problem is an emergency. A dripping faucet you can catch in a bucket is not the same as a burst pipe soaking a basement floor. Knowing the difference helps you act fast when it matters and skip the stress when it does not. If the problem is a slow drain rather than active flooding, see our drain cleaning page instead.

Step 1: Find and shut off the water

Everett homes hide their main shutoff in a few common spots: a crawlspace access, a utility closet, a garage wall, or a meter box at the curb. If the problem is at one fixture, like a toilet or a leaking supply line under a sink, you may only need to close the local shutoff valve at that fixture rather than the whole house main.

If you have never located your main shutoff, do it on a calm afternoon, not during a flood. Turn it and note which direction closes it, then leave it as you found it. Knowing this ahead of time is the difference between stopping a burst pipe in thirty seconds and standing in an inch of water trying to remember where the valve is.

For a house on a meter box at the street, you will usually need a meter key or a wrench to reach the curb valve. Some jurisdictions do not want homeowners operating the street-side valve at all, so check with your water utility if you are unsure. The valve inside the house, in the crawlspace, basement, or garage, is normally the one you are meant to use.

Step 2: Shut off the water heater if it's involved

If the emergency involves the water heater, whether it is leaking from the tank base, a fitting, or the T&P discharge line, shut off the cold water supply valve at the top of the tank in addition to the house main if needed. For a gas water heater, turn the gas control knob to off or pilot. For an electric unit, switch off the breaker labeled for the water heater at your panel. This stops the unit from continuing to heat water it can no longer safely hold. Our water heater repair page covers what happens after it's isolated.

Step 3: Handle water near electricity

If water is spreading near outlets, a plugged in appliance, or anything electrical, kill power to that area at the breaker panel before you do anything else in that space. Standing water and live electricity together turn a plumbing problem into a much more dangerous one. Do not wade into standing water to reach a breaker panel that sits in the same room. Shut power off from a dry location if you can, and if you cannot reach the panel safely, stay out of the water and call for help.

Step 4: Sewage backup is a different kind of emergency

If sewage or gray water is coming up through a tub, shower, or floor drain, stop using water anywhere in the house immediately. Every flush, load of laundry, or running faucet adds to what is backing up. Do not open a cleanout cap you are not sure you can close again. Sewage under pressure will find the lowest exit, and that is often your own garage floor. Keep kids and pets away from the affected area, since this is a contamination issue, not just a mess. See our guide on main sewer line backups for how to tell a main line issue from a single clogged drain.

Step 5: If you smell gas

A gas smell near a water heater, furnace, or stove is not a plumbing task first. Leave the area immediately, do not flip any light switches or operate anything electrical on your way out, and call your gas utility's emergency line from outside the house or from a neighbor's phone. Once the utility has cleared the scene, a plumber can help with any appliance isolation or repair that is needed.

What actually counts as an emergency versus what can wait

Active flooding from a broken pipe or failed water heater is an emergency regardless of the time of day. So is sewage backing up into living space, a gas smell, or having no water at all in winter when a line may have frozen and split. A leak you cannot shut off, especially in an older home where the main valve is seized or hard to reach, also counts.

A single slow drain with no sewage smell and no water on the floor can usually wait for daytime scheduling. A toilet that runs but does not overflow is annoying and will raise your water bill, but it is not a flood. A water heater with no hot water but no active leak means cold showers, which is miserable but not the same urgency as water pooling on a garage floor. A dripping faucet you can catch in a bucket, with the supply shut at the fixture, can typically wait until morning.

What to say when you call

Describe the symptom, your neighborhood, and whether water is still actively running. Something like, pipe burst in the crawlspace, water is off at the main but still dripping, gets a plumber oriented faster than something vague like there's a leak somewhere. If you have already shut off water or power to an area, mention that too, since it changes what the plumber needs to check first when they arrive.