What to do in the first five minutes
Before anyone arrives, these steps decide how much damage you are dealing with.
Find the stop tap and turn it off. In most houses it is under the kitchen sink, and in older properties it can be in a cellar, a downstairs cupboard or under the floor near the front door. Find it now rather than during a flood, and check it actually turns. Stop taps seize when they are never used.
Turn off the heating if the leak is on the heating system rather than the mains.
Kill the power to affected circuits if water is anywhere near electrics or coming through a ceiling. Do not stand in water to reach a consumer unit.
Catch what you can and get the pressure off. Open the lowest cold tap in the house after turning off the stop tap. It drains the pipework down and slows what is coming out.
If you smell gas, this is a different emergency. Do not touch electrical switches, put out any naked flame, open doors and windows, turn the supply off at the meter if you can reach it safely, get out, and ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. That is a free 24 hour line and it takes priority over ringing any plumber.
What counts as an emergency, and what can wait until morning
Calling out of hours costs more, so it is worth knowing which is which.
Genuine emergencies: water you cannot stop, a leak coming through a ceiling, a burst pipe, no water at all, sewage backing up, a gas smell, or no heating and no hot water in a house with someone vulnerable or very young in it.
Usually fine until the morning: a dripping tap, a slow leak into a bucket you can empty, one cold radiator, a noisy boiler that still works, a running overflow outside.
The grey area is a boiler that has locked out in winter. If the house is holding heat and nobody is at risk, it will often keep until a normal appointment, and cost less.
What to ask when you ring anyone
In an emergency people agree to things they would never accept normally. Three questions protect you.
- Is the person coming Gas Safe registered, if it is a gas job? Ask for the number.
- What is the call out charge, and what does it include? A first hour, a diagnosis, or nothing at all. This is where the disputes come from.
- Will I get a price before the work starts? Making safe and repairing are two different jobs, and you are entitled to know the cost of the second before it begins.
Anyone unwilling to answer those on the phone is telling you something useful.
