Plumbing Emergency Tips

1. In the case of a water pipe in your house bursting behind a wall or under the floor, you should immediately go to the shut-off valve to the main waterline in your house. turn the valve clockwise until it stops. this should stop the waterflow throughout your house until we arrive to fix the problem.

• if you are on a basement, the valve should be downstairs on the front wall where the waterline is entering the house.
• if you are on a crawlspace, you will probably have to crawl down there through the spiderwebs, to the front wall where the waterline comes in, to turn it off. you may want to just go to the water meter near the street to turn it off. it may be easier.
• if your house is on a slab, in most cases the main shut-off valve to the house comes in near the water heater (sometimes everything but the valve handle is covered by sheetrock). turn the valve handle clockwise, to shut the water off.

2. In the case of a water pipe in your yard bursting, your only option is to go to the water meter at the street to shut it off. it would be helpful to have, beforehand, a tool called, a "water key". it looks like the letter "t", with a notch on the bottom to hook on to the valve on the water meter. if you don't have this, then you can use a wrench to reach down and turn it a 1/4 turn. this will shut the water off to your house completely, including the leak in the yard.

3. In the case of a leak in your water heater. there is a shut-off valve just above the heater itself, on the pipe going directly into the top of the water heater. turn it clockwise to stop the water from escaping into your house from the heater. this will shut off all hot water to the house, but will allow you to maintain the cold water to all your plumbing fixtures.

4. In the case of a leak in your toilet, lavatory, or kitchen sink, there is a small shut-off valve behind the toilet, or under the sinks, that you can turn clockwise to stop the leaking temporarily.

If things are floating out of the house, and you don't have time to read this, then call our emergency number:
404/ 787-3175
and if we don't answer, we will return your call immediately