Emergency Call-Outs
Water where it shouldn't be gets worse by the minute, and the first five minutes belong to you, not to us. Stop the water, then call.
Regular hours Mon–Fri 8:00am–5:00pm · emergency call-outs by arrangement
Step One
Almost every plumbing emergency stops getting worse the moment the water stops moving. Do this before anything else.
On town water it sits where the line enters the house, usually on the basement wall ahead of the meter. On a well it is beside the pressure tank. Expect one of two kinds: a round handwheel that takes several full turns clockwise, or a lever that goes a quarter turn to sit crossways to the pipe.
If a handwheel feels seized, ease it back and forth rather than leaning on it. Old valves snap at the stem, and a broken main is worse than what you started with.
Closing the main leaves a houseful of water sitting above the break. Open a basement laundry tub or an outside sill cock so it drains away, and crack a tap upstairs to let air in behind it.
Under most sinks and behind most toilets is a small oval or lever handle on the supply. Closing it isolates the leak and leaves the rest of the house with water. If the stop weeps around its stem as you turn it, go to the main instead.
If only the hot side is losing water, the valve on the cold inlet at the top of the tank shuts the heater down on its own and leaves the rest of the house running.
This is the one people miss. With the water off or the tank draining, an electric heater keeps energizing elements that are no longer sitting in water, and they burn out in minutes. Switch that breaker off. On oil or propane, turn the control to off or pilot.
Water running down a wall near outlets, pooling under the panel, or standing deep enough to reach cords and plugged-in appliances is an electrical hazard first and a plumbing one second. Do not wade in to reach a valve.
Get everyone out of the room. Cut the power at the main breaker only if you can reach the panel from dry ground — otherwise call an electrician or NB Power and wait. No shut-off is worth a shock.
The worst time to go looking for a valve you have never touched is at midnight, with water coming through the kitchen light.
Knowing the difference
The dividing line is simple. If water is escaping and you cannot stop it, or what is coming up is sewage, that is now. If a shut-off holds it or a pail catches it, it can usually go in the book.
Water is escaping, or it is not clean
Annoying, but contained
Our regular hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, and outside those hours emergency call-outs are by arrangement. So call and describe what is happening. You will get a straight answer about when someone can be there rather than a promise that only sounds good on a website — and if the answer is morning, we will tell you how to hold it together until then.
Six Common Ones
These are the calls that come in most often. Each has a first move that buys you time — and in a couple of cases, a wrong move that costs you a lot of it.
Copper opens along a seam when it thaws; plastic usually lets go at a fitting. Either way the house has turned into a garden hose that nobody is holding.
Do this first Main off, lowest tap open, and the breaker off if the water heater is electric. Then call. See leak & pipe repair.
One tap gives nothing on a cold morning while the rest of the house runs fine. That is ice in a pipe — and it matters, because pipes usually burst on the thaw, not on the freeze. Right now you still have a choice.
Do this first Open the tap it feeds so meltwater has somewhere to go. Warm the area with a hair dryer or space heater kept clear of anything that burns — never an open flame — and stay near the shut-off as it comes back.
When the main drain is blocked, everything you run indoors has nowhere to go but back out of the lowest opening — usually a basement floor drain or a downstairs shower.
Do this first Stop using water completely. No flushing, no dishwasher, no laundry — one wash cycle can put a bathtub's worth into the basement. Keep people and pets out of it. See drain cleaning.
A sagging, bulging patch of drywall is holding far more water than it looks like, and when it finally lets go it brings the whole sheet down with it.
Do this first Water off, power off to that room's lights at the panel, a pail underneath — then pierce the low point of the bulge with a screwdriver so it drains where you want it rather than where it chooses.
A tank seeping from the bottom seam has rusted through. That one is not going to be repaired, it is going to be replaced — the only question is how much water it puts on the floor first.
Do this first Power or fuel off, cold inlet valve at the top closed, then call. Be careful around it: what is in that tank is still scalding. See water heaters.
In a spring melt or a hard rain off the bay, the pit fills faster than a tired pump can empty it. Nine times out of ten the pump is not the fault: the float is hung up on the side of the pit, or the discharge line outside is frozen or plugged.
Do this first Check the float swings free and the outside outlet is clear. If the pump hums but nothing moves, unplug it rather than letting it cook, and call. See pumps & well systems.
Before You Dial
A minute spent gathering this makes the difference between a truck arriving with the right part on it and a second trip back to the shop.
Civic number and road, plus the nearest intersection if the driveway is easy to go past. A lot of Charlotte County is long rural road with similar mailboxes.
Where it is coming from, roughly how fast, and how long it has been at it. "Dripping" and "spraying" send two different sets of parts out the door.
Main, fixture stop, water heater, breaker — and whether each one actually held once you closed it.
And septic or sewer. It changes what is likely to have failed and what needs to be on the truck before it leaves.
Electric, oil or propane; tank or tankless; and roughly its age. The label on the side usually gives the year.
Whether anyone is home, where the outside basement entrance is, room to park a van, and whether there is a dog.
If you are not sure of an answer, say so — a guess that turns out wrong costs more time than an honest "I don't know". Not urgent? Send it through the contact page instead and we will get back to you.
While You Wait
The water is off and help is coming. What you do in the next hour decides how much of this ends up as a repair and how much ends up as a claim.
Straight Answers
We would rather point you at the right trade than take a call we cannot help with. Four situations where the first phone call is not to us.
Standing water at the panel, at the service entrance, or deep enough to touch outlets and cords is an electrician's call, or NB Power's. Never stand in water to reach a breaker.
Leave the building, take everyone with you, and call 911 and your fuel supplier from outside. Do not flip switches on the way out — not even to turn a light off.
If the neighbours are dry too and you are on municipal water, it is a supply problem, not a house problem. Your town or village office will know about a main break before we will.
We can clear a blocked line running out to the septic tank. Pumping the tank itself is a hauler's job, and drying and sanitizing a basement after sewage is restoration work. Both are separate trades.
Water Off? Now Call
Describe what has happened and what you have already shut off. We will tell you what it is likely to be, what it is likely to cost, and honestly when someone can be there.
506-321-6782Mon–Fri 8:00am–5:00pm · emergency call-outs by arrangement