Emergency plumbing, 24/7: Water you can't stop? Shut off the main, then call us

1. Close the main water shut-off. It’s usually where the water line comes into the building: the basement, a crawl space or a utility room on the street side.
2. Open a cold tap on the lowest floor to drain what’s left in the pipes.
3. If water is near outlets or the electrical panel, keep everyone out of that area. Don’t walk through standing water to reach a switch.
4. Put a bucket under the leak and lift rugs, boxes and electronics off the floor.
5. Call or text us and tell us where the water is coming from.

1. Stop using water everywhere in the building. No flushing, taps, dishwasher or washing machine: it all drains into the same blocked pipe.
2. Keep children and pets away from the water. It isn’t clean.
3. Don’t pour drain cleaner down it. It won’t reach a blockage in the main line, and it makes the water dangerous to work in.
4. If you have to touch anything wet, wear rubber gloves and wash your hands after.
5. Call or text us and tell us which drains are backing up.

1. Don’t flush again.
2. Turn the valve on the wall behind the toilet clockwise until it stops. That shuts off the water to the tank.
3. If the valve won’t turn, lift the tank lid and press the rubber flapper at the bottom down over the opening.
4. Mop up what’s on the floor before it gets under the flooring or through to the ceiling below.
5. If it overflows when nobody has flushed, or other drains are gurgling too, treat it as a sewer backup and call us.

1. Close the cold water valve on the pipe going into the top of the tank.
2. Switch the tank off at its own controls: the breaker for an electric tank, the control dial for a gas tank.
3. Keep clear of the water. It can be hot enough to scald.
4. Move anything stored around the tank out of the wet.
5. Call or text us, with the size and age of the tank if you know them.

If water is getting into the house and you can't stop it, or sewage is coming up inside, treat it as an emergency. A leaking hot water tank counts too. A slow drain is a nuisance, and it can wait for a regular booking.

On average we arrive in about 60 minutes across Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, out to Langley. Those are averages, and the real time depends on where you are and what the roads are doing. We'll tell you what to expect when you call or text.

Look where the water line comes into the house, often in the basement, a crawl space or a utility room on the street side. In a condo or townhouse it may be in a closet, under a sink or behind an access panel, and in some buildings only the strata or building manager can reach it. Find it before you need it, and make sure nothing is stacked in front of it.

Not if the main line is blocked. Every drain in the house feeds into that one pipe, so a flush upstairs can end up on the basement floor. Ask everyone to stop flushing and running taps, and leave the dishwasher and washing machine off until it's cleared.