Plumbing Emergency
What to Do First

If You Can Smell Gas

Deal with this before anything else. Call the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999 first. It is free, staffed 24 hours a day, and an emergency engineer will attend to make the supply safe. While you wait:

• Do not operate electrical switches, including lights, and make the call from outside if you can
• Put out naked flames and do not smoke
• Open doors and windows
• Turn the gas off at the emergency control valve, usually a lever beside the meter, if you can reach it safely
• Leave the property and keep people away until the emergency engineer says it is safe

Once the supply has been made safe, call us to trace and repair the fault. We are Gas Safe registered and can carry out the repair and the tightness test needed before the supply is reinstated. A carbon monoxide alarm follows the same rule: if it sounds, get everyone out, call 0800 111 999 and do not go back in until you are told it is safe.

A Burst Pipe or a Serious Leak

Find the stopcock. In most houses it is under the kitchen sink, though it may be in a downstairs toilet, a utility room, a garage or a cupboard where the supply pipe enters. Turn it clockwise to close. If it has not been turned for years it may be stiff; do not force it with a tool, because a broken stopcock spindle makes the situation worse. Once the mains is off:

• Open the cold taps to release the pressure and drain the pipework
• Switch off the boiler and any immersion heater so they do not run dry
• If water is near electrical fittings, switch off the electricity at the consumer unit if you can do so safely
• Move belongings out of the way and put containers or towels under the leak
• Photograph the damage for your insurer

Many properties also have an outside stopcock at the boundary, under a small cover near the pavement. If the inside one will not turn, that one closes the supply at the street. For a leak you cannot see, our leak detection service finds it without opening up floors on guesswork.

No Heating or Hot Water

If the boiler has stopped, check the basics before calling: that there is power to the boiler, that the display is not showing a low pressure fault (see boiler losing pressure), that the thermostat and timer are calling for heat, and, if you have a prepayment gas meter, that there is credit on it. In freezing weather a frozen condensate pipe is a common cause of a lock-out. It is the plastic pipe from the boiler through an outside wall, and it can be thawed with warm, not boiling, water poured along it before resetting the boiler. If none of that clears it, call us. A boiler breakdown in winter is treated as an emergency and we carry parts for the common makes.

An Overflowing Tank or Cylinder

Close the stopcock to stop the cold feed and, if it is a hot water cylinder, switch off the boiler and the immersion heater. Do not switch the immersion heater back on until the cylinder has been checked.

Isolating a Single Appliance

Most toilets, taps, washing machines and dishwashers have an isolation valve on their supply pipe: a small brass fitting with a slot turned by a flat screwdriver. A quarter turn so the slot lies across the pipe shuts it off. Isolating the one appliance keeps the rest of the house working while you wait.

Then Call Us

Once the immediate risk is under control, call or text 07555 022 658 at any hour, or 01724 304 304 in office hours. Tell us what has happened, what you have turned off and where the property is, and we will give you an honest arrival time. Out-of-hours rates apply and we will tell you what they are before we set off. See our emergency plumber page for what we cover, or use the contact form for anything that is not urgent.

Before the Next Time

Find your stopcock now and turn it once a year so it does not seize. Know where the gas emergency control valve is. Keep a carbon monoxide alarm near each gas appliance. Lag pipes in unheated spaces before winter. Each of these takes a few minutes, and together they turn a crisis into an inconvenience.

Frequently Asked Questions