You have a burst pipe
Water off first. Everything else can wait a few minutes; that cannot.
Is this an emergency?
You’re probably seeing
- Water spraying, running or dripping from a wall, ceiling or floor
- A sudden drop in water pressure at the taps
- The sound of running water when nothing is switched on
- A bulging or sagging patch of ceiling or drywall
- No water at all from a fixture after a hard freeze
What it probably is
A freeze-thaw burst
The most common cause in cold climatesHappens during or just after a cold snap, usually in an exterior wall, an unheated crawl space, an attic, or a garage. The split often shows once the ice thaws, not while it is frozen.
Corrosion in older pipe
Common in older homesA pinhole or a weeping joint on old galvanised or thin copper, often with discoloured water beforehand. Tends to recur elsewhere in the same system.
Excess water pressure
Common and under-diagnosedRepeat failures at joints, banging pipes, and relief valves that discharge. High incoming pressure or a failed pressure-reducing valve stresses the whole system.
A failed fitting or a bad joint
Common after renovationsA leak precisely at a connection rather than along a length of pipe, often on recent work or on push-fit fittings.
Physical damage
Less common, but immediately obvious once foundA nail or screw through a stud bay, usually discovered after hanging something or after work in the house.
What to do before anyone arrives
Shut off the main water supply
It is usually where the supply enters the house - a basement wall, a crawl space, a utility closet, or a meter box near the street. Turn it fully clockwise. If you have never located it, do that today rather than during the next emergency.
If you genuinely cannot find or turn the valve, call your water utility - many will shut off at the street. Do not lose ten minutes searching while water runs.
Kill the power to affected areas
If water is anywhere near outlets, light fittings or an electrical panel, switch off those circuits at the breaker.
Do not walk through standing water to reach a panel, and do not touch a breaker while standing in water. If the panel is wet or unreachable, call an electrician or the utility rather than improvising.
Open the lowest taps in the house
With the main off, opening taps on the lowest floor and outside drains the remaining water in the system downwards, which reduces what is left to escape from the break.
Get the water up and start air moving
Towels, a wet vacuum, fans and open interior doors. The EPA advises that wet buildings and furnishings must be dried within 24 to 48 hours in order to avoid mould growth, so this begins now rather than after the repair.
If water has gone into a wall cavity, under flooring or above a ceiling, surface drying is not enough - that needs equipment, and it is a restoration job.
Photograph everything before you move or remove anything
Wide shots of each affected room, close-ups of the pipe and of damaged belongings. If you intend to make an insurance claim, this is the evidence, and it takes two minutes.
Call a plumber - and a restoration company if the building got wet
These are two different trades. The plumber stops the leak; drying out a wet structure is separate work with separate equipment. If the water reached a ceiling, a wall cavity or flooring, book both on the same day.
This is the end of the homeowner sequence. Do not attempt a permanent repair on a pressurised line, and treat pipe-repair clamps as a temporary measure at best.
What it costs to fix
Ranges below are for the repair itself. For full replacement pricing see the plumbing cost guides.
| What it is | Is it the expensive part? | What decides your bill |
|---|---|---|
| The pipe repair itself | Usually not | Access. A visible basement pipe is a short job; one inside a finished wall is not |
| Emergency or out-of-hours call-out | Adds to it | Time of day. A burst at 2am costs more than the same repair at 10am |
| Opening and closing a wall or ceiling | Sometimes | How much finished surface has to come out to reach the break |
| Structural drying | Frequently the largest line | How long the water sat, and how far it travelled |
| Repipe, if failures keep recurring | A project, not a repair | This is a planned job - get more than one opinion |
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (May 2025 wage data).
The repair is usually the small half of a burst pipe event; the drying and the making-good are usually the large half. That is the entire reason the first hour matters more than the choice of plumber. Labour anchor: the national median wage for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters is $30.67 an hour (BLS, May 2025), billed on top of a call-out, with emergency rates higher. We do not publish a national repair price because access varies more than any average can carry.
Can I fix this myself?
Water and electricity together are the real hazard in a burst pipe, not the water itself. Do not enter standing water where outlets, appliances or a panel may be energised, and do not reach into a wet ceiling cavity - waterlogged plasterboard fails suddenly and brings light fittings with it. If a ceiling is bulging, stay out of the room.
Reasonable to DIY
- Shutting off the main water supply
- Switching off affected circuits at the breaker, safely
- Opening low taps to drain the system
- Removing standing water and starting airflow
- Photographing damage for a claim
Call a pro
- Any permanent repair to a pressurised water line
- Opening walls or ceilings to reach a break
- Structural drying of cavities, flooring and ceilings
- Diagnosing high water pressure or a failed PRV
- Assessing whether repeat failures mean a repipe
The first ten minutes are entirely yours and they matter more than anything a plumber does afterwards: water off, power off where it is wet, taps open, towels down. Everything after that is two trades - one to fix the pipe, one to dry the building - and the second is the one people forget to call until the mould is already there.
Is this covered by insurance?
Whether a claim is worth filing depends on the cause, your deductible and how the damage happened - not on the repair price alone.
Sources
Sources last checked
- Mold Course Chapter 2: Why and Where Mold GrowsU.S. Environmental Protection AgencyRetrieved 2026-09-14
- Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters - median pay, May 2025U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook HandbookRetrieved 2026-09-14
Sources for the figures and the legal requirements cited on this page.
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