What To Do Before the Plumber Arrives
Stop the water, clear access, photograph everything, and find your shutoff and cleanout if you have not already. Those four things routinely take twenty minutes off a visit.
What to do right now
Do these first. None of them need tools or plumbing knowledge, and they limit what this ends up costing you.
Stop and get out if any of these are true
Water has reached anything electrical and you cannot cut power from a dry position, or sewage has entered living space. In either case leave the area, do not touch switches, and call from outside.
- Shut off the water at the mainIn most Ogden homes the main shutoff is where the supply line comes through the foundation wall, usually in the basement or crawlspace on the street side, often near the meter or the water heater. Turn it clockwise. If it will not move, do not force it, because an old gate valve can snap.
- Move what water can ruinLift boxes, rugs, electronics and anything sitting on a basement floor. Most of the cost of a plumbing emergency is damage to belongings rather than the repair itself.
- Photograph everything before you clean upPhotos and a short video of the water, the source and every damaged item. If you claim on insurance this is the evidence, and it cannot be recreated once the area is dry.
- Clear the accessMove whatever is stacked in front of the water heater, the crawlspace hatch or the basement corner. A plumber moving your storage is time you are paying for.
Does this need a plumber tonight?
- Water still escaping while you wait
- A situation that is getting worse rather than stable
- A stable contained problem with the water off
Things that make the visit shorter
Clear access, a located shutoff, a located cleanout, and a straight description of what happened and when.
Access is the big one. In most Ogden homes the plumbing lives in the least accessible corner of the basement or the crawlspace, behind whatever accumulated there over ten years. Clearing it before we arrive is the single most useful thing you can do with the waiting time.
The description matters more than people expect. When it started, what you were doing when it started, whether it is constant or intermittent, and whether anything similar has happened before all narrow the diagnosis considerably.
- Clear the route to the water heater, crawlspace or basement corner
- Locate the main shutoff and the exterior cleanout
- Note when it started and what changed
- Photograph everything before cleaning up
- Contain the pets somewhere else
- Have someone available who can authorise the work
Things that make it worse
Pouring chemical drain cleaner in, dismantling something halfway, cleaning up before documenting, and running more water to see whether it has cleared.
Chemical cleaner deserves a specific mention because it rarely helps and it leaves caustic liquid standing in a line that someone then has to open. If you have used it, say so on arrival rather than letting it be discovered.
Half dismantled fixtures are the other one. A partially removed trap or an opened cistern is not a saving, because the first job becomes working out what state things are in.
Questions people ask about this
Should I try to fix it while I wait?
Stopping the water and containing the damage, yes. Dismantling something, generally no, unless you already know what you are doing.
What should I have ready?
Access, a rough history of the problem, and knowledge of where your shutoff and cleanout are. Those three save the most time.
Should I mop up first?
Photograph first, then mop. Standing water is worth removing, but the evidence only exists once.
If that is not quite what you have
Not sure how urgent this is?
Describe what you can see and hear. We will tell you whether it needs someone tonight, and what to do in the meantime either way.
Or send it over
Four things and a photo.