No Water in the House
Work through four questions in order: is it the whole house, is it freezing outside, are the neighbours affected, and is the main shutoff open. Those four answers identify the cause in almost every case.
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.
- Check every tap, hot and coldOne dry tap is a fixture problem. Every tap dry is a supply problem. Hot only is a water heater problem.
- Ask a neighbourIf the street has no water, it is the utility's problem and they will usually know already. That saves you a call out entirely.
- Check the main shutoff is fully openIt is a surprisingly common answer, particularly after recent work in the house. It should turn fully anticlockwise.
- If it is below freezing, treat it as a freezeShut the main before thawing anything, because a pipe that split while frozen will start flowing the moment it thaws.
Does this need a plumber tonight?
- No water at all while the house is below freezing
- No water plus visible damage or damp anywhere
- No water and the meter is spinning, which means water is escaping
- Water lost suddenly with a loud noise
- The whole street is out, which is a utility issue
- A single fixture with no water
- Water lost after known utility works with a scheduled restoration
The four causes
A frozen supply line, a broken service line, a closed or failed shutoff, or a utility outage. They present almost identically and the questions above separate them quickly.
Freezing is the most common in a Northern Utah winter and the most urgent, because the pipe may already have split. Never simply wait for flow to return in cold weather: shut the main first, then thaw, then reopen slowly and watch.
A broken service line usually announces itself with a spinning meter and eventually water at the surface. A utility outage affects the neighbours too. A closed valve is free to fix and worth ruling out before anything else.
- Everything dry, freezing outside, likely a frozen line
- Everything dry, meter spinning, likely a broken service line
- Neighbours also dry, utility outage
- Only hot water missing, water heater rather than supply
- Only one fixture dry, that fixture's valve or line
If it is frozen
Shut the main, warm the area gradually, and never use an open flame. The damage from a freeze usually appears during the thaw rather than the freeze.
Open the affected tap so melting ice has an escape route and so you know the moment flow returns. Work from the tap end back toward the frozen section.
If the frozen section is inside a wall, under a floor, or on the buried service line, stop and call. Those are not homeowner jobs and the failure modes are expensive.
What this costs
[PLACEHOLDER: PRICING] Pending from the client.
Thawing an accessible run is a short visit. A broken buried service line is excavation work. Establishing which you have on the phone is free and worth doing first.
Questions people ask about this
My neighbours have water and I do not.
Then the problem is on your property. Check the main shutoff is fully open, then consider freezing or a service line failure depending on the weather and whether the meter is moving.
Only the hot water has stopped.
That is the water heater rather than the supply, which is a different and usually less urgent problem.
Should I just wait for it to thaw?
Not without shutting the main first. If the pipe split while frozen, thawing it with the water on means it starts flowing into your house unattended.
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.