Steps You can Take During a Plumbing Emergency

You can take some steps to limit the damage while waiting for your plumber to arrive. Even emergency plumbing services involve commute times, after all, and that means there is still potential for damage between when you call for repairs and when help arrives. Follow our tips below to help mitigate things in the interim.

Almost without exception, the first thing you should do in any plumbing emergency is to turn off the water. Every home has a water shutoff valve, meant for situations just like these. The biggest threat that most plumbing problems pose is that of water damage to the surrounding area. Without water flowing to the damaged area, that threat is taken care of.

Of course, in order to turn off the water in your home, you’re going to have to know ahead of time where your shutoff valve is. The location of the water shutoff valve is not standardized, so there are a handful of different areas where it could be. If you don’t know where the valve is, and you have no way of finding out, do not just randomly start shutting off valves in your basement. Just do the best you can to mop up the area until your plumber arrives. Which brings us to our next tip…

It’s almost certain that you’re going to have to deal with some level of water damage from a plumbing emergency. The name of the game at this point is “limit the damage as much as possible.” After you’ve turned off the water, that means grabbing a mop or some towels and soaking up as much of the water as you can. You should also probably move any furniture or other objects that are susceptible to water damage out of the area. This may seem like a minor step, but it can actually save you a lot of money in remediation costs down the road. Every little bit helps, as they say.

Once you’ve done these two things, you’re pretty much at the limit of what you can do without professional training and equipment. Repairing the problem itself, as well as any damage it managed to cause, is going to have to be left up to professionals. Don’t worry, though. Our professional emergency plumbing services can ensure that your plumbing system is restored to normal operation as quickly as possible!

Lutz Plumbing, Inc. offers a full range of emergency plumbing services throughout Overland Park, KS. If you have a plumbing emergency that needs to be dealt with right now, make sure that you give us a call to speak with one of our expert plumbers.