LA Plumbing Pros
Emergency plumbing in Los Angeles
A burst pipe, no water in the house, sewage coming back up. Tell us that first when you get in touch.
Some plumbing problems can wait until somebody has looked properly. A few cannot, because every minute of them is doing damage to something that is not a pipe. This page is about the second kind, and the first part of it is what you can do before anyone arrives.
The first thing to do is close the water
The main shutoff is usually at the street side of the house, near the meter, or on the wall where the supply comes in. Turning it clockwise closes it. If you have never found yours, find it now, not at two in the morning with water coming through a ceiling.
For a water heater there is a shutoff on the cold line above the tank. For a single fixture there is an angle stop under it. Closing the nearest one keeps the rest of the house in water.
If water is anywhere near an electrical panel, an outlet or a light fitting, stay out of it and deal with the electricity first.
Sewage coming back up
Stop running water anywhere in the house, including the washing machine and the dishwasher, because everything you send down has to come out somewhere and right now it is coming out of the lowest opening. Keep people and pets out of it.
If there is a cleanout outside and it is accessible, opening it can send the backup out there instead of into the house. That is a decision to take with the state of things in front of you, not from a web page.
What helps us on the phone
That it is urgent, first. Then what is happening and where, whether the water is off, whether it is clean water or sewage, and whether it is a house, an apartment building or a business. That is enough for us to tell you what happens next, and to tell you plainly when we can be there.
We answer day and night, every day, including weekends and holidays.
What usually causes one
A supply line letting go at a fitting or at a corroded section. A water heater reaching the end of its tank. A main line that has been backing up for months and has finally closed. Two of those three give warning, which is the argument for dealing with the slow version of a problem before it becomes this one.
Questions people ask us
I cannot find the main shutoff.
Look at the street side of the house near the meter, and on the wall where the supply enters. In an apartment building it may be a stack valve, not something in your unit.
Should I use a bucket and wait?
Close the nearest shutoff first. A bucket manages the water that has already escaped; the valve stops any more of it.
Is water damage a plumbing job?
The plumbing part is. Drying out a house and putting it back is restoration work and it is a different trade, and we will say so instead of taking it on.
Tell us what is wrong.
Say what the problem is and where you are. We will tell you what we can do and what it takes.
Our work is covered for a year.
A photograph of a Los Angeles street of this kind. Not a photograph of a job by this company.