Emergency plumber in Surrey

Emergency plumbing: what to do in the first five minutes

Do these three things before you ring anyone

1. Turn the water off. The internal stopcock is usually under the kitchen sink, sometimes in a downstairs cloakroom, a utility or under the stairs. Turn it clockwise. If it will not move, do not force it to the point of snapping — find the external stop tap, normally a small metal cover in the pavement or driveway.

2. Kill the power if water is near electrics. Water coming through a ceiling near a light fitting, or across a floor towards sockets, is an electrical risk before it is a plumbing one. Switch off at the consumer unit if you can reach it without walking through water.

3. Open the cold taps downstairs. This drains the pipework faster and takes pressure off the leak. It genuinely reduces the damage.

What counts as an emergency

Being clear about this means you get the right help at the right time.

A genuine emergency: a burst pipe, water coming through a ceiling, no water at all in the property, a leak near electrics, a blocked toilet in a house with only one, total heating and hot water failure in cold weather, or anything you cannot stop at the stopcock.

Can wait until the next working day: a dripping tap, a running overflow, one cold radiator, a slow-draining sink, a toilet that flushes weakly, or a boiler fault where you still have heating or hot water.

We will tell you which yours is on the phone. If it can safely wait, we will say so and book you in at a sensible time.

Gas emergencies are different

If you smell gas, do not ring us first. Ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. It is free and staffed 24 hours.

Turn the gas off at the meter if you can reach it safely. Open doors and windows. Do not touch electrical switches, including light switches, and do not use a phone inside the property. Get everyone out. Ring us afterwards and we will handle the repair once the supply has been made safe.

The same applies to suspected carbon monoxide. Symptoms are headache, nausea, dizziness and tiredness that improve when you leave the house. Get out, ring the emergency number, and get the appliance checked before it is used again.

Frozen pipes

A pipe that has frozen has not necessarily burst, and how you thaw it determines which. Turn the water off first. Apply gentle heat — a hot water bottle, towels soaked in warm water, a hairdryer on low — starting at the end nearest the tap and working back. Never use a blowtorch or any naked flame.

Thawing too fast, or heating the middle of a frozen section first, can split the pipe through pressure. If it has already split you will discover it when the water is turned back on, so be ready at the stopcock.

Frozen condensate pipes on a boiler are the most common winter call of all. The boiler locks out safely. Thawing the pipe usually restores it, and insulating or resizing it prevents a repeat.

What prevents most emergencies

Know where your stopcock is and check once a year that it turns. Insulate exposed pipework in lofts, garages and outbuildings. Isolate and drain outside taps before winter. Service the boiler annually. And if the system keeps losing pressure, get the cause found rather than topping it up every fortnight — slow leaks become fast ones.

Emergency plumbers and boiler repairs across Surrey

The calls we get most, and what they usually turn out to be

"No heating and no hot water." In winter this is most often a frozen condensate pipe, which locks the boiler out safely and is quick to resolve. Otherwise it points at the diverter valve, the pump, the PCB, or simply a system that has lost pressure to the point where the boiler will not fire.

"Water is coming through the ceiling." Usually a leaking joint or a failed seal in a bathroom directly above, or an overflowing cistern. Occasionally it is the boiler's pressure relief discharging into the wrong place. Turn the water off, kill the power in that area, and ring.

"There's no water at all." Check whether your neighbours have any. If they do, the problem is on your side — usually the stopcock, a frozen supply in a cold spell, or a failed pressure reducing valve. If nobody has water, it is a mains issue for the water company.

"The boiler keeps cutting out." Intermittent lockouts point at low pressure, a blocked condensate, a fouled flue or an overheat cut-off doing its job because circulation is poor. Intermittent faults are the ones worth describing in detail on the phone, because the pattern narrows the cause.

"My radiators are cold but the boiler is running." Circulation. A seized pump, a stuck diverter valve, a closed valve somebody turned during decorating, or a system so sludged that flow has stopped reaching the far end.

Emergency boiler repair: how we prioritise

Not every fault is equally urgent, and treating them as though they are does nobody any favours.

Same day wherever we can: no heating and no hot water in cold weather, no heating in a property with a vulnerable occupant, any suspected gas escape once the emergency service has made it safe, water escaping that you cannot stop, and a boiler that is leaking onto electrics.

Next working day: hot water but no heating in mild weather, one cold radiator, a boiler making a noise but still working, a slow pressure drop you can top up.

When you ring, we will tell you which category you are in and give you an honest time rather than a comforting one. If we cannot reach you quickly we will say so, because you are better off knowing and ringing somebody else than waiting on a promise.

What to have ready when you call

It genuinely speeds things up and sometimes saves you a second visit.

• The boiler make and model, usually on a label behind the front panel or on the side
• Any fault code showing on the display
• The reading on the pressure gauge
• Roughly how old the boiler is, if you know
• Whether it is still under a manufacturer guarantee — if it is, you may not need us at all, and we will tell you that
• Whether the problem is heating, hot water, or both

Landlords and letting agents

A tenant with no heating or hot water is not merely an inconvenience: under the Landlord and Tenant Act a landlord is responsible for keeping heating and hot water installations in repair and proper working order, and a failure to act promptly can become a disrepair issue.

We work with landlords and agents across Surrey, arrange access with tenants directly rather than expecting you to coordinate it, and report back in writing so you have a record of what was found and what was done.

When an out-of-hours call-out is worth it

It is worth it when water is escaping, when there is no heating in genuinely cold weather, or when a vulnerable person is in the property. It is usually not worth it for a fault that will keep until morning, and we will say so rather than take the booking.

Preventing the emergency in the first place

Most of what we attend in December was visible in September.

A boiler serviced annually rarely fails without warning. A condensate pipe that is insulated, or rerouted internally, does not freeze. A system with inhibitor and a magnetic filter does not sludge up and stop circulating. A stopcock that has been turned once a year still turns when you need it. And a slow pressure drop investigated in autumn is a quick repair rather than a January emergency.