What counts as a plumbing emergency?
Anything moving water or gas somewhere it shouldn’t go, right now. A burst or split pipe. Sewage coming up a tub or floor drain. A water heater tank that has let go. Complete loss of water. A gas smell, which is the utility’s call before it’s ours. The honest other half: a dripping faucet or a running toilet at 2am is not an emergency, and neither is a slow drain. Wait for morning and pay the day rate; we’d rather say that than bill you for a night call you didn’t need.
| What{Q}s happening |
Do this first |
Then |
| Water spraying or pouring |
Close the main shutoff |
Call us; that is a same-hour visit |
| Sewage backing up a drain |
Stop running water in the house |
Call us; every gallon has nowhere to go but back up |
| Water heater leaking from the tank |
Close the cold valve on top of the heater |
Shut the gas or breaker; call |
| Gas smell |
Get everyone out, call the utility or 911 from outside |
Call us once the meter is off |
| No hot water, nothing leaking |
Nothing tonight |
Call in the morning for the day rate |
How fast can you get here?
Typically within one to two hours for emergency calls in Red Oak and surrounding Ellis County. After-hours and weekend rates are different from daytime rates, and you hear the number before we roll, not on the invoice.
The truck arrives stocked for the common failures, so most emergencies get contained and repaired on the first visit. What can’t always happen at night is the permanent fix: a slab leak gets stopped at 2am and rerouted on a scheduled day, because that is plumbing leak repair and it wants daylight and a permit.
Why do so many Red Oak emergencies come the week after a freeze?
Because a pipe that split at 9°F stays sealed by its own ice, then opens up to full city pressure the afternoon it thaws. February 2021 taught every neighborhood between here and Waxahachie that lesson at once. Hose bibs, attic runs and garage-wall lines are the usual casualties, and the flooding comes days after the cold.
If a freeze is coming: hoses off the bibs, cabinet doors open under sinks on exterior walls, a slow drip at the farthest fixture. If it already split, the night call is containment, and the repair is plumbing pipe repair once the system is thawed and holding pressure, because a house that froze hard rarely breaks in one place.
What about a gas emergency?
Not us first. If you smell gas, get everyone out and call the gas company or 911 from outside. They shut the meter off. Once the property is safe and the leak is on the house side, we come in, find it, repair it, pull the permit for the gas test and meet the inspector. Then you call the utility to turn the gas back on. Nobody can shortcut that last step, us included. The full sequence is on our gas leak detection page, and it is worth reading before you ever need it.