How An Emergency Plumber Works

Emergency plumbing works in a slightly different way than scheduling an appointment to take care of your regular plumbing requirements. This is due to the urgent nature of the plumbing problem that has been noticed when the need for immediate attention is essential to prevent damage to property.

The first thing you need to do, is of course call an emergency plumbing service. It is a good idea to keep a telephone number in a handy place so that you don’t have to waste time searching for a plumber that provides emergency services. The call should be answered any time of the day or night, any day of the week, even on holidays.

You will be asked to explain the nature of the plumbing emergency before a plumber can be dispatched to your address. If you are unsure of what the plumbing problem involves, just let them know what you have noticed such as water leaking from the ceiling or a toilet bowel that is overflowing.

You will need to provide your address and contact details so that the plumber can be dispatched. Make sure that you have these handy to make the process move along faster. This is especially important if you just moved into a new home and have not memorized your address and new home phone number.

After determining more or less what the problem is, the dispatcher or customer service provider answering your call will probably give you some instructions to follow. For water leaks, you will need to turn off the main water supply to stop the flow of water immediately. You may also be asked to turn on all the cold water faucets in the home to help drain the water that is already in the pipe system.

For overflowing toilets, you will need to turn off the water supply to the toilet in question. This shut off valve is normally located on the wall behind the toilet bowl or cistern. Once you have done this, you should notice that the overflow will stop.

You will not receive a quote for a plumbing emergency as the nature of the problem has not been established and the extent of the repairs have not been determined. The plumbers will also not be able to provide you with an estimate for the job once they arrive at your home. In these events it is common practice to charge a call-out fee, add labor costs and bill for any parts or equipment that were used in the repair.

You can find out whether you need to pay these charges upon completion of the work or whether you will receive a bill from the emergency plumbing provider. Some plumbing service providers have online payment options while others will require cash, a check or money transfer.

Some repairs may only provide you with a temporary solution until a full repair can be made. You may be required to pay for these temporary repairs immediately and only be charged for the full repair once the work has been completed.