What Counts as a Plumbing Emergency?
The short answer
It's an emergency when water or sewage is entering the house and you can't stop it, when you have no water or no working drains, or when flooding threatens the basement during heavy rain. If you smell gas, leave the building right away without using switches, phones or flames, and call the gas utility or 911 from outside before you call us. Most single-fixture problems can wait for office hours.
Emergencies
- A burst or leaking pipe you can't shut off.
- Sewage backing up into the house.
- No running water in the house.
- Every drain in the house stopped.
- A failed sump pump with water rising during heavy rain.
Call your gas utility first
If you smell gas, leave the building right away. Don't use light switches, phones or open flames on the way out. Call your gas utility or 911 from outside, then call us once the utility has made the situation safe. After that, we can repair, replace and pressure-test the gas piping.
Urgent, but usually fine until office hours
- One clogged toilet when the house has another working toilet.
- A water heater that has stopped heating but isn't leaking.
- A small leak you've stopped with the fixture's own valve.
Routine
- A dripping faucet.
- A slow single drain.
- A running toilet.
If it's an emergency after hours
Phones are answered after hours. After-hours response depends on technician availability, active emergency demand and the kind of repair, so we can't promise an arrival time.
A $125 after-hours emergency dispatch fee applies outside regular office hours, in addition to the service-call fee and the work itself. If a permanent repair isn't possible right away, we help stabilize the situation when that's appropriate.
Services on this topic
When your plumbing is a disaster, call the Master
Clogged, Backed Up, or Flooding? Call the Master.
From a stubborn kitchen drain to a collapsed sewer line, the DrainMaster crew has Greater Columbus covered. Phones are answered after hours, and we schedule a licensed local plumber as soon as one is available.
- We explain what we find in plain English
- You approve the price before any work starts
- Licensed & insured Ohio plumbers