Burst pipe or urgent leak in Penrith, stopped and sorted.
A split pipe in a wall, a hot water unit letting go, a meter spinning with every tap shut. The first thing that matters is stopping the water, and you can do that yourself in about a minute. Below is exactly how, then what we do when we get there, and honest hours so you know whether to ring us or ring someone who trades overnight.
The first five minutes.
Do these in order. Stopping the water is worth more than any phone call you can make right now, and it is the part that decides whether you are drying a floor or replacing a ceiling.
Turn the water off at the meter. In almost every Australian home the mains stop tap sits at the water meter, usually at the front boundary at ground level and out in the open. Turn it clockwise until it stops. That kills the water to the whole house.
Australian homes are not plumbed off a manifold, so there is no way to shut off one room and leave the rest running. It is the whole house or nothing, and in an emergency the whole house is the right answer. Then open the lowest tap in the house to drain what is left in the pipes, and if water is anywhere near lights, power points or the switchboard, do not touch anything electrical. Kill the power at the switchboard only if you can reach it dry, and ring an electrician.
Find the meter, turn it off.
Front boundary, ground level, usually sitting out in the open, though it can be inside a rectangular box with a lid. The tap sits beside the meter itself. Clockwise closes it. If it is stiff, it is not seized, it has just never been used. Firm and steady, not a lever bar, because breaking the tap in an emergency makes everything worse.
Open the lowest tap.
A laundry tub or an outside garden tap. That drains the pipes downhill and takes the pressure off the split, so the leak slows to a dribble instead of emptying the whole line into your wall cavity.
Electricity before water.
Water tracking near downlights, a wet ceiling above a light fitting, or a puddle heading for the switchboard changes the order of the job. Do not stand in it and do not touch switches. If the switchboard is dry and reachable, kill the main switch. Otherwise leave it and ring an electrician. Plumbing can wait ten minutes. Electricity cannot.
Contain and lift, do not mop.
Towels at the doorways to stop it spreading into carpet, and get anything off the floor that will wick water upward. Photograph it while it is still wet, because your insurer will want to see the damage before you cleaned it up.
Ring, and know what to say.
Tell us where the water is coming from, whether the meter is off, whether anything electrical is involved, and roughly when it started. Those four answers decide what goes on the truck. Ring 0412 045 854.
Is this an emergency, or can it wait until morning?
Worth knowing before you pay an after-hours rate. Some of these genuinely cannot wait. Others will cost less to fix on Tuesday than they will at 9pm tonight, and the water being off makes them safe to leave.
| What is happening | Ring now or wait | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Water near lights, power points or the switchboard | Now, and ring an electrician | This is an electrical risk before it is a plumbing one. It does not wait. |
| You can smell gas | Get out, turn the gas off at the meter, ring the network | Not a plumber’s first call. Get everyone out and touch no switches. The meter is usually on an outside wall, so turn the gas off there on your way past if you can reach it safely. Then ring the network emergency line, then us. |
| Burst pipe you cannot isolate at the meter | Now | If the stop tap will not close, the water keeps running until someone with the right tools closes it. |
| Sewage backing up inside the house | Now | Health risk, and it usually gets worse with every fixture the household uses. |
| Burst pipe, meter now off, no ceiling involved | Can wait until we open | The damage stopped when the water did. You lose water overnight, not a ceiling. |
| Hot water unit weeping from the relief valve | Usually can wait | A relief valve weeping is doing its job. A tank split and dumping is not, and that one is urgent. |
| One blocked toilet, another still working | Can wait | Inconvenient, not damaging. If every fixture in the house is backing up, that is a main line and it moves up the list. |
| Dripping tap, running toilet, weak pressure | Book it in | Costs less on a weekday and gets our full attention rather than a patch in the dark. |
Some of this is Sydney Water’s problem, not yours.
Worth checking before you pay anyone, because the answer changes who carries the cost.
You own the pipes on your side of the water meter. Sydney Water owns the main in the street. A burst on your side is yours to fix. A burst in their main is theirs, and it is worth ringing them before you ring a plumber.
Wastewater works differently again. If a blockage turns out to be in Sydney Water’s main rather than your line, the process is that you contact Sydney Water. Once they have cleared it and confirmed the blockage was in the main, they reimburse you what the plumber charged. You still pay the plumber on the day and then claim it back, so keep the invoice.
Separately, if a concealed leak has already run up your bill, Sydney Water operates a hidden leak allowance for leaks found and repaired by a licensed plumber. There is more on claiming that on our leak detection page.
What an urgent callout actually looks like.
Two visits, most of the time. The first stops the water and makes the place safe. The second does the proper repair once everyone can see what they are dealing with.
Make it safe and dry.
Confirm the water is isolated, check nothing electrical is live near the water, and stop anything still running. Everything else waits until that is true.
Find where it actually is.
A wet patch is where the water arrived, not where it left the pipe. On a slab home a leak in the wall and a failed shower membrane look identical from the hallway, so we find the source before anyone cuts anything.
Temporary or permanent, your call.
Sometimes the right answer at 6pm is a sound temporary repair that gets the water back on tonight, with the proper fix booked for daylight. We will tell you which one you are getting, and what each costs, before we start.
Paperwork for the claim.
Photos of what failed, what we did, and an itemised invoice. If you are claiming on insurance or on the Sydney Water leak allowance, that paperwork is the part that gets it approved.
When we can actually get to you.
PVS works 7am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday. Inside those hours you get a plumber on the phone rather than a call centre, and urgent work is fitted into the run the way it always has been.
Outside those hours we come out by arrangement, at an uplifted rate disclosed before you book so you can decide with the number in front of you. We are a small workshop and we do not run an overnight roster. If it is 2am and you need someone standing in your hallway within the hour, ring an operator who trades around the clock. That is a straight answer rather than a booking we cannot honour.
What we would rather you did at 2am is turn the water off at the meter and ring us when we open. With the water off, most bursts stop being an emergency and become a repair.
Emergency Plumbing FAQs: What to Do When You Have a Leak
Direct answers from a licensed Penrith plumber. If your question is not here, send it through and we will add it.
Where is my water meter stop tap?
Can I just shut off the one room that is leaking?
Do you charge a callout fee?
My ceiling is wet but the bathroom looks fine. What is that?
Should I ring Sydney Water or a plumber first?
Do you work Sundays?
Will my insurance cover a burst pipe?
- Sydney Water · Wastewater blockages — the ownership boundary, and the process where a blockage is in the main.
- Sydney Water · Hidden leak allowance — the allowance for concealed leaks found and repaired by a licensed plumber.
- NSW Government · Plumbing, draining and gasfitting licences — the licensing requirement for plumbing work in NSW.
Stopped the Water — Now Book Your Emergency Plumber in Penrith
Ring the workshop and tell us what happened, whether the meter is off, and whether anything electrical is involved. We will tell you honestly whether it needs us tonight or whether it is safe to book for the morning.