Most emergency guides are written for the person calmly researching on a Tuesday. This one works for both readers: if water is pouring into your house right now, do the numbered list below in order, then call (508) 944-7623 — we answer 24/7, every day. If you're the Tuesday reader: even better. The whole difference between a $500 cleanup and a five-figure insurance claim is knowing step 1 before you need it.
The sequence
- 1Shut the main water valve. In most Massachusetts homes: basement, on the wall facing the street, close to where the water meter sits. Gate valves (round wheel) turn clockwise until snug; ball valves (lever) turn a quarter-turn so the handle sits across the pipe. This one action ends the flooding — everything else is cleanup.
- 2Open the lowest faucet in the house. A basement utility sink or first-floor tub. The pipes above hold gallons that will keep feeding the leak by gravity until you give them somewhere better to go.
- 3Cut power to wet areas. If water is anywhere near outlets, fixtures, or the panel's territory, flip the breakers for those zones. If water is near the panel itself, stay away from it and leave the electricity to the pros.
- 4Shut down the water heater. With the main closed, a gas tank can overheat and an electric one can burn out its elements dry. Gas: control dial to OFF (or PILOT). Electric: its breaker at the panel.
- 5Document before you clean. Sixty seconds of video plus photos of the source, the spread, and everything wet. Insurance adjusters pay on evidence; your memory of "it was everywhere" is not evidence.
- 6Move what matters, then start removing water. Rugs up, furniture on foil or blocks, and towels, wet-vac, and fans on the water. Drying that starts within hours is the difference between drying out and cutting out.
"But it's July" — why pipes burst in summer too
- Washing machine hoses — the #1 summer flood we see. Rubber hoses fail without warning at full street pressure, and nobody's home when it happens. Braided stainless replacements cost a few dollars and take ten minutes.
- Corroded fittings and old solder joints that pick their own schedule — more guests, more laundry, more pressure cycling in summer speeds the appointment up.
- Water hammer — the bang when a valve slams shut is your pipes taking a pressure spike; enough spikes find the weakest joint.
- Supply lines to toilets and faucets — the little braided connectors have a service life too, and the failure mode is identical to a burst pipe: open line, full pressure, empty house.
- Outdoor spigots and irrigation — last winter's freeze damage often waits for summer's first heavy use to reveal itself in the wall.
What happens when we arrive
An emergency call runs a fixed play: locate the failure, isolate it so the rest of the house can have water back (you can live without the laundry line for a day; you can't live without every fixture), make the permanent repair — not a clamp-and-pray — and pressure-test before we leave. If the burst points at a bigger cause — chronic over-pressure needing a regulator, or corroded piping telling you it's the first domino — we'll show you what we're seeing and quote it straight. And if you're mid-flood reading this from Kingston, Halifax, Raynham, or anywhere across our service area: the line is answered right now.
The ten-dollar prevention list
- Swap rubber washer hoses for braided stainless — today, honestly.
- Watch your water pressure: above ~80 psi, your fixtures live a short, violent life. A $15 gauge on a spigot tells you; a pressure-reducing valve fixes it.
- Disconnect garden hoses in fall and know which spigots are frost-free — July is when January's mistake surfaces.
- Leak detectors under the washer, water heater, and kitchen sink — $20 alarms that scream before the ceiling does.
- Going away in summer? Shut the main. Empty house + open main is how vacations end in demolition.
