What counts as a bathroom emergency
Emergency means water where it should not be, or water you cannot stop. A dripping tap, black silicone or a slow waste can wait for a visit booked in office hours; the calls below are the ones we take at any hour.
- Water coming through a ceiling under a bathroom, an ensuite or a shower
- A burst or leaking pipe in the bathroom, including a joint or a valve under the bath or behind a panel
- An overflowing or blocked toilet, above all when it is the only one in the house
- A toilet cistern or a tap that will not stop running
- A shower or a bath leaking into the room below
- Water you cannot turn off: a seized stopcock, an isolating valve that will not close, or no isolating valves at all
The first five minutes, before we get there
- 01
Turn the water off at the stopcock
The main stopcock is usually under the kitchen sink; in some houses it is in a downstairs toilet, a utility room, under the stairs or where the pipe comes up through the floor. Turn it clockwise until it stops, then run the cold taps to empty what is left in the pipes. If it will not turn, do not force it with a tool: tell us when you ring.
- 02
Close the isolating valve on the fitting that is leaking
Most toilets and basins, and many showers, have a small isolating valve on the pipe that feeds them. Turn the slot a quarter turn with a flat screwdriver until it sits across the pipe. That stops one fitting and leaves the rest of the house with water.
- 03
Switch the electrics off if water is near them
If water is coming through a light fitting or a ceiling with lights in it, or is near sockets, a fan or an electric shower, switch off at the consumer unit (the fuse box), but only if you can reach it from a dry floor. Do not touch wet switches or fittings, and leave that circuit off until an electrician has checked it.
- 04
Catch the water and clear the room below
Buckets and towels under the drip; furniture, rugs and anything electrical moved out of the way. If a ceiling is sagging with water, keep everyone out from under it.
- 05
Take photos before you tidy up
A few photos of where the water came from, the ceiling and anything damaged. They help if you claim on your home insurance, and a photo or a short video on WhatsApp tells us most of what we need to know before we set off.
Boilers, heating and gas are not ours
We are bathroom fitters and plumbers. We do not work on boilers, central heating or gas, so a boiler that has stopped or is leaking, no heating, or no hot water from the boiler needs a heating engineer, and anything on gas needs a Gas Safe registered engineer. If a leak turns out to be on the heating side, we tell you, so you can call the right person.
If you smell gas
Ring the National Gas emergency line on 0800 111 999 straight away, day or night, and do what they tell you. Do not switch lights or appliances on or off while you wait.
How an emergency call-out works
- 01
WhatsApp or ring 07308 516518
At any hour. A photo or a short video of the leak on WhatsApp tells Nikolay most of what he needs; if you would rather talk, ring. Say where you are, what is leaking and whether you have managed to turn the water off.
- 02
We tell you honestly how soon we can be there
Before anyone sets off, you hear how long it will be. If we cannot reach you quickly enough, we say so, and you can call someone nearer.
- 03
The cost is agreed before work starts
You are told what the visit and the repair will cost, or how the cost will be worked out, and nothing starts until you have agreed it. Nothing appears on the bill that you were not told about.
- 04
Stop it, make it safe, then repair it properly
The first job is to stop the water and make the room safe. Many leaks are repaired on the same visit: a new trap, a pan connector, a fill valve, a section of pipe. If the lasting repair needs a part, or a room that has dried out first (a shower tray that must be rebedded, say), we leave things safe and come back on a fixed date.
Where we come out to in an emergency
We come out to bathroom emergencies in the towns under 35 minutes' drive from our base in Wrexham, and in the villages around them. Say where you are when you get in touch and we tell you straight away whether we can reach you.
| Town | Postcodes | Drive from Wrexham |
|---|---|---|
| Wrexham | LL11, LL12, LL13, LL14 | Our base |
| Chirk | LL14 | About 17 minutes |
| Chester | CH1, CH2, CH3, CH4 | About 22 minutes |
| Oswestry | SY10, SY11 | About 24 minutes |
| Llangollen | LL20 | About 24 minutes |
| Buckley | CH7 | About 25 minutes |
| Malpas | SY14 | About 26 minutes |
| Mold | CH7 | About 27 minutes |
| Ellesmere Port | CH65, CH66 | About 28 minutes |
| Flint | CH6, CH8 | About 31 minutes |
| Deeside | CH5 | About 31 minutes |
| Whitchurch | SY13, SY14 | About 33 minutes |
| Tarporley | CW6 | About 33 minutes |
| Holywell | CH8 | About 34 minutes |
Drive times are routed by road from Wrexham. Every town in the table has its own page with the local detail.
Further out: a local plumber first, then us
In Ruthin, Frodsham, Nantwich, the Wirral, Liverpool, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and the other towns further from Wrexham, a local plumber will reach you sooner on the night than we can. Ring one to stop the water. Then WhatsApp us the photos: we do the lasting repair, and any refit the damage calls for, as a booked job.
A leak in the street is the water company's
If water is coming up through the pavement or the road, or the leak is on the pipe before the outside stop tap at your boundary, it is the water company's to repair, not yours and not ours. Report it to them; their numbers are on your water bill and their websites. The pipe from the boundary to the house is the owner's, and once a leak is inside the house, in or under the bathroom, it is ours to find and fix.
In the towns we cover in an emergency, the water company is Hafren Dyfrdwy for Wrexham, Chirk and Llangollen; Severn Trent for Chirk Bank and Weston Rhyn, Chester, Oswestry and Whitchurch; Dwr Cymru Welsh Water for Buckley, Mold, Flint, Deeside and Holywell; and United Utilities for Malpas, Ellesmere Port and Tarporley.