Burst Pipe: Your First 10 Minutes, Step by Step

What is the very first move?

Stop the water at the main. Nothing else you do matters as much, and every minute the valve stays open adds gallons to the floor, the subfloor and the crawl space. Mopping, calling and moving furniture all come after.

In a Durham-area house the main shutoff is usually just inside the point where the water line enters: on the crawl space side of the front foundation wall, on a basement wall, in the garage, or in a utility closet near the water heater. A round wheel handle closes clockwise. A lever handle is closed when it sits at a right angle to the pipe. Older gate valves sometimes refuse to turn all the way, so use steady pressure and do not force it with a wrench until you are sure it will not snap.

What if you can't shut it off?

If the valve is seized, missing or under water, the utility can close the line at the meter.

• City of Durham Water Management: Water and Sewer Maintenance, 919-560-4344. The City says after-hours, weekend and holiday calls go through an answering service that takes a report and sends an on-call crew.
• OWASA (Chapel Hill and Carrboro): 919-968-4421, day or night; after hours, follow the recorded instructions.
• Private well: switch off the breaker for the well pump. With the pump off, the pressure tank drains down and the flow stops.

While you wait, open the lowest faucet in the house, such as a laundry sink or a first-floor tub, so water still in the pipes drains there instead of out of the break.

Is the electricity safe?

Water reaching outlets, a power strip, a furnace or the breaker panel is the most dangerous part of a burst pipe. The CDC's advice: if circuits or equipment are wet or near water, turn off power at the main breaker, but never step into standing water to get to the panel. In that case, call an electrician. Do not switch lights or appliances on or off while standing in water, and leave the power off until an electrician has checked the wet equipment.

If you smell gas at any point, for instance because water has reached a gas water heater or furnace, stop what you are doing and leave the house. Once you are outside at a safe distance, call 911 or Enbridge Gas North Carolina at 1-877-776-2427. The gas odor safety guide explains what happens next.

What about the water heater?

A tank with no water coming in can keep firing. If the main will be off for more than a short time, or the break is on the hot side, switch off the breaker to an electric water heater or turn a gas unit to its pilot or vacation setting. Turn it back on only after the plumber has the water restored and the tank is full. If the heater itself is what leaked, the question becomes whether to repair the water heater or replace it.

Ten minutes, in order

What should you tell the plumber?

A few details help whoever answers the phone decide what to bring. Say where the break is (crawl space, wall, ceiling, garage, yard), whether the main is holding, and what the pipe looks like: copper, white or gray plastic, red and blue flexible tubing, or dull gray galvanized steel. Mention if the leak is coming from a supply hose on a washer, toilet or ice maker, since those are simple swaps. If the water is pooling in the yard between the street and the house, that points to the service line, which is a buried water line repair and may involve digging.

Who pays depends on location. Durham's 2024 water quality report shows the City owning the service line on the main side and the property owner owning the building side, though the exact split point is not stated in the text. If water is surfacing near the street or the meter, call Water and Sewer Maintenance first so the City can check its side. For a split pipe under the house, reach an emergency plumber serving Durham; in Orange County, the same applies for an urgent call in Chapel Hill.

How do you protect an insurance claim?

The NC Department of Insurance tells policyholders to contact their agent or company right away, photograph damage before and after emergency repairs, keep every receipt for temporary fixes, and hold on to damaged belongings so the adjuster can see them. It also notes that policies require reasonable repairs to prevent further damage, so shutting off the water and drying the house protect your claim. What it warns against is extensive permanent repair before the adjuster visits.

What happens after the first ten minutes?

A plumber cuts out the damaged section and splices in new pipe with fittings that match what is already there. After a freeze, the water should come back on slowly while someone watches the other exposed runs, because one split often has a partner. If you are not sure whether a slow drip can wait until morning, the guide on whether to call tonight or wait walks through the trade-offs.

Drying is the other half of the job. EPA says water-damaged materials should be dried within 24 to 48 hours to keep mold from taking hold, and that a moldy area larger than about 10 square feet calls for professional cleanup. Run fans and a dehumidifier, pull up soaked carpet pad, and keep air moving in the crawl space. Drywall and flooring are usually handled by a separate contractor after the plumbing is done.

Why did it happen, and will it happen again?

In winter, the cause is almost always a freeze in a crawl space, outside wall, garage or hose bibb. A frozen pipe can split and stay sealed by the ice, then let go on the first warm afternoon. The guide to keeping pipes from freezing covers what to change before the next cold spell.

In summer, look at age and parts. Roughly 30 percent of Durham homes were built before 1980, and old galvanized pipe, worn fittings and aging appliance hoses can fail in any month. A rising water bill or a damp spot that keeps returning may call for pinpoint leak detection rather than another patch. With Durham's drought restrictions this year, an unnoticed leak also wastes water the whole community is working to conserve. If the same house has had several breaks, ask whether a repipe of the supply lines makes more sense than another splice.

Five things to do on a quiet weekend

1. Find the main shutoff and exercise it once.
2. Leave a flashlight and boots by the crawl space door.
3. Label the water heater and well pump breakers.
4. Save Water and Sewer Maintenance (919-560-4344) or OWASA (919-968-4421) and your insurance agent in your phone.
5. Replace rubber washer hoses with braided ones.

For anything else that goes wrong with pipes, fixtures or drains, the full list of plumbing services shows what local plumbers handle.