Most people lose the first few minutes of a plumbing emergency to the wrong thing. They go looking for towels. They start photographing it for insurance. They call someone and describe the problem in detail while the water keeps running.
None of that is unreasonable. It just isn't first.
Stop the water
The first move is always to stop the water, and the question is only how far upstream you have to go.
If it is a fixture — a toilet, a sink, a washing machine — there is almost certainly a small valve on the supply line right there. Toilets have one on the wall behind them, usually on the left. Sinks have one or two under the basin. Turn it clockwise until it stops. If it is stiff, it is probably a valve that has not moved in years, and it may need firm pressure rather than force.
If the leak is not at a fixture, or you cannot find a local valve, go to the main shutoff for the whole home. In a detached house that is usually where the water service enters — a basement wall, a crawlspace, a utility room, sometimes a garage. In a condo or townhouse it may be inside a closet or under a kitchen sink, and in some buildings there is no suite-level shutoff at all and the riser has to be closed by the building. That last case is worth knowing about before it happens.
Find your main shutoff today, while nothing is wrong. Go and physically look at it. Turn it a quarter turn and back so you know it moves. A valve you have never touched is a valve that may not close when you need it to, and discovering that at two in the morning with water coming through a ceiling is a bad way to learn.
Kill the power if water is near it
If water is running near an electrical panel, near outlets, or through a ceiling below a light fixture, turn off the circuit — or the main breaker if you are not sure which circuit. Do not stand in water to reach a panel. If the panel itself is wet or the water is between you and it, stay out and call an electrician and BC Hydro rather than reaching in.
This is the one step where the right answer is sometimes "do not go in there."
Move what water ruins
Now the towels. But move things before you mop: paper, electronics, rugs, anything on a low shelf, anything cardboard. Water spreads sideways and wicks upward, and a box on a wet floor is a write-off in an hour.
If water is coming through a ceiling and the drywall is bulging, that bulge is holding weight. It will come down. Put a bucket under it and stay out from under it — or, if you are comfortable doing it, pierce the low point deliberately with a screwdriver so it drains in one controlled place rather than collapsing across a room.
Then photograph it
Once the water has stopped, take photographs. Wide shots that establish the room, then close shots of the source. Insurers want to see the damage, and they also want to see that you acted. Photographs taken after the water is off are still evidence; a video of you watching it run is not a better one.
What to tell us when you call
When you ring 604-865-7979, the things that help most are: what is leaking, whether you managed to shut the water off, whether it is still running, and whether it is clean water or waste. If you know the building type — detached, townhouse, condo, and which floor — say that too, because in a condo the answer often involves the building's shutoff and the property manager, and that changes what we bring and who else needs a call.
You do not need to diagnose it. "Water is coming through the kitchen ceiling and I turned the main off" is a complete and useful description.
The two things that make it worse
Running the tap to "clear it." If a drain is backing up, adding water is the opposite of helping. Stop using every fixture on that line, including the ones that seem fine.
Chemical drain cleaner into a full sink. It will not clear a genuine blockage, it sits in the pipe, and it turns a straightforward job into one where someone is reaching into caustic water. If you have already poured some in, tell us — that matters for how the work is done safely.
After it is stopped
Once the water is off and nothing is actively getting worse, you have time. Not unlimited time, because standing water and wet drywall become a mould problem faster than most people expect, but enough that you can make a decision rather than a panicked one.
That is the whole point of the first five minutes: to buy yourself the sixth.
We answer around the clock across Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and New Westminster. If you are not sure whether what you are looking at is urgent, call and describe it — that conversation is free and it is usually short.
Related: Emergency plumbing · Burst pipe repair · When a plumbing problem is an emergency and when it can wait
