As with almost any vital system in your home, your plumbing is prone to degrade, which can inevitably lead to an emergency. In the event of a plumbing emergency, there are a number of things you can do to alleviate the damage to your home. However, in order to permanently repair the issues that caused the emergency in the first place, you’ll likely need to call for professional assistance.

Hicks Plumbing is among the top plumbing companies in the Northern VA area. We provide our customers with fast and efficient plumbing services, as well as considerate, personalized care. We also provide a responsive emergency plumbing service to customers that need a quick and reliable repair to their home’s plumbing system. We make sure you know what the problem is and how it can be best fixed, all while keeping your budget and other needs in mind.

Below, we provide some tips on what to do in the event of an emergency plumbing situation:

1.       Shut Off The Water Supply

The first thing you should do in the event of a plumbing emergency is to shut off the main valve. You should also shut off any water source nearest the section of your home where the emergency is occuring. This will stem off any water leaks around your home, saving it from even greater potential water damage.

Water sources such as your kitchen faucet for bathroom toilets are easy to shut off, as their valves are usually located somewhere close by. For your faucets, look underneath their sinks to find the shut-off valve. For toilets, in the rear of the commode. In both cases, their valves are usually shut by twisting them clockwise.

The tricky part is finding the main valve in your home. This usually depends on the way it’s built. There are several places you can find your main water shut-off valve, but in short, they’re usually in the basement, next to your water heater, or in your garage, toward the front of the house.   

2.      Deal With The Small Leaks

After you’ve stopped the flow of water in your home, there will still be small amounts of water flowing through plumbing, which means whatever leaks there could still be releasing water. This is when you should be identifying what and where your plumbing emergency has occurred and try to find indications of what the problem might be.

At the same time, you should be dealing with the released water by either plugging up any apparent leaks with plumber’s tape or rags and towels in order to reduce the amount of water released into your home. Try using buckets or other containers to collect excess water to further reduce any potential water damage to your home.

3.      Shut Down The Water Heater

It is also very important to shut down your water heater in the event of a plumbing emergency, especially if you have shut the main water valve. The heater gets water directly from the main water supply, warming it to the desired temperature before sending it to different parts of your home.

If the main valve is shut, the heater will still empty out its tank and continue heating. This can eventually lead to it bursting or overheating, which is why you should deactivate it just as soon as you’ve shut off the main water valve. 

4.     Contact A Trusted Plumber

Finally, after getting a hold of the immediate situation and alleviating as much of the potential damage as possible, you should quickly call a reliable emergency plumbing service.

You may be able to identify where and possibly even what went wrong with your plumbing system. However, it is best for a professional to confirm the cause and to provide possible solutions in order to restore your plumbing system to full capacity.

Hicks Plumbing: Efficient Emergency Plumbing Service in Northern VA

The reality is that problems will arise in our home’s many systems, including the plumbing. The best solution is to be prepared for when these systems break down and need repairs. The above tips are the essentials for what to do in a plumbing emergency, the most important of them being that you should have the number of a reliable service at the ready.

Our team at Hicks Plumbing are highly-experienced in all kinds of plumbing emergencies, which is why they are known to provide excellent emergency plumbing service to customers throughout Northern Virginia. Moreover, we also provide drain cleaning, plumbing maintenance, water heater and sewer line repairs, and more. Contact us at (703) 803-7466 to hear from our experts in plumbing services and get a free quote today!