Burst Pipe? The First 5 Minutes — A UK Emergency Checklist

The first five minutes after a burst pipe decide how bad the damage is. Shut the stopcock. Kill the power if water has hit anything electrical. Open the taps to drain the system. Contain the leak. Call a plumber. In that order, quickly, calmly.

A burst pipe in a UK home can dump hundreds of litres of water into a property in under an hour. The damage isn't the burst itself — it's the ceiling, the floor, the kitchen units and the electrics that follow. This guide is the drill we want every customer to know before they need it.

Step 1 — Shut off the stopcock (60 seconds)

Your internal stopcock is usually under the kitchen sink. Turn it clockwise until it stops. Water will slow over a few seconds and stop. If it's seized — and the leak is severe — go straight outside to the external stop valve at the boundary of your property, which you can operate with a stop tap key.

Step 2 — Kill the power if water's near electrics

Water and electricity are the genuinely dangerous combination in any burst-pipe scenario. If water has touched, or is dripping near, any of the following — switch off at the consumer unit main breaker before you do anything else:

• Ceiling lights, downlights, smoke alarms, extractor fans.
• Sockets, fused spurs, the consumer unit itself.
• An immersion switch, boiler, electric shower or storage heater.
• Bulging ceilings — there could be live cabling in the pooled water above.

Don't stand barefoot in standing water to flip the main breaker. Use a dry stick if you have to, or wear dry rubber-soled shoes.

Step 3 — Drain the system

1. 1

   Open all cold taps

   Run the kitchen, bath and basin cold taps. This empties the rising main and the loft cold tank (if you have one) so they can't keep feeding the leak.

2. 2

   Flush the toilets

   Pulls the cold cisterns dry too — more water out of the system, less to escape.

3. 3

   Open the hot taps

   Drains hot water cylinder pressure. Don't worry about hot water — the leak is the priority.

4. 4

   Turn off the boiler / immersion

   Drained cylinders should never be heated. Switch the immersion at the wall, and the boiler at its switch.

Step 4 — Contain the damage

You now have a fixed amount of water in the property — what's already escaped, plus what's still dripping out of the burst. Job is to stop it spreading.

• Bowls, buckets, mop, towels — under the active drip, soaking up the pool.
• If a ceiling is bulging, put a bucket under the lowest point and pierce the bulge with a screwdriver to let it drain controllably. Don't wait for it to collapse onto the room.
• Lift carpets and rugs off the wet area if you can — they wick water across the floor.
• Photo and video everything before you start cleaning up. You'll need it for insurance.

Step 5 — Call a plumber

With the water off and the worst contained, you've bought time but not a fix. The pipe itself still has to be repaired, and the system has to be refilled, vented and pressure tested before the water is turned back on. That's our job.

See our burst pipe repair service for the technical detail of what we do on site, and our making safe page for what happens when water has hit electrics. For 24/7 dispatch see emergency plumber London. For a longer-form walkthrough see our blog on what to do when a pipe bursts.

After the immediate emergency

• Don't refill or repressurise the system until the burst has been repaired.
• Don't switch the power back on in the affected area until an electrician (or our making-safe team) confirms it's dry.
• Keep ventilation running — open windows, fans — to dry the structure quickly. Mould starts within 24-48 hours of saturation.
• Get your insurer's incident reference before you commission major repairs.

Frequently Asked Questions

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