Is It a Real Plumbing Emergency? A Straight Checklist

We run a 24 hour emergency line because plumbing doesn't wait for business hours, but not everything that feels urgent at 11pm actually needs a plumber that night. Here's how we'd tell you to think about it if you called us right now and asked.

Call now, don't wait

• Water is actively flooding a room and you can't stop it at the fixture. Shut off the main if you know where it is, then call.
• A pipe has burst or split open. This gets worse by the minute, not better.
• Sewage is backing up into a sink, tub, or floor drain. This is a health issue as much as a plumbing one.
• Your water heater is leaking near an electrical outlet or panel, or making a loud banging or popping noise under pressure.
• You have no water at all, anywhere in the house, and it's not a utility company outage.
• A slab leak has appeared: a warm spot on the floor, a spike in your water bill with no obvious cause, or the sound of running water when nothing is on.

One that's not a plumbing call at all

If you smell gas anywhere in or around your home, that's not something to wait on and it's not something to call a plumber about first. Get everyone out, don't flip light switches or light anything, and call your gas utility's emergency line or 911 from outside the house. Once the gas company has confirmed it's safe, call us if you need any gas line or appliance work done afterward.

Can usually wait for regular hours

• A drain that's running slow but still draining.
• A toilet that runs after you flush, or a small tank leak you can hear but not see.
• A dripping faucet.
• A minor, steady (not spreading) drip under a sink that you've already caught in a bucket.
• Low water pressure that's been building gradually, not a sudden drop.

None of these are pleasant to live with, and we'll get to them fast during our regular hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm. But they're not the kind of thing worth paying an after-hours rate for unless waiting genuinely isn't an option for you.

What actually happens when you call our emergency line

It's the same process whether it's Tuesday afternoon or Saturday at 3am. You call and describe what's happening. We confirm your address and get a plumber headed your way. When they arrive, they assess the situation and explain what needs to happen before touching anything. You get a price up front, before any work starts, not after. Once the repair is done, it gets tested and verified working while the plumber is still there, so you're not left wondering if it'll hold.

That's been the process here for a long time, long enough that a lot of our customers have been through it more than once and know what to expect before we even pick up the phone.

What to have ready when you call

A call goes faster when you can answer a few basic questions up front: your address, whether the water is still running or you've already shut it off, roughly where the problem is in the house, and whether it's getting worse while you're on the phone. You don't need to diagnose anything yourself. Just describe what you're seeing and hearing as plainly as you can. If you've already found your main shutoff and closed it, say so; that changes how urgent the drive out is.

Why the distinction actually matters to you

Treating every plumbing issue as an emergency isn't doing yourself any favors. Genuine emergencies get a truck out at 2am because they have to. Problems that can wait get scheduled during regular hours, which usually means more flexibility on timing and a plumber who isn't racing a flood to get to you. Knowing which one you're dealing with means you spend your urgency on the things that actually deserve it.

If you're not sure, call anyway

This checklist is a guide, not a rulebook. If something feels wrong and you can't tell whether it's urgent, call (318) 631-4533 and describe it. We'd rather talk you through it and tell you honestly that it can wait until morning than have you standing over a slow drip at midnight wondering what to do. We cover Shreveport, Bossier City, Benton, Haughton, Greenwood, and Stonewall, day or night.