Emergency plumber in Bristol

An emergency is anything that is damaging your home right now or leaves you without a working toilet or water. A burst pipe, water through a ceiling and a cylinder dumping hot water all count. A dripping tap or a slow drain can usually wait for a booked visit, which costs less and lets us bring the right parts.

If you smell gas, that is not a plumbing job. Leave the property and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. If water is coming up in the pavement or road, report it to Bristol Water, as the main and the pipe up to your boundary stop tap are theirs.

Bristol's housing shapes the emergencies. In Clifton, Redland and Cotham, many big houses are split into flats, so a leak in one flat quickly becomes a ceiling problem in the flat below. In Victorian terraces across Bedminster, Easton and Fishponds, bathrooms often sit over the kitchen in the rear wing, so a failed waste joint shows up as a drip through the kitchen ceiling.

Cold snaps bring a different wave. Bristol Water says that every winter it sees a high number of bursts on customers' private pipes when it freezes. In a city that is mild most of the year, pipes in lofts, garages and outside walls are often left unlagged until the night they split.

These steps limit the damage:

• Turn off the inside stop tap. It is usually under the kitchen sink, in a downstairs toilet or where the pipe enters the house. In some older terraces it is in the cellar or under the stairs.
• Turn off the boiler and any immersion heater.
• Open the cold taps to drain the system.
• Keep away from wet electrics. Switch off at the consumer unit only if you can reach it without standing in water.
• Put towels and bowls down and move valuables.
• Take photos for your insurer.

If the stop tap will not turn, which is common on old brass taps furred up by Bristol's hard water, do not force it with a wrench. Tell us when you call and we will talk you through the outside stop tap.

Emergency visits cost more than booked work because they come first and often happen at night or at weekends. We give you the price for the visit before we set off, then confirm the price of the repair once we can see the job. There are no surprise extras. If the repair needs a second visit, we agree that with you first.

In Bristol's converted houses, an emergency rarely stays in one flat. If water is coming from above, knock on the door of the flat upstairs and ask them to turn off their stop tap. If nobody is in, the managing agent or freeholder may hold a key or know where the communal stop tap is. In some Clifton and Redland conversions, one stop tap in the cellar feeds the whole building.

Keep a record as you go. Take photos of the leak, the damage and any wet electrics before you clear up. Note the time you found it and when the water was turned off. Most insurers ask for a plumber's report naming the cause, and we write one after every emergency job. If the leak turns out to be on the supply pipe outside, Bristol Water's subsidies may also apply, and our guide to who pays for a Bristol Water leak explains them.