Is it a real plumbing emergency, or can it wait until morning?

It is 11pm, something has gone wrong with the plumbing, and you are standing there trying to work out one thing: is this bad enough to get someone out tonight, or can it safely wait until morning? Get it wrong one way and you pay after-hours rates for a job that could have waited. Get it wrong the other way and a slow leak turns into a wet ceiling by breakfast.

This is a plain guide to making that call, written for older homes around Toorak where a lot of the pipework is original: pre-1970s galvanised supply, old soldered copper, and clay sewer lines that have been in the ground for the better part of a century. The short version is below. If it is a genuine emergency, the quickest thing you can do before anyone arrives is shut the water off at the meter.

The quick version

Two lists. If your problem is in the first one, treat it as an emergency and act now. If it is in the second, you can almost always wait for daytime, which is also cheaper, because after-hours work costs more than the same job in business hours.

Call a plumber now:

• A pipe has burst, or water is actively pouring or spraying into the house
• Sewage or waste water is backing up into basins, the bath, or a floor drain
• You can smell gas inside (see the gas section below for what to do first)
• You have no water at all coming into the property
• Your hot water has failed in winter and there is a baby, a young child, or an elderly or unwell person in the house
• Water is coming through the ceiling, or spreading visibly inside a wall

It can wait until morning:

• A single dripping or leaking tap
• One slow-draining sink, basin, or shower
• A toilet that runs on after flushing
• Hot water that has failed in mild weather, in a household of healthy adults
• A blocked toilet when you have a second one you can use

The five things that are genuinely urgent

These are the failures that justify getting someone out after hours, and the first thing to do in each case while help is on the way.

1. A burst pipe or active flooding

Water spraying or pouring in, with damage building every minute. Shut the water off at the meter (turn the lever a quarter-turn until it stops), then open the lowest tap in the house, an outside tap or the laundry trough, to drain the pressure out of the pipes. That alone stops most of the flooding before anyone arrives.

2. Sewage backing up into the home

Waste water coming up out of basins, the bath, or floor gullies is both a health risk and a threat to floors and skirting. Stop using every fixture in the house, because running more water only pushes more waste up, and get the line cleared.

3. A gas smell inside

A rotten-egg or sulphur smell inside the house means gas until proven otherwise. Do not switch anything electrical on or off. Open doors and windows, turn the gas off at the meter if you can reach it safely, get everyone outside, and call your gas distributor from outside, the number is on your gas bill. Once they have isolated the supply, a licensed gasfitter can find and repair the leak.

4. No water, or no hot water in winter for someone vulnerable

No water at all coming into the house needs attention now. A failed hot water unit is more of a judgment call: in summer, for healthy adults, it can wait a day. In July, with a baby, a young child, or an elderly or unwell person in the house, hot water for bathing and washing is a genuine need, so treat it as same-day.

5. A leak spreading inside the ceiling or walls

You do not need a dramatic burst for this to be urgent. A slow leak that has reached the point of dripping through the ceiling, or staining and spreading across a wall, is soaking the plaster and timber framing behind it. Left overnight it does real structural damage, so it is worth acting on even though nothing is spraying.

What can wait until morning

The everyday faults feel annoying but cause no damage while you sleep, and fixing them in daylight costs less than an after-hours callout for the same work.

• A dripping tap. It wastes water, but it does not damage anything. A worn washer or cartridge is straightforward daytime work.
• One slow drain. A single sink or shower draining slowly is a partial blockage, not a flood. It can wait, and it is worth getting looked at before it becomes a full block.
• A running toilet. Annoying and a little wasteful, but not urgent. If it runs constantly, turn the isolation tap behind the pan off overnight and book it in.
• Lost hot water in mild weather. For a household of healthy adults on a warm day, a cold shower is unpleasant, not an emergency.

The grey areas

A few situations sit between the two lists. Here is how to read them.

• A small ceiling stain that is slowly getting bigger. Looks minor, treat it as urgent. A stain that grows over an hour or two means water is actively getting in somewhere it should not be, and it is doing damage the whole time.
• Brown or discoloured water for the first few seconds. Usually not an emergency. In older homes it is often the inside of an ageing galvanised main shedding rust after the water has sat overnight. Worth investigating, but it can wait for daytime.
• Gurgling drains or toilets. A warning sign, not an emergency yet. It often means a drain or sewer line is partly blocked and air is finding its way back up. Book a daytime look before it turns into a backup.
• A blocked toilet when it is your only one. Borderline. If it is overflowing, or you cannot use it at all and there is no second toilet, it is reasonable to treat as same-day.

Older Toorak pipework usually warns you first

The best emergency is the one you head off in daylight. Older pipework rarely fails out of nowhere. Modern copper or PEX can let go suddenly, but the original galvanised mains, old soldered copper, and clay sewers common in pre-1970s Toorak homes almost always give warning signs weeks or months before they fail. Catching them means a planned daytime repair instead of an 11pm callout.

The galvanised water main

An old galvanised steel main does not fail in one event. It rusts from the inside for decades, slowly narrowing the bore. The signs, in the order they usually show up: upstairs water pressure drops off over a year or so (gradual enough that you stop noticing), the water runs rust-coloured for the first several seconds after standing overnight, and the hot water takes longer to come through because less is flowing. None of those are emergencies on their own. All three together mean the main is near the end, and booking a daytime replacement beats waiting for it to perforate and flood the yard or a wall.

The clay sewer and tree roots

Old clay sewer lines crack over the decades, and tree roots find the cracks and grow in. For most of the year the line still drains and you notice nothing. Then heavy winter rain arrives, the ground saturates, the roots are drinking hard, household water use is up, and the root-narrowed section finally blocks and backs up. The warning signs in the weeks before are slow basin and bath drains, an occasional sewer smell, and toilets gurgling when another fixture drains. None of that is an emergency, but it is your cue to get the line inspected in daylight rather than waiting for the backup.

Old soldered copper joints

Old soldered copper tends to weep before it bursts. A joint that has developed a small persistent damp patch or a green stain is telling you the solder is failing. That is a daytime repair. Ignored, the same joint can eventually let go under pressure, and then it is the 2am version of the same job.

Carbon monoxide: the emergency you cannot see or smell

Older gas heaters and hot water units vent through natural-draught flues that have to stay clear. In older homes those flues run through wall cavities and roof spaces where they can get partly blocked by debris, a bird nest, or past building work. The result is carbon monoxide building up indoors, and the symptoms (headache, tiredness, nausea) creep in over hours and get mistaken for the flu. If you have a carbon monoxide alarm and it goes off, treat it as a real emergency: get everyone out into fresh air and do not go back in until it is checked. If you have a gas appliance more than about 15 years old, annual carbon monoxide testing is worth booking, in daylight, before winter.

First 60 seconds: what to do while you wait

If you have decided it is a real emergency and help is coming, work through this while you wait.

• Shut the water off at the meter if there is an active leak (turn the lever until it stops)
• Open the lowest tap in the house, an outside tap or the laundry trough, to drain the pressure out of the system
• Turn the power off at the switchboard if water has reached any powerpoint, light fitting, or wiring
• Move valuables, electronics, and documents clear of where the water is
• Take photos of the damage for your insurer: the source, the water, and the affected rooms
• Open windows so wet plaster and timber start drying
• Have the property's age, where the problem is, and what you have already done ready to tell the plumber