What to Do When a Pipe Bursts, The First 60 Minutes

Updated August 20, 2026 , Editorial Team

A half inch supply line under normal household pressure moves somewhere around six gallons a minute. Left alone for an hour, that is enough water to reach every room on the floor and start soaking into the subfloor beneath them. What you do in the first sixty minutes decides whether this is a drying job or a reconstruction job.

Here is the order. The order matters, because several of these steps are useless if done out of sequence.

1. Shut off the water

Not the fixture, the main. A burst line does not care that you closed the valve under the sink. The main shutoff is usually at the water meter near the street, in the garage, or on the exterior wall where the supply enters the building.

If you do not know where yours is, find it now, before you need it. This is a five minute job on a calm afternoon and a nightmare at 2am in the dark.

For a burst line at a water heater, there is usually a dedicated shutoff on the cold inlet at the top of the tank. Close that and the tank stops refilling.

2. Cut the power to the affected area

Water and electricity together are the only part of this that can kill you. Switch off the breakers for the flooded rooms.

One exception, and it is absolute. If the breaker panel itself is in the flooded area, or you would have to stand in water to reach it, do not go near it. Call your utility company. This is not the moment for improvisation.

3. Photograph everything before you move anything

Insurers pay on documentation. The photographs taken before anyone touched anything are worth more than every conversation you will have afterward.

• Wide shots of each affected room from the doorway
• The source of the leak itself, if you can see it
• Close ups of damaged flooring, drywall, cabinetry and furniture
• Serial numbers or labels on any damaged appliances
• A video walking through, narrating what you are seeing

Do this even if it feels like it is delaying the cleanup. It takes four minutes.

4. Call for extraction

Now call. Extraction started in the first few hours is a drying job: pumps, air movers, dehumidifiers, done in three to five days.

Extraction started after about 48 hours is a remediation job. Mold has begun colonizing the drywall paper and carpet backing, porous materials have to come out rather than being dried in place, and the bill multiplies. It is also the point at which an insurer starts asking why you waited.

5. Call your insurance carrier

Open the claim the same day. You do not need a contractor quote first, and you should not wait for one.

Ask three specific questions:

1. Is emergency mitigation covered before the adjuster inspects? Usually yes, because most policies require you to prevent further damage.
2. What is my deductible on this type of loss?
3. What documentation do you need from the restoration contractor?

Write down who you spoke to and when.

6. Start limiting the spread, carefully

While you wait:

• Move furniture off wet carpet, or put foil or wood blocks under the legs. Wooden furniture legs bleed stain into carpet within hours.
• Lift rugs off hardwood.
• Move anything valuable, paper or electronic, to a dry room.
• Open cabinet doors and drawers under sinks so air can reach the cavity.

Do not attempt to pull up wet carpet yourself, and do not run your HVAC system. If the water was contaminated, the ducts will distribute it through the whole house.

What not to do

Do not use a household vacuum on standing water. It is not rated for it and you will either be electrocuted or destroy the machine.

Do not assume a surface that feels dry is dry. Drywall wicks water upward well past the visible line, and subfloor can hold moisture for weeks under a floor that looks fine. This is what moisture meters are for.

Do not throw damaged items away before the adjuster has seen them or you have photographed them thoroughly. You are discarding your own evidence.

Do not sign a contractor’s work authorization without reading it. Some include an assignment of benefits clause that hands your claim to them. That is occasionally reasonable and frequently not. Read it.

The honest summary

Water damage is one of the few household emergencies where the outcome is almost entirely determined by how fast someone starts extraction. The physical damage from the burst itself is usually trivial, because a split in a pipe costs a few hundred dollars to fix. Everything expensive that follows is a function of how long the water sat.

Shut the water off. Take the photos. Call. In that order.

This site is a free referral service operated by LRBD LLC. We are not a restoration contractor and do not perform restoration work. We connect property owners with independent local contractors who pay us a fee for each referral. We do not guarantee the work of any contractor.