A burst pipe is loud, wet and frightening, and the first thing most people do is search for a price while standing in a puddle. Do the meter first, then read this. Once the water is off, the panic is over and the cost question gets much simpler.
Burst pipe repair pricing
| Job | Price | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Burst pipe repair, single break, accessible | $250 to $650 + parts | Exposed vs inside a wall or floor, pipe material, and whether something has to be opened and re-closed |
| Burst pipe under a slab | $1,500 to $4,000+ | Detection, breaking in, repair and reinstatement. Complex slab jobs can exceed $4,000 |
| Non-invasive leak detection | $200 to $500+ | Only needed when the break cannot be seen. The fee finds it; the repair is quoted separately |
| After-hours call-out | Rate quoted on the phone before we leave | Higher than a business-hours visit. The repair itself is then a fixed price on site |
Step one: shut off the mains
Before you ring anyone, stop the water. Every Gold Coast home has an isolation valve at the water meter, usually in a plastic or concrete box at the front boundary near the footpath, sometimes beside the driveway. Lift the lid, find the tap or lever on the house side of the meter, and turn it clockwise until it stops. If it is a lever, turn it a quarter turn so it sits across the pipe. The flow stops within seconds.
If the burst is a flexible hose under a sink, vanity or toilet, you may not need to go to the meter at all. Look for the small isolation tap on the wall where the hose connects and turn it clockwise. That shuts off one fixture and leaves the rest of the house running.
If the meter tap is seized and will not move, do not force it with a spanner. A snapped meter tap turns a household problem into a street problem. Call us and say the meter tap is stuck; we carry the tools for it.
What decides where you land between $250 and $650
Three things. First, where the pipe is. A burst on an exposed pipe in a laundry, a garage, under a house on stumps or on an external wall is the quickest repair, because we can see it and reach it. A burst inside a wall or under a timber floor means opening plaster, tiles or boards to get to it, then closing them again, and that work sits at the top of the range.
Second, what the pipe is made of. Copper, PEX, poly and old galvanised steel are all repaired differently and need different fittings. Old galvanised pipe is the awkward one, because the section around the burst is often as corroded as the burst itself, and a short repair can turn into replacing a longer length.
Third, parts. A single fitting and a short length of pipe is a small parts bill. A new flexi hose, a new isolation tap and a new section of copper is more. We tell you the parts figure with the labour figure before starting, and the total is fixed once you say yes.
The most common burst on the Gold Coast: flexi hoses
Ask any plumber on the Coast what bursts most often and the answer is the braided flexible hose under a sink, vanity or toilet. The stainless braid corrodes in our humid, salty air, the rubber liner inside bulges through the gap, and one day it lets go at full mains pressure inside a cupboard nobody looks in. Because the hose is accessible and the fix is a straight swap, this is a repair at the low end of the $250 to $650 range plus the hose itself, and often quicker than the drive to get there.
What makes flexi bursts expensive is not the plumbing. It is the water that runs through the kitchen and into the hallway while nobody is home. If you have hoses that are more than a few years old, show rust spots on the braid, or look kinked or bulged, replace them before they choose their own moment. We can do every hose in the house in one visit, and when we replace one under a burst we recommend doing its partner at the same time, because they were installed on the same day and are wearing at the same rate.
When the pipe is under the slab
A burst you cannot see, with the meter still turning after every tap is off, may be under the concrete slab. That is a different job at $1,500 to $4,000+, because the leak has to be pinpointed first, the slab has to be opened, the pipe repaired, and the floor reinstated. Sometimes re-routing a new line above ground is cheaper than chasing the old one through the concrete, and we say so when it is. Our page on fixing a leak under a concrete slab covers both stages of that job.
Can it wait until business hours?
Often, yes, and that is worth money to you, because the after-hours rate is higher than a business-hours visit. Once the water is off at the meter, the pipe is not doing any more damage. If you can manage overnight without running water, or the burst is a single fixture you have isolated on its own tap, book us for the morning and you pay standard rates plus a fixed repair price.
Treat it as a genuine emergency, and call whatever the hour, when any of these apply: you cannot shut the water off at all, water is running near power points or the switchboard, a ceiling is sagging or bulging, water is pouring into a neighbour's unit, or the only toilet in the house is out of action. For those, we tell you the after-hours rate on the phone before we leave, and for a genuine emergency we are typically there in 60 to 90 minutes.
While you wait
Move anything electrical off the wet floor and switch off power to the affected area if water has reached a power point. Mop up and get towels down; the sooner floors dry, the less chance of swollen skirting and lifted flooring. Take photos of the burst and the damage before anything is cleaned up, because your insurer will want them, and keep our invoice with the photos. Most home policies cover sudden water damage from a burst pipe, though not the worn part that failed, so the plumbing repair is usually yours and the flooring may be theirs.
How we quote it
Jieye looks at the burst, tells you the labour figure and the parts figure, and the total is fixed before he starts. If the repair reveals more corroded pipe behind the burst, you hear about it and approve it before anything extra happens. You get a written invoice with the licence number on it for the insurance file.
Water everywhere? Shut the meter, then call Hills Plumbing & Gas on 0472 657 042 or book through our Burst Pipe Repairs service page. Fixed price before we start, day or night.