A burst pipe at 3am is a genuine emergency. Every minute of running water adds to the damage bill. The fastest thing you can do is isolate the water, then call us. We answer 24/7 and respond inside 60-90 minutes anywhere on the Gold Coast.
The five things to do, in order
1. Shut off the water at the meter
Your water meter is at the front boundary of the property. Most have either a lever-handle valve or a tap-style isolator on the meter assembly itself. Turn it perpendicular to the pipe (lever) or clockwise until firm (tap). This stops new water flowing into the house. Within 30-60 seconds of isolation, the leak slows to whatever is already in the pipes draining out.
If you cannot find the meter or the valve will not move, call us anyway, we will talk you through it on the phone while we dispatch.
2. Open a downstairs cold tap
This relieves pressure in the house pipes and drains the remaining water in the system faster. Speeds up the leak slowdown.
3. Kill electrical at the main switch if water is near electrics
If water is flowing near power points, light fittings, or the electrical switchboard, turn off the main breaker at the meter box. Water plus electricity is a serious risk. If the burst is in a dry area away from electrics (e.g. external pipe), this step is not needed.
4. Move and protect what you can
Move furniture, electronics, soft furnishings away from the affected area if it is safe to do so. Lift rugs. If the leak is on an upper floor, place towels or buckets to slow water spread downstairs. Take photos of any damage as it happens, useful for the insurance claim.
5. Call us
0472 657 042. 24/7. We will tell you the after-hours rate on the phone before we leave the depot, no surprises on arrival. While we are on the way, we may give you additional guidance based on what you describe (e.g. isolating a specific appliance, turning off the hot water unit).
Response time
Inside an hour during business hours, 60-90 minutes after hours for most of the Gold Coast. Slightly longer for deeper hinterland (Springbrook, Natural Bridge, Mount Nathan), 90-120 minutes typically.
What we do on arrival
- Confirm water is isolated and electrical is safe.
- Locate the burst (sometimes obvious, sometimes needs investigation).
- Expose the failed section.
- Repair with appropriate fitting (PEX, copper, compression, depending on what failed).
- Pressure-test the repair.
- Restore water supply.
- Walk the rest of the property looking for related failures (especially other flexi hoses, HWU connections).
- Provide itemised invoice with cause-of-loss documentation for your insurance claim.
- Workmanship guarantee in writing.
What it costs
- After-hours emergency callout: $280-450 first hour including travel
- Typical repair on top: $200-680 depending on what failed
- Total typical 3am burst response: $500-1,100
Will insurance cover it
Most Australian household policies cover sudden burst pipe water damage. The faster you isolate and the cleaner the cause-of-failure documentation, the cleaner the claim. We provide itemised invoices with cause-of-loss documentation that almost every Australian insurer accepts.
Slow leaks discovered late (where you noticed something weeks ago and waited) are sometimes contested. Burst pipes at 3am are almost never contested.
What if you cannot find the meter
The water meter is typically at the front boundary, sometimes set into the ground in a pit with a metal cover, sometimes above-ground on a stand. Look near the road frontage. If you genuinely cannot find it, call us and we will talk you through it. Sometimes a torch from the neighbour gives enough light to locate.
If you absolutely cannot isolate, get to your closest stop-valve (sometimes at the hot water unit or at a specific appliance) and call us. We will isolate at the meter on arrival.
Specific isolation steps by failure location, not just shut at the meter
The general advice is shut at the meter, but knowing where the failure is changes what you do next and can save you minutes. Burst flexi under a kitchen or vanity sink: there should be a quarter-turn isolator on the wall or floor behind the cabinet, brass or chrome lever. Turn it perpendicular to the pipe to stop flow to that fixture alone, then no need to shut the whole house off and other fixtures keep working. Cistern flexi behind a toilet: same approach, there is normally a quarter-turn tap at the wall just below the cistern. Washing machine flexi: dual taps behind the machine (one hot, one cold), turn both off. Hot water unit burst (tank failed, water pouring from base): turn off the cold inlet isolator at the unit (always present, usually a lever just above the unit on the cold supply line), then turn off the gas at the unit or kill the electrical breaker for an electric unit. Mains line burst before the house (you see water bubbling up from the front yard or driveway): shut at the meter only because there is no local isolator. In-wall copper pinhole somewhere unknown: meter shut is fastest because finding the right local isolator wastes minutes when the leak location is uncertain. Roof leak from solar hot water: cold inlet at the ground-level tank for split systems, or at the meter for close-coupled where the tank is on the roof. Outdoor tap that has split (cold winter morning, rare on the Gold Coast but happens in the hinterland): there is sometimes a dedicated outdoor isolator inside the garage or laundry, otherwise meter. Knowing your home's isolation map before an emergency is worth twenty minutes of daylight investigation, photograph every isolator, label them, share with the household.
What not to do, the panic moves we see backfire
People do counterproductive things in a 3am panic that make the damage worse. Do not try to plug the leak with rags or duct tape: the pressure will blow it back out and the delay loses you minutes you should be spending at the meter or local isolator. Do not run hot water taps thinking it will drain the system faster: this risks running the hot water unit dry which can damage the heat exchanger on continuous flow units (Rinnai Infinity, Rheem Metro especially). Do not assume the toilet stop tap is the house mains: many people mistake the cistern isolator for the property isolator and shut the wrong valve while the burst continues elsewhere. Do not climb into a wet area near electrics to inspect: water plus 240V is genuinely lethal, and the inspection can wait until power is off at the main switch. Do not start mopping up before the source is isolated: every litre you remove is replaced by ten more, and the slip risk on wet tiles is real, we have had customers injured this way. Do not call multiple plumbers hoping for the fastest response: you tie up two emergency lines and you cannot accept two callouts without paying for both. Pick one, call us, stay on the line if you need talk-down guidance until we arrive. Do not try to remove furniture that is already wet through if the doorway path is across more wet flooring: you spread the damage. Do not turn the gas hot water unit on after isolation thinking it will help drain hot water out, you can run the heat exchanger dry. Do not climb on a roof in the dark to investigate a suspected solar unit leak, this is a daylight job.
The water shut-off rehearsal we recommend every new homeowner do
When you buy a home or move into a rental, do the five-minute water rehearsal in daylight on a Saturday morning. Locate the meter at the front boundary and operate the isolation valve once. Time how long it takes from the moment you realise there is a problem to the moment water stops flowing inside (check by running an internal tap). Most people are surprised it takes 90 to 180 seconds the first time, longer if the meter is buried in an overgrown garden bed or hidden behind a fence. Locate the hot water unit isolator. Locate any quarter-turn valves under each sink, vanity, washing machine, and toilet. Take phone photos of all of them clearly showing both the valve and its location relative to a recognisable feature (cabinet, wall corner). Save them in a labelled album titled "Water isolation" with a note for each one. Show every adult in the household where everything is and walk them through operating each valve. Do the same for the gas isolation if you have a gas unit (the lever just above the meter at the front fence). The rehearsal investment is one Saturday morning, total time maybe 45 minutes including practice operations. The payoff is the difference between losing $1,500 in damage and losing $25,000 when the inevitable 3am burst happens, because you have shaved 5 to 15 minutes off your response time and you are calm because you know exactly what to do. Tenants benefit too: knowing how to isolate even if you cannot do repair work yourself is good citizenship and your landlord will appreciate it because their insurance excess might be lower as a result.
How to stabilise the property between isolation and our arrival
You have isolated water, called us, and we are 60 to 90 minutes away. What do you do in the meantime to minimise damage. First, open the lowest cold tap in the house (usually outside garden tap or laundry trough) to drain residual pressure and water from the system faster, the system holds 10 to 20 litres that will otherwise slowly drain through the burst. Second, get towels and buckets to the leak location to capture residual drips while the pipe drains. Third, move soft items: rugs lifted off the floor, electronics off the carpet, important documents and photos out of the wet area to a dry room. Fourth, photograph everything before any moving (wide shots showing the whole affected area, close-ups of the failed component if visible, close-ups of damage to walls and flooring, time-stamped photos via phone). Insurance adjusters love early timestamped photos because they prove the cause-of-loss timeline. Fifth, if water has reached carpet, lift the carpet edge and put towels underneath to slow capillary spread that will wick the water across the room over the next hour. Sixth, set up fans (pedestal or ceiling) pointing at wet floor or walls to start drying immediately, this materially reduces total damage. Do not use a wet vac on standing water near 240V power unless you are completely certain power is off at the main switch. Seventh, identify what fell into the water: powerpoints damaged, downlights wet, electronics submerged, joinery swollen. Make a written list because by the time the insurance adjuster visits 24 to 72 hours later you may have forgotten things. Eighth, if you are in an apartment, knock on the door of the unit below to warn them, your burst may have damaged their ceiling and they need to start mitigation too. By the time we arrive, the worst of the spread is contained and we can focus on the repair rather than ongoing damage control.