A burst pipe can put hundreds of gallons through your house in the time it takes a plumber to drive over. The families who come through it with a wet floor instead of a gutted living room all did the same few things first.
1. Shut off the main water valve — right now. Every minute of flow is 5–10 more gallons in your walls. In most Tipton County homes the main shut-off is one of three places: where the water line enters the house (often a crawlspace or garage wall), at the water heater's cold inlet side, or at the meter box near the street (that one may need a meter key or a wrench). Turn it clockwise until it stops.
2. Open the lowest faucets in the house. Once the main is off, open a tub or outdoor spigot at ground level. The water still sitting in your pipes drains out the faucet instead of the break.
3. Kill power to affected areas. If water is anywhere near outlets, ceiling fixtures, or the panel itself, flip the breakers for those rooms. Water and live wiring are a worse emergency than plumbing.
4. If it's a hot water line, close the water heater valve too. The cold-water valve on top of the tank stops the heater from feeding the leak and protects the tank from running dry with the elements on.
What not to do: don't reach for tape, epoxy, or a rubber-hose clamp and call it fixed — those hold pressure for hours, not weeks, and they usually let go when nobody's home. And don't run fans into a wet wall cavity and assume it's dry; trapped moisture becomes mold in about 48 hours.
Then call us. Prodigy runs true 24/7 emergency service across Tipton County — (901) 699-7763. A licensed plumber rolls from Brighton with the truck stocked to make most burst-pipe repairs on the first visit. And whether it's us or not: ask whoever comes to show you your main shut-off. Knowing where it is turns the next emergency into an inconvenience.
