Burst Pipe: The First 30 Minutes

A burst pipe keeps putting water into your house until someone stops it. The order of the next six steps matters more than how fast you do any single one of them, so here is the whole sequence first. If a pipe is frozen but has not split yet, that is a different job - start with the frozen-pipe guide instead.

Shut the water off at the main.
Deal with electricity before you step into standing water.
Turn off the water heater.
Photograph and video everything before you clean up.
Move what can still be saved.
Call a plumber and a restoration company. They are two different trades.

Minute one: water off at the main

Most Texas homes have no basement, so the valve you want is usually at the meter box near the curb, in the garage, or where the service line enters the house. Austin Water tells homeowners to turn the water off at the shutoff valve to prevent flooding if a pipe has burst, that the property owner's valve is typically on your side of the water meter at the meter box, that you may need a water meter key available at most hardware stores, and that if you cannot find the valve or it is damaged you can use the City shutoff valve in the meter box.

Once the main is closed, open a few faucets. Water still standing in the pipes then drains out of a tap instead of through the split.

Do not spend the emergency hunting for the valve while water runs. Our shutoff-valve guide lists the likely Texas locations in order; check them once, then go to the meter box. Many Texas cities will close the city-side valve for you if you call. The City of Melissa, for one, tells residents who cannot shut the water off themselves to contact Public Works to have the City valve shut off. Look up your own city's public works or water utility number now rather than during the emergency.

Electricity, before you walk into the water

Electrical Safety Foundation International is specific about this: do not touch a circuit breaker or replace a fuse with wet hands or while standing on a wet surface. If your home experienced flooding, keep the power off until an electrician has inspected your system for safety. Have an electrician inspect electrical appliances that have been wet, and do not turn on or plug in appliances unless an electrician tells you it is safe. The CDC draws the line on the case that kills people: do not enter standing water to access the main power switch, never turn power on or off while standing in water, and call an electrician to do it if the panel is in the water.

Before crossing a room, look at what the water is touching. If it has reached outlets, power strips, or plugged-in appliances, stay out of that room until its circuits are dead. A dry route to a dry breaker panel is fine. Wading to the panel is the case the CDC rules out, and if that is the only way to reach it, the call goes to an electrician or your utility.

Turn off the water heater

The City of Melissa gives the short version: should your pipes break, shut off the water and then turn off the heating source to your water heater. With the main closed, the tank stops refilling, and you do not want a burner or heating elements running on a tank that is draining down. On a gas unit, turn the gas control to OFF. On an electric unit, switch off its breaker, following the wet-hands rule above. If you smell gas at any point, do not touch switches or appliances: leave the house and call 911 and your gas utility from outside.

If water actually reached the appliance, it does not simply go back into service. The Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that gas control valves on furnaces, water heaters, and other gas appliances that have been under water cannot be salvaged and must be replaced: silt and corrosion damage the valve's internal components, and it can fail later and cause a gas leak, explosion, or fire even if it appears to work now. The same warning covers electric circuit breakers, GFCIs, and fuses that have been submerged.

Photograph everything before you clean up

The instinct is to start bailing. Do the camera first. The Texas Department of Insurance tells homeowners to take pictures and video of the damage, to make temporary repairs that prevent more damage but not permanent repairs before the adjuster has seen it, to keep a list of repairs and save receipts, and not to throw anything away until the adjuster tells you. Video the split pipe itself, the standing water, the waterline on walls and furniture, and every affected room from floor to ceiling, before anything moves.

Stopping the water is also part of your side of the policy. TDI puts it plainly: if you have a sudden leak, shut your water off at the main and move expensive items off the floor, because your insurer may deny your claim if you do not protect your property. TDI also draws the distinction most freeze claims turn on: home and renters policies cover sudden and accidental water damage, and usually do not cover damage from gradual leaks or seepage. Whether your particular loss is covered is a question for your policy and your insurer, not for this page. The insurance guide goes through the exclusions.

Move what can still be saved

Once a room is safe to enter, electronics, documents, photo albums, and rugs go to a dry room. Prop furniture legs up out of the water where you can. Soaked items you are sure are ruined still go to a dry corner or the garage, not the curb, until the adjuster has seen them.

Two calls, two trades

A burst pipe creates two separate problems, and one company rarely solves both.

The plumber repairs the pipe. Plumbing work in Texas is licensed and regulated by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, and the board runs a free public license search that shows a license's status and expiration and whether a certificate of insurance is on file. Start from TSBPE's consumer information page. Until the repair is made, your main stays off. In Houston, you can start with license-verified plumbers.

The restoration company dries the structure. Water that ran for even a few minutes is inside wall cavities, under flooring, and in carpet pad, where a mop and a fan never reach. Restoration is its own discipline with its own ANSI standard, the ANSI/IICRC S500, which describes the procedures to be followed and the precautions to be taken when performing water damage restoration in residential, commercial, and institutional buildings, including psychrometry and drying technology and structural restoration.

What restoration does not have in Texas is a state license. Texas does not license water damage restoration as a trade, so there is no such thing as a state-licensed restoration company here, and anyone claiming one is describing something that does not exist. Where no state license exists we check the credentials that do: a TDLR mold remediation license and IICRC certification, both explained on our methodology page. A plumber will not dry your walls, and a restoration crew will not repair your pipe, so both calls go out now: water damage restoration in Dallas or in Houston.

Why the drying clock matters

The first thirty minutes limit how much gets wet. The next window decides whether wet becomes mold. The EPA states that if wet or damp materials or areas are dried 24 to 48 hours after a leak or spill happens, in most cases mold will not grow. Past that window, wet drywall, baseboards, and carpet pad turn from a drying job into a mold and demolition job. That is why the restoration call belongs in the first half hour and not on Monday morning. The water damage guide covers what those 48 hours should look like.

Once the water stops

When the main is closed, the damage is documented, and both trades are booked, one job is left. The pipe that split will sit in the same attic or exterior wall through the next freeze, so work through preventing frozen pipes in Texas before the next hard freeze, or read the full Texas freeze plumbing guide for the whole picture.