Mon–Sat 7am–6pm · 24/7 Emergency Line
Serving Santa Ana & Central OC
Water coming through a ceiling at eleven at night is not a scheduling problem, it is a stop-the-water problem. Calls are answered 24/7 and a technician is dispatched 24/7, in English and Spanish. Before we get there, the first four minutes are yours, and this page is mostly about those.
In this order. All of it is free, none of it needs a tool, and it does more for the outcome than anything we do after we arrive.
Everything leaks at an inconvenient hour, but not everything needs somebody out at 2am, and we would rather say that than sell you a night call you did not need.
| Situation | Honest answer |
|---|---|
| Water coming through a ceiling | Emergency. Shut the water off now |
| You cannot stop the water | Emergency, whatever the source is |
| Sewage backing up into the house | Emergency. It is a health issue, not a plumbing one |
| A gas smell | Leave and call SoCalGas. Not a plumbing call |
| Water near the electrical panel | Emergency. Do not approach it |
| Warm spot on the floor | Urgent, not an emergency. Book the next day |
| Bill jumped, nothing visible | Not an emergency. Run the meter test |
| Slow drip under a sink | Put a bucket under it and call in the morning |
The dividing line is whether water is still moving and whether you can stop it. If you can shut the main and the water stops, you have bought yourself until morning, and morning is usually a calmer and cheaper conversation.
After-hours work is priced when you call, before anyone is dispatched. You will not find out what a night call costs when the invoice arrives. That is not a practice we are willing to defend, and it is the most common complaint about this trade for a reason.
Full pricing is on the pricing page.
| What you see | Where it usually starts |
|---|---|
| Water through a ceiling | A supply line or a shower pan on the floor above |
| Water across a floor at a wall | A supply line inside the wall, or a slab leak |
| Water at the water heater | The tank, a fitting, or the T&P relief valve |
| Water under a sink or toilet | A supply connector or a wax seal |
| Sewage in a tub or floor drain | A blocked or failed main line, not a fixture |
| Water in the garage against a wall | Often the water heater or a slab line |
| Water outside at the foundation | Irrigation, a main line, or drainage |
Ceilings are worth a word on their own. Water tracks along joists and comes down wherever it finds a gap, which is frequently several feet from where it started. Opening the ceiling under the stain is a common and expensive way to be wrong. See bathroom leaking into the ceiling below.
Nobody is thinking about paperwork while water is coming through a light fitting. But the first hour is when the evidence exists, and it stops existing the moment you clean up.
Read your own policy rather than anyone’s summary of it. Does insurance cover water leaks covers the general shape without pretending to know your cover.
We are licensed and insured plumbers, and this site is about leaks — finding the ones you cannot see and repairing them properly. Roughly half of what looks like a plumbing leak turns out not to be one, so the boundary is worth stating plainly.
Roof leaks are a roofer. Water under an air handler is an HVAC technician clearing a condensate drain. Water under an appliance is appliance repair. Drying, restoration and mold are separate trades again, and gas line repair is SoCalGas or a licensed gas fitter. We detect gas leaks, we do not repair gas lines.
The full list, with the trade to call for each, is on what we don’t do.
Calls are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a technician is dispatched 24/7 — in English and Spanish. That is what we will state and it is all we will state: we do not publish a response-time promise, because we have not established an honest one and a made-up number helps nobody at midnight.
If the honest answer to “how soon” is a couple of hours, that is what you will be told on the phone. A number on a web page is not a commitment; what somebody tells you when you call is.
Half the emergency calls in a city like Santa Ana come from somebody who does not own the building, and the useful thing at that moment is knowing what you can do without authority.
Larger portfolios and HOA common-area work are handled the same way, with the reporting trail that requires. See property managers and HOAs.
Santa Ana first, and the surrounding cities where the drive makes sense at the hour you are calling.
| Area | Notes |
|---|---|
| Santa Ana | All neighbourhoods — our base |
| Tustin, Orange, Garden Grove | Adjacent; routine |
| Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Westminster | Routine |
| Irvine, Anaheim | Routine |
| Huntington Beach, Newport Beach | Yes — ask about timing at night |
The full list is on service areas. If you are outside it and calling at 2am, say so on the phone and you will get a straight answer rather than a dispatch that takes an hour longer than you were led to expect.
Shut the water off at the main first. Then call and we will talk you through the rest.
(714) 386-7923Call or text, day or nightSchedule a VisitCalls are answered 24/7 by a person and a technician is dispatched 24/7, in English and Spanish. We do not publish a response-time window because we have not established an honest one. You will get a real estimate on the call.
Shut the water off at the main, cut power to any wet area at the breaker, move what water you can, and photograph everything before you clean up. Those four take about four minutes and they change the outcome more than anything we do afterwards.
Usually where the supply line enters the house: a garage wall, an outside wall, or a utility area, or in the meter box at the street. Turn it clockwise. It is worth finding it now rather than at midnight; this page shows you how.
After-hours work is priced differently, and you are told the price on the call before anyone is dispatched. Finding out what a night call cost when the invoice arrives is not something we are willing to do to somebody.
Most often a supply line or a shower pan on the floor above. Shut the water off first: if it slows or stops, it is a supply line. Do not open the ceiling under the stain, because water tracks along joists and comes down away from where it started.
No. Leave the building, do not touch a light switch or a phone until you are outside, and call SoCalGas on 1-800-427-2200, which is answered 24 hours. We detect gas leaks; we do not repair gas lines and a live gas smell is not a leak-detection call.
Not until someone has found the source. Turning it back on to check is how a contained problem becomes a second round of damage. If you need water, we can often isolate one line and leave the rest of the house working.
Sometimes, and sometimes the right answer is to stop the water, make the area safe, and do the repair properly in daylight. We will tell you which of the two you are in rather than billing you for the more expensive one by default.
Read your policy. The general pattern is that sudden damage is treated more favourably than gradual damage, and that many policies cover the damage rather than the failed pipe. Photographs taken before cleanup are what a claim rests on.
If we cannot locate a leak during a paid detection visit, there is no detection fee. And if the water turns out to be a roof, an air conditioner or an appliance, you get that in writing, which is a real result, not a wasted call.