At Burton, we always mean what we say. Like telling you we offer 24/7 emergency repair services. Simply put, we wouldn’t’ say or offer it if we didn’t have every intention of following through.

Does that mean, however, that every single plumbing repair constitutes a plumbing emergency. Of course not. And while that’s plain as day to us, it’s still sometimes difficult to calmly explain to a distraught customer that their emergency situation, however inconvenient or annoying it might be, doesn’t meet our standard of a true emergency.

Would you like to know what does, and causes us to awake one or more of our plumbers in the middle of the night on your behalf? What follows are 5 true plumbing emergencies, and the primary reasons why we offer 24/7 emergency repair service in the first place.

  • blogYou can’t shut off a hot water faucet. Equally bedeviling, you either don’t know where the main shut off valve is located or for some reason can’t shut it off, either. Any time a plumbing problem can cause physical harm and property damage at the same time, you can count on Burton to act quickly.
  • Flooded basement. There are a number of factors that can and do contribute to flooded basements. One of them is a failed main sump pump, and for that, you contact us 24/7 knowing we’ll come out to fix it before things get any worse.
  • You can smell gas. Nature did not give natural gas that rotten egg smell. That’s added later on to make a gas leak easy to detect. So if you smell gas, assume the worst and evacuate your family to a safe location just as quickly as you can. If time and circumstances permit, open a few windows to vent the gas, but don’t turn any light switches on or off. Then call us from a safe location and we’ll take over from there.
  • A water line suddenly breaks. Basements are more prone to flooding than other areas of your home because the water, in most cases, has nowhere else to go. So instead, it accumulates until someone or something makes it stop. But that doesn’t mean water can’t start flowing uncontrollably elsewhere in your home and cause all sorts of problems, structural and otherwise, in its own right.  Is this happening to you right now? First, try your best to shut off the water valve that controls the broken pipe – or, the main water valve – before calling us just to prevent further damage. But either way, call us just as quickly as possible and help will be on its way.
  • No water, hot or cold, is flossing from any of your faucets. Water is a life-giving substance that we can’t do without for very long. In the case of family members with certain medical conditions, perhaps you can’t do without water at all. At Burton, we don’t expect you to. Call us and we’ll figure out what it takes to get your water flowing again.

From all of us here at Burton, here’s a little friendly advice: if YOU think it’s a plumbing emergency, call us. Your comfort, convenience and, above all, safety mean the world to us. As such, we promise to do whatever it takes to fix the problem just as quickly as we can. Even when that “whatever” warrants an overnight service call.