The Citywide Blog

A burst pipe doesn’t wait for a convenient time. It happens at 2 a.m. in January when a line in an unheated Suffolk County crawlspace finally freezes solid, or on a Sunday afternoon when a 90-year-old galvanized riser in a Brooklyn brownstone gives out and sends water through two floors of ceilings. Within minutes you can have water pouring through light fixtures, soaking hardwood floors, and running down into a neighbor’s apartment below.

The first ten minutes decide how bad it gets. At Citywide Sewer-Drain & Plumbing, we respond to burst pipe emergencies across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau County, and Suffolk County every week, and the difference between a few hundred dollars of cleanup and a five-figure restoration almost always comes down to what the homeowner did before we arrived. Here is exactly what to do.

STEP 1Shut Off the Water

Everything else can wait. Stopping the flow is the single most important thing you can do.

In a Long Island house: The main shutoff is usually in the basement or crawlspace on the street side of the house, where the water service enters, often near the meter. In newer homes in Nassau and Suffolk it may be a lever-style ball valve; in older homes it’s typically a round gate valve that you turn clockwise until it stops. If you can’t find it or it’s seized, there is usually a curb valve near the sidewalk, but that one requires a special key and is better left to a plumber or the water district.

In a NYC apartment, co-op, or condo: Most units in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens do not have a single shutoff for the whole apartment. Look for individual stop valves under sinks, behind the toilet, and at the washing machine. If the leak is coming from a wall, ceiling, or riser, you’ll need the building’s super or management company to shut off the riser or the main. Call them immediately and have the super’s number saved in your phone before you ever need it.

In a brownstone, townhouse, or multi-family: The main is almost always in the cellar near the front wall. If you have tenants, let them know the water is going off.

Once the water is off, open the lowest faucet in the house (a basement sink or an outdoor spigot) to drain the remaining pressure out of the lines. This slows the leak to a trickle while you work on the next steps.

STEP 2Kill the Power to the Affected Area

Water and electricity in the same room is a life-safety issue, not just a property one. If water is dripping from a ceiling fixture, pooling near outlets, or running toward your electrical panel, go to the panel and switch off the breakers for that part of the house. If you aren’t sure which breaker covers what, shut off the main breaker. Do not stand in water to reach the panel. If the panel itself is wet or the water is already in the basement where the panel lives, stay out and call Con Edison or PSEG Long Island along with your plumber.

STEP 3Call an Emergency Plumber

Now call for help. Citywide Sewer-Drain & Plumbing runs 24-hour emergency service throughout the five boroughs and Long Island, with no extra charge for nights, weekends, or holidays. Call 1-888-458-3380. When you tell us tell us three things: where the water is coming from, whether you were able to shut off the main, and whether there’s any chance sewage is involved. That lets us send the right crew with the right equipment on the first trip.

If you could not get the water shut off, say so first. That changes the response from urgent to immediate.

STEP 4Contain the Water and Protect What You Can

While you wait, limit the damage:

• Move furniture, rugs, electronics, and anything on the floor out of the wet area or up onto blocks
• Put buckets under active drips and poke a small hole in a sagging ceiling bubble to let the water out in a controlled stream rather than waiting for the drywall to collapse
• Use towels, a mop, or a wet/dry vac to pull up standing water
• Open windows if the weather allows and get fans and a dehumidifier running
• If you’re in an apartment, knock on the door below you and let them know water may be coming through

STEP 5Document Everything Before You Clean

Before you throw anything out, take photos and video of the burst pipe, the standing water, every damaged surface, and every damaged item. Walk through the whole affected area slowly with your phone recording. Write down the time you discovered the leak and the time you shut off the water.

Then call your insurance company. Homeowners policies on Long Island and most NYC co-op and condo policies cover sudden burst pipes, though they may not cover damage from a slow leak you ignored. In an apartment building, the building’s master policy and your own HO-6 policy may both come into play, and your neighbors below may file against your coverage. The more thorough your documentation, the smoother that process goes.

STEP 6Deal With the Cause, Not Just the Break

A burst pipe is usually a symptom. Once the immediate crisis is over, figure out why it happened so it doesn’t happen again next month.

Why Pipes Burst in the New York Area

Freezing. This is the number one cause from December through March. Water expands as it freezes and the pressure splits the pipe, though you often won’t see the leak until it thaws. On Long Island, the usual culprits are pipes in crawlspaces, unheated garages, exterior walls, and outdoor hose bibs that were never shut off for the winter. In NYC buildings, it’s often a riser running through an unheated stairwell or a pipe in an exterior wall of a corner apartment. If you have pipes in a space that can’t be heated, insulate them, and on the coldest nights let a faucet drip and open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls.

Age and corrosion. Huge swaths of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens housing stock dates to before 1940, and a lot of it still has original galvanized steel supply lines. Galvanized pipe corrodes from the inside out. It narrows, loses pressure, turns the water rusty, and eventually fails. Older Nassau County homes from the 1950s and 1960s may have galvanized or early copper that’s reaching the end of its life. If your water pressure has been dropping for years or you see brown water after the supply has been off, your pipes are telling you something.

Pressure and water hammer. Parts of Long Island and the hills of northern Queens and Manhattan see high municipal water pressure. Without a working pressure-reducing valve, that constant stress wears out fittings and joints. A loud bang when a washing machine or dishwasher shuts off is water hammer, and over time it can crack solder joints.

Clogs and sewer backups. A blocked drain line builds pressure behind the clog. Grease is the usual cause in kitchens, and tree roots are the usual cause in the main sewer line, especially in the tree-lined neighborhoods of Queens, Brooklyn, and Nassau’s North Shore. Routine drain cleaning and never pouring fats, oils, or grease down the sink go a long way.

Ground movement and construction. Street work, neighboring excavation, and settling can shift or crack underground service lines. If your water bill jumps and you can’t find a leak inside, the break may be in the yard or under the sidewalk. In NYC, the section of the service line from the curb to the house is the homeowner’s responsibility, not the city’s.

Warning Signs of a Pipe That’s About to Fail

You can sometimes catch a problem before it bursts. Keep an eye out for:

• A water bill that’s climbing with no change in use
• Pressure that’s noticeably weaker than it used to be
• Rust-colored or cloudy water, especially first thing in the morning
• Damp spots, stains, bubbling paint, or soft drywall on walls and ceilings
• A musty smell in a closet, cabinet, or basement
• Banging, ticking, or hissing sounds inside the walls
• Hairline cracks or green or white crust on exposed copper fittings

Any one of these is a good reason to have the system looked at before winter.

Citywide Sewer-Drain & Plumbing Is Ready 24/7

We serve homeowners, co-op and condo boards, landlords, and property managers across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau County, and Suffolk County. For burst pipes we offer emergency leak repair, pipe replacement, frozen pipe thawing, water main and service line repair, and drain and sewer cleaning, along with inspections that catch failing pipes before they let go.

If you have water where it shouldn’t be, shut off the main and call Citywide Sewer-Drain & Plumbing at 1-888-458-3380. We’ll get there fast and get it fixed right.