Emergency Plumber, 24/7
Pipe spraying behind the drywall? Water heater emptying onto the garage floor? Sewage rising in a shower drain at midnight? The order never changes: we stop the water first, find the failure second, repair it on the same visit. A stocked truck reaches your driveway in 60 minutes, any hour, any night, any holiday.
- 60-minute response, 24/7/365
- Water stopped on arrival
- Written estimate before any work
- CSLB #920054
Heads up: We’re an emergency water & drain crew. We don’t service pool/spa systems, irrigation, or natural-gas lines. Burst supply lines, failed water heaters, drain & sewer backups, leaks inside the house? We can help with that.
What is an emergency plumber?
An emergency plumber is a licensed plumber who responds around the clock to active water failures, a burst pipe, a leaking water heater, a sewer backup, a main valve that won’t close, where the damage keeps growing by the minute until the water is stopped. The work is two moves in a fixed order: contain the water first to halt the damage, then diagnose and repair the failure, instead of waiting for normal business hours while a house takes on water.
No Trip Charge
Free diagnosis on every emergency call. No callout fee, no after-hours premium just to show up.
Truck Rolls Day or Night
Burst pipes don’t keep business hours. We isolate the line, cap the water, and stop the damage before it spreads.
Same-Trip Repair
Common emergency parts ride on the truck. Most burst-pipe, heater, and angle-stop emergencies are fixed before we leave.
The water emergencies we roll on, any hour.
The failures differ, but the call is always one of two things: water where it shouldn’t be, or no water where it should be. Either way we stop the bleeding first, then put the permanent repair in writing before anything larger gets opened.
Burst lines and pinhole blowouts
Split copper, a popped angle stop, a ruptured washer hose, a pinhole that finally let go. We isolate the line, take out the failed length, and tie in fresh PEX or copper on the same visit, opening drywall only where the repair actually needs it.
- Shut off at the meter or a zone valve
- Failed length replaced and pressure-tested
- Drywall opened only where the fix needs it
A main valve or regulator that gave out
The main won’t close, the pressure regulator is stuck wide open and driving the whole system too hard, or the meter-side stop is weeping. The valve meant to protect the house is often the first thing to fail. We replace it on site.
- Ball-valve or regulator replacement
- Static pressure tested after the swap
- Meter-side shutoff coordinated when needed
Water heater down or leaking
No hot water on a Sunday, a tank weeping onto the garage slab, a relief valve venting steam. We carry the common tank sizes and tankless service parts, so most heater calls are resolved the same day.
- Same-day tank replacement
- Tankless flush, ignitor, and sensor work
- Code straps and expansion tank fitted
Drains and sewer backing up
A toilet that won’t stop overflowing, a shower drain pushing up sewage, tubs gurgling across more than one bathroom. We clear the main line by cable or high-pressure jet and put a camera down it on the same call.
- Cable auger or high-pressure jetting
- Color camera inspection of the line
- Cleanout located and accessed
Toilets, faucets, and stuck fixtures
A toilet overflowing past a failed wax ring, a faucet that won’t shut off, a shower valve jammed wide open on hot. The everyday parts ride on the truck, so most of these are done on the same trip.
- Wax ring, fill valve, and supply line
- Cartridge, stem, and trim service
- Toilet, faucet, and angle-stop swaps
After the burst: the damage and the claim
Sometimes the failure happened hours ago and there’s ceiling on the floor by the time we arrive. We document the cause of loss, photograph the failed component, and submit the scope straight to your carrier.
- Sudden-and-accidental cause-of-loss writeup
- Failed-part photos and pressure data
- Direct billing where the carrier allows
How we triage an emergency before the truck arrives.
Most of the damage from a plumbing emergency isn’t done by the failure, it’s done in the gap between the first drip and someone finding the right valve. Water follows the path of least resistance and wicks into everything porous it reaches, so that gap is measured in square feet of drywall and subfloor. That is why the highest-leverage move happens before our truck arrives: while it rolls, dispatch walks you through stopping the water over the phone.
On site the order never changes, contain, diagnose, price, repair, and it is deliberate. A failure that is still flowing corrupts the diagnosis and adds damage by the second, so stopping the water first is what makes an accurate read possible. Nothing gets opened until you’ve seen the number.
Find the nearest shutoff, not the main
There is almost always a valve closer than the main: a fixture angle stop, the water-heater inlet, a hose bib, then the main, then the meter. Dispatch walks you down that hierarchy to the closest one, because the two minutes it saves is often a thousand dollars of drywall that never gets wet.
Cut the power when water and electricity meet
Water near outlets, a furnace, or a finished ceiling is the one case where speed waits for safety: we have you flip the breaker before we arrive. If a water heater is the source, gas off at the heater, electric off at the panel. Damage is recoverable, a charged circuit in standing water is not.
The truck rolls already stocked
It leaves carrying the parts the common failures actually need: angle stops, supply lines, PEX, heater fittings, wax rings, fill valves, cartridges, and a drain machine. A mid-emergency parts run means more hours of either an open wall or a house with its water shut off, so stocking ahead collapses most jobs into one trip.
Contain first, then diagnose
The first task on arrival is confirming the water is genuinely off and the failure has stopped spreading, because you cannot read pressure or trace a source accurately while a line is still flowing. Containing the scene is what freezes it long enough to identify the exact failed component, often within minutes on a burst line, longer on a drain backup.
The price before the wall opens
An emergency is exactly the moment a homeowner feels pushed to say just fix it, and that pressure is where people get overcharged. So before we cut, drill, snake, or replace, the written price is in your hand, after-hours rate, parts, and labor itemized. Fixing the number first removes the leverage the emergency would otherwise hand us.
Repair, test, and document
Supply repairs get a pressure test, drains a flow test, heater swaps a relief-valve and gas-pressure check. Then photos of the failed part and the new install, copied to you, and to your adjuster when a claim is in play, so the record is built while the evidence is still in front of us.
Most people wait too long. Water doesn't.
By the time a failure is impossible to ignore, it has usually been adding to the bill for a while. The thing holding you back from calling is almost always one of six, and the cost of waiting on any of them is the same: more water in more places.
Here is where we stand on each.
It's the middle of the night.
We run calls around the clock, and there is no wrong hour to reach us. The overnight window is our busiest for exactly this reason: failures happen while nobody is watching, so 2am gets the same truck and the same response as 2pm.
I'm not sure it's bad enough to call.
If water is moving somewhere it shouldn’t, it’s worth the call, because the thing that resolves the uncertainty is free: we’ll tell you honestly on the phone what has to happen now and what can wait until morning. Guessing wrong in the other direction is the expensive option.
I don't know where it's coming from.
You don’t need to. Locating the source is the first thing we do, not a prerequisite for calling. There is nothing to pull apart or diagnose before we arrive, the phone call is enough to get the truck moving.
I'm worried about the cost.
You get a clear written scope before anything is touched, and no work starts without your approval, whatever the hour. We price the job before opening the wall on purpose, so the emergency never becomes leverage over what you pay.
Someone else couldn't come out.
We can. A 60-minute response window holds any hour of the day or night, holidays included. Being the call people make after the first one fell through is a large part of what we do.
My insurance might cover this.
It might, and we’ll set the claim up to succeed either way: photos, a carrier-ready scope, and direct contact with your adjuster. Documenting it correctly from the first hour is what keeps a covered claim from stalling later.
Our thanks to Community Heroes.
A 5% discount (up to $200 off) for first responders, military, healthcare workers, teachers, seniors, and nonprofit staff in the communities we serve. Mention "Community Heroes" when you call; we’ll take care of the rest.
Applies to repairs over $500. Cannot be combined with other promotions. Proof of eligibility may be requested at the time of service.
Emergency plumbing in your city
We dispatch from offices across Southern California. Pick your city for local response times, neighborhoods, and the team that serves you.
What stands behind every emergency call.
Cali's Choice since
Family-run and serving Southern California homeowners around the clock since 2008.
Emergency calls answered
After-hours and same-day urgent dispatches handled across the region.
California License
C-36 Plumbing classification. Bonded and insured statewide.
Verified review average
Google reviews across emergency calls, brand-wide.
What homeowners say about our emergency calls.
Real reviews from after-hours and urgent calls, verified through our Google Business Profile.
I called multiple companies and no one would answer the phone. Cali's Choice did, and sent someone right away to fix a leak that burst in my kitchen. Sergio was amazing. Would definitely recommend to all my friends and family.
I had a plumbing problem on a Sunday night of a holiday weekend and had to turn off my water. I made a dozen calls before I found Cali's Choice. Sergio came out and solved the problem. He was professional and courteous. I can't thank them enough.
Thank you for coming out on such short notice. You went above and beyond my expectations. Such a positive experience during a stressful time. We will definitely use your services again if needed.
An emergency claim is won or lost on documentation.
On an emergency, the plumbing is usually the fast part. The claim is where the money is actually won or lost, because the carrier asks a homeowner, mid-crisis, to produce proof they never knew to capture and can’t recreate once the water is extracted and the failed part has been hauled off. A scope that arrives missing a detail gets sent back, and every week the file stalls is another week the damage sits in the walls.
So we treat the paperwork as part of the emergency itself, gathered while the evidence is still in front of us, then carry the claim the rest of the way. Not an invoice handed back to you with good luck attached: the file managed directly to your carrier from first photo to final approval.
- The coverage trigger, stated plainly. These claims turn on whether the loss was sudden and accidental, so that finding leads the file: what failed, when it let go, and the build year and pipe material behind it. Worded wrong, a covered loss can read as slow wear and tear, which is the single most common reason a claim like this gets denied.
- The proof, captured before it vanishes. The failed component, the standing water damage, and the meter pressure that drove the failure are all photographed and logged at the scene, because once the area is dried out and the part is gone, none of it can be reproduced for an adjuster who asks two weeks later.
- A scope built to be approved as written. The repair is itemized at the rate that actually applied, with the diagnostic reasoning attached, so there is nothing left for the carrier to bounce back for clarification. Handing it over in their format is what keeps the claim moving instead of cycling.
- One line to the carrier, and it is not yours. We deal with the adjuster directly, field the pushback, and resend whatever evidence they request, so you are not relaying technical questions between two parties while standing in a flooded house.
- The deeper fix put on the record now. When the emergency turns out to be a symptom of an aged run or a line under the slab, the recommended repipe or reroute is documented on this claim, so a follow-up repair cannot be denied later as a separate, unreported loss.
What an emergency call actually costs.
The honest answer is that no website can quote an emergency. The same midnight call might be a quick angle-stop swap at one end or a full water-heater replacement with code upgrades at the other, and which one it is depends entirely on what we find. What we can do is lay out exactly what moves the price, so the written estimate reads as logic when the tech hands you the tablet.
What moves an emergency call up or down
What actually failed
A failed angle stop or supply line sits at the quick-and-simple end. A burst length of in-wall copper is more involved. A water heater that has failed with sediment damage is more involved still. The opening minutes on site place your job on that range.
When the call comes in
There is a standard daytime rate, an evening rate, and an overnight-and-holiday rate. All three are posted on the tablet before you sign, so the timing is never a surprise line added after the fact.
How reachable the failure is
An exposed angle stop is fast. A pinhole behind a finished ceiling takes longer: the drywall has to be opened, the section replaced, and the patch is written into the quote rather than billed later.
Parts on the truck versus a parts run
The common emergency parts ride along, which is what makes same-trip repair the norm. The occasional exception, an unusual heater size or a non-stock cartridge, may need a daylight parts run that slows the timing without changing the labor scope.
Damage already done
If the failure soaked drywall, baseboards, or flooring before we arrived, the drying and rebuild is a separate scope handled by a sister company. We document it for your claim, but it stays off the plumbing invoice.
What makes a plumbing problem an emergency?
If water is escaping and you can’t shut it off, that’s the line. A split supply line, a heater emptying its tank, a drain pushing waste back into the house, a valve that won’t seat. The question we ask on the phone is whether the damage is still growing right now. A weeping faucet or a slow drip almost always keeps until morning, and we’ll say so plainly rather than send a truck you don’t need.
Do you answer the phone at 3am on a holiday?
Yes, every hour of every day, holidays included. The small hours are our heaviest stretch, because pipes tend to let go when nobody is awake to catch them early, so overnight and holiday calls are the ones we are built around. The clock changes nothing about the response.
Water is spraying. What should I do before you arrive?
Get it shut off at the closest valve, then call and we’ll guide you if you’re unsure which one. A fixture has its own stop beneath it, an appliance has an inlet, and behind those sit the house main and the curb meter. If the spray is anywhere near outlets or a light, trip the breaker before you go near it. Every minute the flow is off is floor that stays dry.
What if I can't find my main shutoff, or it won't turn?
Phone us and we’ll locate it together. It usually lives outside on the street-facing wall, often beside a hose bib. If it’s painted shut, seized, or simply gone, the curb meter closes with a standard key that every one of our trucks carries, and your water provider can shut it there too. There is always a way to stop the water.
Will you charge just to come out, or add a night surcharge?
Nothing to show up, and the diagnosis is free, you pay only if a repair gets done. Work in the evening, overnight, or on a holiday carries a higher labor rate, but it appears as its own line on the estimate you approve, never slipped in after. Daytime work is the standard rate.
My water heater just failed. Can you swap it the same day?
Nearly always. We stock the tank sizes most homes run, plus the service parts tankless units tend to need, so a same-day replacement is the usual result. The exceptions are oddities, a point-of-use heater or an indirect-fired setup, which can call for a part fetched the following day.
Why is sewage rising in my downstairs shower?
Because the blockage is in the main line leaving the house, not at that one fixture. Waste backs up at the lowest opening first, which is why a ground-floor shower or tub shows it before anything else does. Roots and hardened grease are the usual culprits. We clear it on the visit, run a camera down to confirm the cause, and tell you whether jetting or a bigger repair is what it genuinely needs.
Once the water's off, how do you pin down the leak?
That part is a leak detection job, and it comes second by design. Instead of opening walls to hunt, we follow the sound along the pipe and read a pressure gauge to fix the spot. When the failure turns out to be a line beneath the foundation, the lasting answer is slab leak repair, normally a fresh run carried overhead rather than a floor cut open.
Does homeowners insurance pay for any of this?
Usually the damage side is covered. Soaked drywall, flooring, and dry-out fall under the sudden-and-accidental water damage most HO-3 policies carry, while the pipe or appliance repair itself tends to land on you. We write up both halves so your adjuster isn’t left guessing, and we carry the claim paperwork from start to finish.
Do you take pool, irrigation, or gas-line calls?
No, those fall outside our trade. We’re a water and drain crew, so pool and spa equipment, sprinkler lines, and gas piping aren’t ours to work on. Burst supply lines, dead or leaking heaters, drain and sewer backups, and leaks hidden in the house are exactly what we do, and we’ll point you to the right specialist for the rest.
Plumbing emergency right now? We're 60 minutes away.
A 24-hour plumber: a tech, a stocked truck, and a written estimate before we touch a thing. If we can’t help, we’ll tell you who can.
Cali's Choice Leak Detection & Emergency Plumbing · CSLB #920054