Emergency Plumber across North West London

Is it an emergency, or can it wait until tomorrow?

It is an emergency if water is escaping and no local valve stops it, if it is reaching electrics or a ceiling, if there is no water at all, or if the only toilet is out of action. A cylinder leaking from its body counts too. A dripping tap, a slow-filling cistern or a joint weeping into a bowl can wait for a booked repair. That costs you less. It also keeps the same-day slot free for someone whose ceiling is coming down.

What to do in the next ten minutes

The first ten minutes decide how much damage you end up with, and most of that is about isolating the water. This order works for most homes.

• Close the stopcock. Look under the kitchen sink, under the stairs or by the front door; in a flat, try the airing cupboard. Turn it clockwise
• If only one fitting is leaking, find the small isolating valve on its feed pipe. A quarter turn with a flat screwdriver stops just that fitting
• Drain the pipes: open the cold taps and flush the toilets. A loft tank keeps feeding the hot side after the stopcock is shut, so open the hot taps too
• Once you drain hot water, switch off the boiler and any immersion heater
• If water is near lights, sockets or the consumer unit, switch off at the main switch only if you can reach it from somewhere dry
• Photograph the leak and the damage before you clear up

Why we are not a 24-hour plumber, and what to do out of hours

We attend emergencies the same day from 8:00 to 18:00 on weekdays and 9:00 to 16:30 on Saturdays. On Sundays we take emergency calls only. There is no overnight service, and no call centre pretending otherwise. Most night-time leaks stop once the water is isolated. A plumber who arrives at 2am to a leak you have already shut off can rarely do more than you did.

The merchants are shut, so the permanent parts are not available. What matters overnight is that the water stays off and the house stays safe. If something happens after we close, this is who to call.

• No water, or water rising in the street: Affinity Water, which supplies most of our area, lists 0345 357 2407 for supply issues, 24/7. If another company bills you, use its number
• You smell gas: call the gas emergency number, 0800 111 999, open doors and windows, and turn the gas off at the meter if you know how
• Your insurer: many policies include a home emergency helpline. Find the number in your policy now, not at 1am
• You rent: ring your landlord or agent's emergency number. Licence conditions for HMOs and selectively licensed homes commonly require landlords to give tenants one
• Then WhatsApp us on 07534 813123 with photos, so the job is waiting when we open

A burst pipe: what happens when we arrive

We isolate and drain that section, cut out the damaged length and replace it in copper or plastic. Then we restore the water and check the repair, and every joint we disturbed, under full pressure. We also look for why it burst. Pipes in lofts, garages, outside walls and under suspended floors split in hard frosts, and a repair in the same cold spot will split again unless it is lagged or rerouted.

A summer burst points elsewhere: corrosion, an old joint, or a nail from earlier building work. You get photographs of the failed section, which is what an insurer usually wants.

No water at all: is it your pipe, the street or the stopcock?

Start with the neighbours. If they have no water either, the problem is in the public network, and it is Affinity Water's job, not a plumber's. Its 24-hour line is the right call. If only your property is dry, check the stopcock is fully open. Someone may have half-closed it, and old stopcocks sometimes jam with the jumper stuck down. In cold weather a frozen supply pipe is the next suspect, especially where it rises through an outside wall or a garage.

If the ground outside is wet or the meter is spinning with every tap shut, the supply pipe between the boundary and the house has probably failed. That pipe belongs to the property owner, and we can trace and replace it.

An overflowing toilet or a leaking hot water cylinder

A cistern that keeps filling and spills from its overflow or into the pan has a failed fill valve or washer. Close the isolating valve on its feed and the leak stops; the part is usually on the van. A blocked toilet is an emergency when it is the only one in the house, and we treat it as one then. A leaking hot water cylinder needs a closer look. A weep from a fitting can often be remade.

A copper cylinder leaking from its body is at the end of its life, and patching it only buys a few weeks. If the cylinder is unvented (a sealed, mains-pressure unit) and water is running from the small discharge pipe near it, a safety valve is releasing. Switch off the boiler and the immersion heater, leave the safety valves alone and phone us.

Tenant, landlord or leaseholder: who arranges the repair?

In most rented homes in England the landlord must keep the installations for water, sanitation and hot water in repair and proper working order. That duty comes from section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and it covers the pipes, basins, sinks, baths and toilets. The tenant's part is to report the problem quickly, to turn the water off if they safely can, and to give access. Where a tenant caused the damage, for example by flushing wipes, the tenancy agreement usually decides what can be recharged.

In a block of flats, a leak from a shared riser or another flat is often the freeholder's or the neighbour's problem. We make the water safe either way, then put in writing which side of the line the fault sits on. Agents and portfolio landlords can have us on a monthly account.

What decides the cost of an emergency call-out?

Mostly time on site, and what the fault turns out to be. A split pipe under a kitchen sink is quick to reach and quick to fix. The same split under a floor or behind tiles takes far longer, because most of the time goes on reaching it. Parts matter too: a fill valve is on the van, a cylinder has to be ordered.

Sometimes the right answer is a make-safe today and a planned repair later, such as capping a pipe so the rest of the house has water until a part arrives. We give you the cost of each stage on site, before doing either. A controlled parking zone, a concierge block or a hard-to-reach loft also add time.

Certificates and defined jobs are a fixed price confirmed before we attend; repairs are charged by the hour, with the rate and an estimate confirmed before we attend.

Where we attend emergencies

From 6 Station Parade on Kenton Lane we cover Harrow, Kenton, Stanmore and Edgware, plus Wembley, Kingsbury, Queensbury, Pinner, Wealdstone, Hatch End, Harrow Weald, Mill Hill, Burnt Oak, Colindale, Hendon, Northwood, Ruislip, Eastcote, Bushey and Northolt. Much of this area is interwar housing, and that shapes the emergencies.

Many houses still have a loft tank feeding a cylinder, so a burst on the hot side keeps running after the stopcock is shut. Affinity Water supplies Harrow and parts of Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Enfield, so its 24-hour line is the one to save in your phone.

Plumbing by area: Plumbers in Harrow, Plumbers in Kenton, Plumbers in Stanmore, Plumbers in Edgware, Plumbers in Bushey, Plumbers in Colindale, Plumbers in Hendon, Plumbers in Mill Hill, Plumbers in Northolt, Plumbers in Northwood, Plumbers in Pinner, Plumbers in Ruislip and Plumbers in Wembley.

What we will not do

We do not offer a 24-hour or overnight service, and we will not take a booking we cannot keep. We do not service, repair or install boilers; if the emergency is a boiler fault, you need a Gas Safe registered engineer, and if you smell gas, call 0800 111 999 first. Leaks from a roof, a gutter or a flat roof are roofing work and we will point you to a roofer.

We do not carry out CCTV drain surveys, and we do not investigate damp. If a leak has caused damp that will not dry out, we tell you once the plumbing is fixed so you can get the right specialist in.

Why people trust us

• Repairs tested before we leave, and the area left clean
• A walk-in office on Kenton Lane, not a serviced address
• We diagnose first and tell you what we have found before doing more
• A time slot rather than a morning-or-afternoon window
• Work photographed before and after, and reported
• We tell you when you do not need something we sell

We are building a review profile under this name and would rather show you none than borrow someone else's. Ask us for references from landlords and we will put you in touch.

Official sources

• legislation.gov.uk: Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11 (repairing obligations)
• Affinity Water: Prepare your home for winter (24-hour emergency line)
• Affinity Water: Leakage information, who is responsible for which pipe
• legislation.gov.uk: Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, Schedule 2 (stopvalves)
• HSE: Gas safety in the home, frequently asked questions (gas emergency number)

Last reviewed October 2026 by EliteShires Property Services.