Urgent usually means water you cannot isolate, sewage inside the building, a suspected gas leak, or no water to the property at all. A drip, a slow drain or a noisy cistern can usually wait for an ordinary quote. The word “emergency” on its own does not tell a plumber which of those you have. The request should.
What to do while you decide who to call
Turn the water off at the meter or stop tap if you can do it safely, without standing in water and without reaching past a wet switchboard. If you are unsure, leave the tap alone. For a smell of gas, leave the building. Do not use switches or a phone inside. Call Triple Zero (000) if anyone is in danger or you cannot get out. If you are outside and the leak is the immediate problem rather than an injured person, use the gas emergency number on your bill. Do not re-enter to find the meter.
Do not open a sewer pit, do not work on the switchboard, and do not remove the cover of a hot water unit. Those are not make-safe steps for a householder. Making the area safe means keeping people away from sewage or from water near electricity, and stopping the supply only when you can do that without putting yourself in the water.
What this website will not do
PlumberQuotes does not dispatch emergency crews and does not promise a response time. The quote form asks a plumber to contact you. It is not a call-out button. If you already have a plumber who knows the property, call them. If you are using this form because you do not, say in the job details that water is still running or that sewage is inside, whether you have isolated the supply, and the best phone contact for the next few hours. A plumber cannot treat a request as urgent if it reads like a tap washer.
An after-hours visit to stop water is a different job from the repair the next day. If you know you need both, say so. If you only need the water stopped until morning, say that. Property managers should say who can approve the after-hours visit, how the plumber gets in, and whether a tenant is on site. The agency, not this website, arranges strata or owner approval if the building requires it.
What can wait
A tap that drips, a cistern that runs, a drain that is slow but not overflowing, and a hot water unit that is lukewarm are inconvenient. They are usually ordinary quotes. Describe them as they are. Calling them an emergency does not change what the plumber will see, and it can crowd out a job where sewage is on the floor.
Whoever attends should hold a current licence for that work, in that state or territory. Check the name on the quote against the public register. The registers are listed on the sources page. A request through PlumberQuotes is free to send and does not book the work. It also does not guarantee that a plumber can attend today.
Get a quote
PlumberQuotes introduces you to a local plumber. It is not a plumbing contractor, and it does not promise a time.