First three minutes: stop the damage
If a pipe just burst in your home, every minute costs hundreds of dollars in water damage. Skip the panic — here's exactly what to do, in order. We'll get into the why later.
1. Find your main water shut-off and turn it clockwise to close. In most Vancouver and Lower Mainland homes it's near the front of the house — inside a basement closet, near the water meter, or in a small concrete box outside near the property line. If you don't know where yours is, find it now and label it. You'll thank yourself.
2. Open a hot-water tap on the lowest level of the house to relieve pressure in the system. This drains the line and stops residual water from continuing to flood the burst location.
3. If the burst is near electrical outlets or appliances, flip the breaker for that area. Water and electricity is the actual emergency — pipe damage is just expensive.
4. Call us. (604) 870-1442 is answered live, 24/7. Tell us the address, where the burst is, and roughly how much flooding has happened. We'll dispatch the closest crew with the right parts.
Why pipes burst in the Lower Mainland
Vancouver's climate is mild compared to the Prairies, but a few cold snaps every winter catch homeowners off-guard. Pipes most likely to burst here:
Crawlspace runs in detached homes — often poorly insulated and exposed to outside air through vents. When the temperature drops below -5°C for more than a few hours, water inside expands as it freezes and the pipe ruptures at its weakest point.
Exterior hose-bib supply lines — if you didn't disconnect the garden hose in fall, water sits in the pipe and freezes back into the wall.
Aging galvanized supply lines in pre-1980s homes — even without freezing, internal corrosion can fail a pipe at a fitting. We see this most often in older Surrey, Burnaby, and Vancouver East homes.
Pipes hidden in north-facing exterior walls — slab-on-grade or concrete construction insulates poorly along that face. A hard cold snap freezes them solid.
What we do when we arrive
We diagnose first: where the burst is, how much of the line needs replacing, and whether other vulnerable runs in the house are at risk of going next. Big-job-side jobs like a full repipe get a free written estimate at no charge — no call-out fee. The repair itself is quoted on site after the diagnosis, and you approve the price before any work starts.
Most burst-pipe repairs in the Lower Mainland take 1–3 hours: cut out the failed section, replace with copper or PEX (we'll explain the trade-off), pressure-test the line, and pop a clean wall patch back so it's ready to drywall over. We don't leave until water flows everywhere it should and nothing leaks.
Preventing the next one
If you've had one burst pipe in your home, you're more likely to have another — same vulnerable runs, same conditions. Things we recommend after every burst-pipe repair:
Insulate exposed runs in crawlspaces and exterior walls. We carry foam pipe insulation on the truck and can do it during the repair visit.
Disconnect outdoor hoses every October. Frost-free hose bibs protect themselves; non-frost-free ones don't.
Set the home thermostat no lower than 12°C (54°F) when you're away in winter. Below that and ambient temperatures in unheated cavities can drop below freezing.
Know where your main shut-off is. Test it once a year — they seize up if they're never used, which means the one time you need it, it won't turn.
If you've had multiple bursts, the pattern is usually structural — old supply lines, poor insulation, or a vulnerable plumbing run that needs rerouting. We can scope the whole system and quote a permanent fix instead of patching the symptom.
Call (604) 870-1442 any time. We answer live, we dispatch fast, and we quote up front before any work starts.