Do You Really Need an Emergency Plumber on the Weekend? Here's How to Decide

Saturday morning. There is a problem with the plumbing. Your initial reaction: Is this something that can be put off to Monday? So this is an honest ecosystem a plumbing contractor offers in order to make that accomplish.

It’s Saturday morning. You see the toilet is running all the time. Or the hot water doesn’t heat up as much as it should. Or, there’s a trickle that drips under the kitchen sink. The weekend is coming and you need to find out which way you’d like to go, do you call the plumber now, pay the weekend rate, or wait until Monday, pay the regular rate?

I will tell you what the majority of plumbing websites will not: For most plumbing problems on a weekend, it is ok to call us on Monday. It is money in your pocket and doesn’t affect the result. This is not the case in every scenario, however, as there are specific situations where more damages, more cost and more risk can be created by waiting than paying the premium on the weekend. But how to distinguish them can be determined.

Wait Until Monday: These Can All Hold

A dripping tap. Spending a weekend with a fast drip is ‘waste of water’ and ‘waste of money’ but will not destroy anything. Place a cup/bowl beneath it and telephone on Monday morning.

A running toilet. The cistern valve is faulty and water is going round and round. But rather a nuisance and a waste that is not damaging. Usually you can generally fix it for a short period of time by turning the isolation valve located behind your toilet clockwise. Call Monday.

Low water pressure. The only diagnostic problem that is best done outside of business hours is a reduced reading, unless it is zero reading, which is indicative of a burst main. Monday.

A slow-draining fixture. When it is only one fixture, one sink, one shower, then the clog is local and partial. Do not put chemicals in it. Simply alternate fixtures, and call Monday.

No hot water, only heated by healthy adults. If all members of the household are healthy adults, with the capacity to come and go over the weekend without boiling a kettle and taking a cold shower, it’s an annoyance but not a medical crisis. Call Monday. Exception: If your house has infants, elderly residents or someone who is ill, it’s more urgent.

Call Now: These Can't Wait

Gas smell. Never wait. Not for an hour. Not until Monday. After the footy. Gas builds up, gas starts to burn, gas can cause death. Call immediately.

Large water leak or broken pipe. Running water can cause damage every hour. Stop the water and dial 911. The weekend premium is a small amount of the water damage you will receive over the weekend.

Sewage backup. Raw sewage inside the house is a health hazard. It’s not like it gets better on the weekend, it gets worse. The bacteria continues to grow, the odor becomes stronger and the contamination spreads. Call now.

Complete loss of water supply. When Sydney Water has no outage in your region, and you are not getting any water, then the water supply line has become defective. Water is necessary for two days – that is no toilet, no handwashing, no cooking. That’s not tenable. Call now.

An inescapable leak. If a bucket is set under the drip and the bucket is emptied every 30 minutes, the leak is too large to be passively controlled. It will cost less today for a plumber to come for 2 hours than it will in two days of water damage.

The Grey Zone: Saturday Afternoon Judgment Calls

A leak beneath the sink that you’ve patched on using a bucket. If it’s trickle drip and the bucket is controlling it then you can wait till Monday. However, make sure to check on the bucket often, even overnight. Even if the drip seems to be under control at 2pm, a bucket may overflow at 4am when you’re at sleep.

Very slowly draining blocked drain. If the waste is still going down, but at a slower pace, you should be able to survive the weekend by minimizing the use of that drain. However, if it completely stops draining or sewage begins to back up, it has turned from an inconvenient situation into an emergency.

Leaks from the bottom of a hot water heater. If it is a slow leak and if the system is situated in an area where the water will cause no damage, such as a garage or outside on a slab, the water to the unit can be turned off and time allowed for it to empty. However, when installed within the home, above timber flooring or in a cupboard above a space with high usage, a Saturday contact may be warranted to help prevent the damages from building up over the weekend.

What the Weekend Premium Actually Costs

For most Sydney plumbing firms, the propensity charge for work on weekends is about 30% to 50% greater than the normal okay. On a $400 job, that’s an extra $120 to $200. Now it’s money, and if it’s not an emergency then it’s money you should save.

But appraise it in comparison. Water damage from a leak you thought it was “monitoring” over the weekend can result in many thousands of dollars in water damage to your floors, mould remediation and structural drying. The $150 weekend insurance premium, on any Saturday morning call-out, is the lowest insurance you can ever purchase on protecting yourself against disaster Sunday morning.

The decision making process is straightforward: May I be able to stop water safely? Can I prevent the leak? Does the situation represent a risk to the health of any person? Wait until Monday if possible and there isn’t anyone in danger or risk to stop it or contain it. If any of those answers is no, call now. The weekend premium is provisioned in cases of “waiting is more expensive than calling”.