What to Do When a Pipe Bursts

By the Emergency Plumber Chandler team · Updated September 2026

Shut the Water Off First

Everything else can wait. A supply line under pressure keeps pushing water into the house until someone closes a valve, and the difference between two minutes and twenty is the difference between a wet floor and replaced flooring, baseboards and cabinet bases.

In most Chandler homes the main shutoff is on the supply line where it enters the house at the front, often near a hose bib, or in the garage close to the water softener loop. Turn it clockwise until it stops. If the valve is stiff or will not move, go to the meter box near the curb, lift the lid carefully and close the valve there. Once the main is off, open a faucet at the lowest point in the house to drain the pressure out of the lines.

If you do not know where your valve is, the best time to find out is today, not during the emergency. Walk the front of the house and the garage wall and look for the point where the supply comes in. Check that the handle turns.

Keep Away From Water and Power

Water on a floor near outlets, an electrical panel, a washer or the water heater is not something to walk into. If water has reached any of those, stay out of the room and turn the power off at the panel only if you can reach it dry and from a dry spot. If you cannot, leave it and say so when you call.

Do not try to patch a pressurized line with tape or a clamp while the water is on, and do not open a hot water line that is still hot. Closing the valve and waiting is safer than any temporary repair.

Slow the Damage While You Wait

Once the water is off, the job is limiting what stays wet. Move furniture, boxes and anything with a fabric or cardboard base off the wet floor. Lift curtains and rugs. Open interior doors and closets so air can move, and if the weather allows, turn the air conditioning on, because moving dry air across wet surfaces helps.

Take photographs before you move things and again once the floor is clear. Note the time you found it and the time the water went off. Those details are genuinely useful later, whether or not an insurer is involved.

Leave wet drywall and baseboards where they are. Deciding what has to come out is part of the assessment, and pulling at a soaked wall usually makes the repair larger rather than smaller.

Why Pipes Fail in Chandler Homes

Freezing is not the usual reason here. In the Valley, supply line failures are more often about the material and the water. Copper lines, especially those running under the slab, develop pinholes over the years as hard water works on them from the inside. Homes built from the 1980s into the mid-1990s may still have polybutylene supply piping, which becomes brittle and tends to fail more than once.

Newer homes with PEX rarely split in the middle of a run, but fittings, valves and appliance connections still let go. Braided supply lines behind a toilet or under a sink, the line to an ice maker and a water heater connector in a hot garage are all common failure points. None of them announce themselves in advance.

What to Tell the Plumber

A short, specific description saves everyone time. Say where the water appeared, whether it is still running with the main off, which fixtures still work, and whether the water is hot or cold. Mention the approximate age of the house and the pipe material if you know it.

Say whether the water has reached anything electrical, whether anyone is in the property and how access works, including gates and community entries. If the house has been empty, say how long it may have been running, because that changes what has to be checked afterward.

Plumbing Across the Chandler Area

Chandler grew quickly through the 1990s and 2000s, so a large share of local homes share the same construction: slab-on-grade, a water heater in the garage and supply lines that are now decades into their working life. Hard water from the Valley supply is the common thread that wears them all down, whether it shows up as scale in a heater or a pinhole in a copper line.

The same pattern runs through the neighboring communities, from the planned neighborhoods of Gilbert to the newer subdivisions further southeast. What changes is the age of the housing and the pipe material that went into it, which is why the age of your home is one of the first questions you will be asked.

Arrange an Inspection

Once the water is off and the area is safe, the next step is finding the break and understanding what the repair involves. Emergency Plumber Chandler can trace the failure and quote the work, whether it turns out to be a section of burst pipe repair or something under the floor that needs slab leak repair.

If nothing is visible but the meter keeps moving, start with leak detection instead. When you are ready, request a visit and describe what you found, and ask for the scope and the price in writing before any work is approved.