24 Hour Plumber in London: What to Do and Who to Call

Plumber inspecting a leaking kitchen pipe

If water is escaping, a drain has backed up or you can smell gas, you need a 24 hour plumber now, not on Monday. Turn off the water at the stopcock (or the gas at the meter if it is safe to reach it), make the area safe, then call an emergency plumber who can attend at any hour and will give you a fixed price before they start. For a suspected gas leak, ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 first.

This guide explains which problems justify a night-time callout, what to do in the minutes before help arrives, what a proper 24 hour plumbing service should cover, and how to check a plumber is qualified and fairly priced before you agree to anything.

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TL;DR

Call a 24 hour plumber for burst pipes, major leaks, overflowing or blocked drains and toilets, loss of all water, and boiler or gas faults. Anything involving a gas smell goes to 0800 111 999 first.
Before anyone arrives: shut off the incoming water, open cold taps to drain the system, switch off heating and immersion heaters, and keep water away from electrics.
Gas work must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Check the ID card and the register before they start.
Ask for a written, fixed price covering the scope of work, and check whether VAT is included.
We at Evo Plumbers answer 24/7 across London, quote a fixed price before work starts and use Gas Safe registered engineers.

When you genuinely need a 24 hour plumber
What to do before the plumber arrives
What a 24 hour plumbing service should cover
How to check a plumber before you let them in
Landlords: emergencies and gas safety
Why price is the question everyone asks
When an emergency repair points to bigger work
Our perspective: what we see on emergency callouts
Need a plumber now? How Evo Plumbers can help
FAQ
Sources

When you genuinely need a 24 hour plumber

Not every plumbing fault is an emergency. A dripping tap or a slow-running basin can wait for a daytime appointment. The test is simple: is the problem causing damage or danger that gets worse by the hour, and can you not contain it yourself?

Call a 24 hour emergency plumber when you have:

A burst or leaking pipe that you cannot stop by closing the stopcock, or water coming through a ceiling.
No water at all when the cause is inside your property, particularly in winter when frozen pipes can split as they thaw.
A blocked drain, toilet or manhole causing sewage to back up, overflow into the house or garden, or make a bathroom unusable.
A failed boiler or heating with no hot water, where children, elderly or unwell people are at home.
A suspected gas problem such as a smell of gas, after you have followed the gas emergency steps below.
Water near electrics, for example a leak running into a light fitting or consumer unit.

The urgent-repairs guidance from Sixpence Support treats water reaching electrical fittings, or a bulging ceiling, as dangerous. That is the point at which you stop trying to cope and make the call.

Who is responsible for which problem

Before you ring anyone, work out where the fault sits. The same guidance says owners should contact a plumber for problems with internal plumbing, renters should tell their landlord or managing agent, and problems on the public supply or outside your boundary belong to the water company. If you rent, an emergency call that your landlord has not authorised can lead to arguments about who pays, so tell them promptly, even if you have to leave a message at night.

What to do before the plumber arrives

The first ten minutes often decide whether you have a messy inconvenience or a ruined ceiling. The Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) sets out the steps to take in a plumbing emergency. In summary, for a burst pipe:

Turn off the incoming water supply. Find your stopcock now, before you need it. It is commonly under the kitchen sink, but in London flats it may be in a hallway cupboard, a utility area or shared with other flats.
Drain the pipework. Open the cold taps and flush the toilet if needed so the stored water clears from the system.
Leave the hot taps alone. CIPHE advises against turning them on.
Switch off the central heating and any electric immersion heater.
Then call a professional plumber.

CIPHE’s priority is controlling and draining the water safely before repair begins, and that is the right order. A plumber can fix the pipe, but only you can stop the flow in the first minutes.

Also move people and pets away from wet areas near sockets or appliances, and do not touch electrical equipment standing in water. Sixpence Support’s guidance also warns against unsafe DIY, so resist the urge to cut into a pipe or force a stuck valve.

Practical extras that help the engineer and your insurer:

Photograph the damage before you mop up.
Move furniture, rugs and electronics out of the wet area.
Put towels or a bucket under any ceiling bulge, and do not poke it unless you have somewhere for the water to go.
Note where the stopcock is and whether it turns freely, so you can tell the plumber when you call.

If you smell gas

Gas is different from water. Do not wait for a plumber. CIPHE’s guidance is to avoid flames and electrical appliances (including light switches), open doors and windows, keep people away, turn off the gas at the meter if you can reach it, and call 0800 111 999. Ofgem also tells householders to report a gas leak immediately to the network operator on that number.

The network operator makes the situation safe, and under Ofgem’s rules they must attend 97% of reported gas emergencies within one hour for uncontrolled escapes and two hours for controlled ones. Once the supply is safe, any repair to your pipework or appliances needs a Gas Safe registered engineer, which is where a 24 hour plumbing service with gas-qualified staff comes in.

What a 24 hour plumbing service should cover

A proper round-the-clock service is more than someone who picks up the phone at night. You want a business that can diagnose, make safe and, where possible, fix on the same visit. Typical emergency work includes:

Burst pipes and leaks: isolating the fault, repairing or replacing the damaged section and checking the surrounding pipework.
Leak detection: tracing hidden leaks under floors, behind walls or in heating pipework without ripping up half the house. Our leak detection service is built for exactly this.
Blocked drains and toilets: clearing the blockage and finding out why it happened. See our drain unblocking service.
Gas and boiler faults: safety checks, repairs and appliance work carried out by a registered engineer. More on our gas works.
Boiler replacement: when an emergency repair shows the boiler is beyond economic repair, boiler installation is the next step.
General repairs and installations: taps, valves, cylinders, radiators and the like, covered by our plumbing work service.

Speed matters, but be wary of anyone promising an exact arrival time before they know your postcode and the traffic. A trustworthy firm will tell you honestly how soon an engineer can reach you, and keep you informed if that changes.

How to check a plumber before you let them in

Emergencies are when people make poor hiring choices: you are stressed, it is dark and the first search result gets the call. Two minutes of checking protects you.

Gas work needs a Gas Safe registered engineer

The Health and Safety Executive states that gas work in homes must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer who is competent in the relevant category, and the competencies appear on the back of the engineer’s ID card. You can use the Gas Safe Register’s Find an Engineer and Check an Engineer services, verify the licence number and qualifications, or phone 0800 408 5500.

Citizens Advice is blunt on this: it is dangerous to use someone who is not qualified or legally allowed to do gas work. Ask to see the card when the engineer arrives, even if the firm told you on the phone that they are registered. Our engineers carry Gas Safe registration and are happy to be checked.

Ask for a fixed, written price

WaterSafe, the UK’s register of approved plumbers, says that apart from emergency work, you should normally receive a fixed written price before work starts, detailing the scope and the price. Its wider advice is useful even in a rush:

Ask for a quotation rather than an estimate.
Check whether VAT is included, because VAT can add 20% to the bill.
Where practical, compare at least three qualified plumbers.
Confirm what guarantees and warranties come with the work.

In a true emergency you may not be able to compare three firms at 2am. What you can do is ask three questions on the phone: what will you charge to attend, what happens if the job turns out to be bigger than expected, and will you confirm the price before you begin? A plumber who hesitates on those questions has told you something.

Citizens Advice also supports checking a trader’s qualifications and getting quotes in writing before home work begins. A text or email confirming the price counts.

Red flags at the door

No clear company name, or a vague answer about who will attend.
A price that changes once the work has started, with no written agreement.
Pressure to authorise a large job on the spot when the immediate problem is only a leak that could be isolated.
Gas work attempted by someone who cannot show a Gas Safe ID card.

Landlords: emergencies and gas safety

If you let out a property in England, a gas emergency is also a compliance matter. Local-authority guidance, such as Tower Hamlets Council’s summary of landlord duties, says landlords must:

arrange a gas safety check every 12 months through a Gas Safe registered engineer;
keep the record for two years;
give existing tenants a copy within 28 days, and new tenants a copy before they move in.

The practical lesson is to keep one trusted, registered engineer who knows your properties. When a tenant rings at midnight about a boiler that has gone out, you want a firm that can respond, make the appliance safe and document the visit. Our Gas Safe registered engineers cover gas works for landlords across London, and our fixed-price quotes mean you know the cost before it hits your books.

CIPHE also recommends servicing your boiler annually before the heating season to help keep the system safe, efficient and effective. A service in September or early October is cheaper in time and stress than a breakdown in the first cold snap.

Why price is the question everyone asks

Search for a 24 hour plumber and the questions that follow are nearly always about cost: what a callout costs, whether there is a minimum charge and why night work is dearer. These are fair questions, and the honest answer is that prices vary by firm, time of day, location and the nature of the fault. Out-of-hours work generally costs more than a weekday appointment because the plumber, the van and the support team are all working at unsociable hours.

What you can control is how clear the price is before work starts. Four things make the biggest difference:

What the attendance charge covers. Does it include the first hour, parts or only the visit?
Labour and materials. A fixed quote should state both, or state that the price is all-inclusive.
VAT. WaterSafe flags that it can add 20%, so ask whether the figure you were given includes it.
Guarantee. Ask what happens if the repair fails a week later.

We do not publish a price list, because a burst pipe in a Victorian terrace and a blocked drain in a basement flat are different jobs. What we do is quote a fixed price before work starts, so the bill you pay on completion is the bill you agreed.

When an emergency repair points to bigger work

Sometimes the repair is the symptom. If the same pipe has failed more than once, if you find corrosion or pinhole leaks in several places, or if a leak keeps returning after repair, the question becomes whether to keep patching or to replace a larger section of pipework. The same goes for a boiler that has failed repeatedly.

Things to weigh before deciding:

Age and condition of the pipework. A good engineer will show you the failed section and explain what they see.
Pattern of faults. One burst after a hard freeze is bad luck. Repeated leaks in different places suggest a system-wide problem.
Disruption. Replacing pipework can involve lifting floorboards and making good afterwards, so plan the timing.
Cost against repeat callouts. Ask for a quote for the wider work alongside the emergency fix, and compare it with the likely cost of further failures.
A second opinion. For anything beyond the emergency repair, take the written quote home and think about it. The emergency is fixed, so you no longer need to decide in a hurry.

A hidden leak is often the first clue. If you have damp patches, a meter that moves when everything is off or unexplained water on a floor, leak detection can locate the source before you commit to opening up walls.

Our perspective: what we see on emergency callouts

Most emergency calls to a London plumber share one feature: the customer did not know where the stopcock was. The single most valuable thing you can do today is find yours, check it turns and tell everyone in the household where it is. A seized stopcock turns a five-minute problem into an hour of flooding.

Homeowner checking the stopcock under a sink

The second is that people hesitate to ring for fear of an open-ended bill. That is why we quote a fixed price before work starts, and why we think any emergency plumber should. You should know what you are agreeing to before the first tool comes out of the van, even at night.

Third, gas is never a place to economise. We use Gas Safe registered engineers because the law requires it and because a badly fitted appliance can hurt people. If anyone offers to do gas work cheaply and cannot show their card, say no.

Finally, the best emergency is the one that never happens. Service your boiler before winter, lag exposed pipes, know your stopcock and keep a plumber’s number in your phone. If something does go wrong, we are on the line around the clock.

— the author

Need a plumber now? How Evo Plumbers can help

We are a London emergency plumbing service, answering 24/7 across all boroughs, including Camden, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing, Brent, Merton and Richmond. Our Gas Safe registered engineers handle burst pipes, blocked drains, leak detection, gas works and boiler installation, and every job is quoted at a fixed price before work begins.

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If water is escaping or a drain has failed, book our emergency call out now. For non-urgent jobs, you can also see everything we do on the Evo Plumbers homepage.

FAQ

What counts as a plumbing emergency?

Anything that is causing damage or danger that you cannot contain: a burst pipe, a major leak, sewage backing up, no water because of an internal fault, water near electrics, or a boiler or gas fault affecting vulnerable people. If you can close the stopcock and the problem stops, it may be able to wait for a daytime appointment. If you smell gas, ring 0800 111 999 first.

How much does a 24 hour plumber cost?

It depends on the firm, the time of day, your location and what is wrong, and out-of-hours work generally costs more than a weekday visit. Ask for a written fixed price before work starts, check whether VAT is included and confirm what the attendance charge covers. WaterSafe recommends a quotation rather than an estimate wherever you can get one.

Can a 24 hour plumber fix a gas leak?

Not as the first step. Report a suspected gas leak to the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999, open windows and doors and avoid flames and electrical switches. Once the supply is safe, repairs to your pipework or appliances must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, who will carry an ID card showing what they are qualified to do.

Who pays if I rent and a pipe bursts?

Tell your landlord or managing agent straight away, as guidance for renters advises, and take photographs of the damage. Who pays depends on the cause and your tenancy agreement, so avoid agreeing to major work yourself without checking. Take whatever steps you can to limit the damage, such as shutting off the water, in the meantime.

How do I check a plumber is genuine?

Ask for the company name, a written price and, for gas work, the Gas Safe ID card. You can check an engineer on the Gas Safe Register website or by calling 0800 408 5500. Check the competencies on the back of the card match the work you need done.