Water Damage Emergency Guides

Every guide in this section is written for someone who is standing in it right now — water moving across a floor, a ceiling sagging, a pipe that will not stop. They open with the thing to do first, not with background.

The sequence barely changes between emergencies. Stop the water at the main. Kill power to the affected area if the panel can be reached safely. Photograph everything before a single item moves, because that two minutes is worth more to a claim than anything else done that day. Then lift what can be lifted off wet flooring.

What does change is the detail: a toilet overflow is a different contamination category from a burst supply line, a water heater in a garage sends water toward the house rather than the driveway, and a ceiling holding water is a safety problem before it is a restoration one. Each guide covers the specifics for its own failure.