Water escaping now
Emergency leak detection in the Phoenix valley
If water is getting out right now, the first job is not finding the leak. It is stopping the water. Here is the order to do things in, starting with the valve.
Right now, in this order
Stop the water first
Everything else — the cause, the repair, the paperwork — waits. This does not.
- Shut the water off. On most Valley houses there are two places to stop the water. The first is the angle valve in the meter box out by the footpath or the alley — a rectangular lid, usually marked for water, with the meter and a valve beside it. Some of those valves need a meter key rather than a hand. The second is the house shut-off, generally on the outside wall where the supply comes up, often near a hose bib on the street-facing side. Find both on a calm day and mark them, because the afternoon you actually need one is the worst possible afternoon to go looking.
- If it is the pool, turn the equipment off. Kill the pump at the switch or the breaker, and close the auto-fill so it stops feeding the loss. A pool losing water is not an emergency for the house, but the equipment running dry is bad for the equipment.
- If it is irrigation, shut the controller and the irrigation valve. Turning the controller off does not always stop a valve that has failed open. The shut-off upstream of the valves does.
- Get what you can off the floor. Anything wet that can be moved or lifted now is something you will not be dealing with later.
- Photograph it before anything is moved or opened. Wide shots first, then close-ups. Phones record the time, and that timestamp is worth having.
- Do not cut into a slab, a wall or a pool deck to look. Opening concrete on a guess makes the repair bigger and the leak harder to locate. A post-tension slab must not be cut without proper assessment.
- Then call or text us. Tell us what you shut off and what the water is doing now.
Being honest about timing
We do not publish arrival windows
Plenty of businesses advertise how fast they turn up. We would rather tell you the truth when you ring: it depends on the day, the traffic and what is already booked. Call and we will tell you honestly when we can get to you, and if someone else can get there sooner we will say so.
What reduces the damage is not a promise on a website. It is the valve in your meter box, found and closed in the first few minutes — which is why the top of this page is about the shut-off rather than about us.
Is this actually urgent?
What each situation needs
| What you are seeing | How urgent | What to do first |
|---|---|---|
| Water running visibly and you cannot stop it | Now | Close the meter-box valve or the house shut-off, then call. |
| Warm floor, damp carpet at a wall, water heard running | Today | Shut the water off, photograph it, call. Do not cut the slab. |
| A wet patch in the yard that will not dry | Soon | Turn the irrigation off, see whether it persists, then call. |
| Pool dropping faster than the bucket | It will not stop on its own | Close the auto-fill, run the test both ways, then call. |
| Bill jumped, nothing visible | Worth starting now | Run the meter test with everything off, then call. |
When we get there
Locate first, open once
A leak that has already made a mess is still a locating problem. Water travels along pipe, along rebar and across the underside of a slab, so where it surfaces is often nowhere near where it is escaping — and Valley soils make that worse, because clay, caliche and other hardpan sit at fairly shallow depth across much of the metro and push water sideways.
So the work is pressure testing to prove which line is failing, acoustic listening, thermal imaging, dye and line tracing. Then the opening is made in one place, for a reason. A slab leak located to a foot is a small repair; the same leak guessed at is a large one.
If you are on a flood-irrigated lot
Past the delivery gate, the pipe is yours. Salt River Project’s responsibility ends at that gate, and the ditches, standpipes, valves and buried laterals beyond it belong to the property owner, along with the responsibility for keeping the water on the property. A standpipe or lateral losing water is exactly the sort of call we take.
Straight answers
Urgent questions
Where is the main water shut-off?
There are usually two. One is the angle valve beside the meter in the box in the ground near the footpath or the alley, which sometimes needs a meter key. The other is on the outside wall of the house where the supply comes up, often near a hose bib. Find both before you need them and mark them.
How quickly can you get here?
We will tell you honestly when you call, and we do not publish arrival windows because the truthful answer depends on the day. What makes the biggest difference to the damage is closing the shut-off in the first few minutes.
Should I cut the wall or the slab to find it?
No. Opening a surface on a guess usually makes the repair larger, and a post-tension slab must not be cut without proper assessment.
My pool is losing water fast. Is that an emergency?
It is rarely an emergency for the building, but it does not stop on its own and it can undermine soil under decking and coping. Close the auto-fill so the loss is not being hidden, turn the equipment off, and call.
Is it a leak or just condensation?
Both are possible, and telling them apart from a photograph is genuinely difficult. A leak usually gets worse, stays wet in dry conditions and shows on the meter with everything off. Condensation tends to follow the weather and the air conditioning.
What we bring to an urgent call
Tell us what the water is doing right now
If you have shut the water off, say so — and say where it was coming from. A photo helps more than a paragraph.
Water still getting out?
Close the valve first, then call. Tell us what you shut off and what you can see, and we will tell you honestly what happens next.
5.0 on Google
What customers in the Phoenix valley have written. The words are theirs, on listings we cannot edit.
“Humberto has been amazing! Prompt, professional, and patient. He has gone above and beyond, taking the time to show me how to operate the water valves and educating me so I can continue to monitor for future leaks. He identified multiple leaks and made thoughtful recommendations.”
“Beto was very professional, thorough and patient in explaining everything he was doing and why. It was an excellent and well worth it experience, and this is saying something for an architect who had a hundred questions!”
“The owner and operator of this company is everything a contractor should be. On time, honest, competent, reachable, comprehensive. Hope to work with him again in the future.”