We get a lot of calls to our hotline from people who are in a panic. Help! My water heater is leaking! What should I do? Can you fix it? This is a typical panicked caller who is shocked by what appears to be a very serious water heater leak.

If you fit into this niche of customers, then the first thing you need to do is calm down. Just because a leak looks bad does not mean it is bad. Water spreads very quickly and a small volume of water can go a long way. If you have ever spilled a glass of water on the floor then you will know that a single small glass of water can look like a flood once it has had a chance to spread across the floor. So don’t panic, what looks like the North Sea spreading across your upstairs landing might only be a buckets worth of water.

Now you have calmed down it is time to act. First of all you need to locate your main water valve. It is usually outside in the back garden for a house, or out in some form of communal landing in a small cupboard for an apartment bock. Locate it and turn it off. Now switch off your electricity, either trip the circuit breaker for the circuit your heating system is on, or turn off your home electricity supply completely at the main trip switch. Next you need to put something down to soak up the water and stop it spreading, anything will do, old clothes, the bedding from the dog basket, anything you can lay your hands on.

OK, you have now done everything you can to minimise the damage caused by your leaking water heater. The next task is to call us here at ADI and we can schedule an engineer to visit you.

At ADI Plumbing we provide plumbing Services throughout the South East – This blog post was written for you by our experienced Plumbers who provide Plumbing in Buckinghamshire, just a few of the services they provide are Plumbing in Woburn Sands, Plumbers Amersham and  Plumbers Aylesbury.