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An emergency is anything putting water where it should not be right now: a burst pipe, a supply line spraying inside a wall, a water heater dumping its tank in the garage, a sewer backup coming up through a tub, or any gas smell. Those get after-hours dispatch. Plenty of problems can wait for daytime rates and we will tell you so on the phone: a slow drain that still drains, a dripping faucet, a toilet that runs but does not overflow, a water heater that is lukewarm rather than leaking. If you can shut the water off at the fixture or the house valve and the problem stops, you have usually bought yourself until morning and saved the after-hours fee.

We give you an honest arrival window on the phone based on where the nearest plumber actually is, not a slogan. Central Phoenix is typically the shortest drive and the East Valley the longest, and traffic on I-10 or the 101 changes things at any hour. While you wait, shut the water off at the fixture's angle stop or at the house main, which in most Phoenix homes is at the front of the house near the hose bib where the service line comes out of the ground, often next to the pressure reducing valve. If that valve is stuck, the meter box near the curb is city property, so only use it if you can do so safely with a meter key or pliers.

Leave the building first. Do not flip switches, light anything or start a car in an attached garage. Once you are outside and away from the house, call the gas utility's emergency line; Southwest Gas serves most of the Phoenix area. They will shut off and make the service safe up to the meter. After that, call a licensed plumber for the house side of the meter, which is where leaks at appliance connectors, flex lines, old fittings and buried yard runs live. Gas leak detection and repair in Phoenix typically runs $300 to $1,500 including a pressure test and the permit. Never try to find or fix a gas leak yourself.

Stop the water, then start moving things. Shut the angle stop under the fixture if the leak is at a toilet or sink, or the house main at the front of the home if it is in a wall, ceiling or slab. If the water heater is the problem, turn off its cold supply valve and, for a gas unit, set the control to the pilot or off position. Then get furniture, rugs and boxes off wet floors and take photos of everything before you clean up; your insurer will want them along with the failed part and the plumber's written report. Standard Arizona homeowners policies cover sudden water discharge, so document first. Do not open walls or ceilings yourself.

A business-hours service call and diagnostic in Phoenix typically runs $89 to $189 and is credited toward the repair. After-hours, weekend or holiday emergency dispatch is $150 to $350, and we explain that number on the phone before anyone drives out. The repair itself is priced on top: an accessible burst pipe is $250 to $1,200, a main sewer line clearing $250 to $700, a water heater repair $150 to $700. These are typical Phoenix ranges, and the final price is quoted on site in writing before work starts. If the job can safely wait for daytime rates, we say so; paying the after-hours fee for a slow drain is a waste of your money.

Finding it comes first: electronic leak detection with acoustic, thermal and pressure testing runs $250 to $600. Then there are two ways to fix it. A spot repair through the slab, meaning jackhammer access, the pipe repair and a slab patch, typically costs $1,500 to $4,500. A reroute, where the failed line is abandoned and a new one run overhead through the attic and walls, runs $2,000 to $6,000 per line and avoids opening the floor. On post-tension slabs, common in Phoenix homes built from the 1990s on, the reroute is usually the only sensible choice. If a house has had two or three slab leaks, a whole-house repipe at $6,000 to $18,000 often makes more sense than a fourth repair.

Yes, and we tell you the number before dispatch rather than after. After-hours, weekend or holiday emergency dispatch in Phoenix typically runs $150 to $350 on top of the repair, compared with $89 to $189 for a business-hours service call that is credited toward the work. That difference is why we ask a few questions on the phone. If your problem is a drain that still drains, a toilet that runs, or a small drip you can stop at the angle stop, we will suggest a morning appointment and you keep the difference. If water is actively coming into the house or you have a sewer backup, the after-hours fee is money well spent.

Arizona's handyman exemption allows unlicensed work under $1,000 in labor and materials when no permit is required, and that is the gap some cheap emergency ads live in. The risk is that water heater replacement, repipes, sewer line replacement and gas work all require a permit from the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department or your city's equivalent, and an unlicensed operator cannot pull one. If the job goes wrong, you have no Registrar of Contractors recourse. A low quote can also mean a bare-minimum fix with no expansion tank, no permit and no written price. Ask for the ROC license number, check it at azroc.gov, and get the price in writing before the work starts.

The usual signs are a warm spot on the tile or carpet, a water bill that jumped with no change in habits, the sound of running water when everything is off, a meter dial that keeps moving with all fixtures closed, and damp baseboards or lifted flooring with no visible source. Phoenix homes from the 1960s through the 1990s often have copper supply run under the slab, and pinholes from hard water, abrasion at slab penetrations and electrolysis are the common causes. Flood-irrigated lots in Arcadia, Laveen and parts of Central Phoenix hide the symptoms longer because the ground is already wet. A slab leak is not usually a middle-of-the-night emergency if you can shut the house main, but it does not fix itself.

Grey polybutylene supply pipe was installed in many Phoenix-area homes built roughly 1978 to 1995, and it degrades as chlorine in the water attacks it, failing at fittings first and then along the runs. There is no way to inspect it into reliability, and the class-action settlement that once paid for replacement closed long ago. If you have polybutylene and no leaks yet, you can plan a repipe on your schedule at daytime rates rather than after a ceiling comes down. A whole-house repipe to PEX typically runs $6,000 to $18,000 for a 1,500 to 3,000 square foot home, including permit and drywall access but not paint. Until then, know where your main shut-off is.

Check the pressure reducing valve. Many Phoenix zones deliver street pressure above 80 psi, and the PRV near the main shut-off is what brings that down to a safe level for the house. PRVs wear out after roughly 10 to 15 years, and when one fails the full street pressure hits every fixture; washing machine hoses, toilet supply lines and water heater fittings are usually the first to go. Summer heat adds thermal expansion, which is why a closed system with a PRV or backflow device needs a working expansion tank. PRV replacement typically costs $350 to $900. A ten-dollar pressure gauge on a hose bib will tell you where you stand.

Yes. Wastewater coming up through the lowest fixture in the house means the main line is blocked and every flush or load of laundry makes it worse, so stop using water and call. Main sewer line clearing through the cleanout typically runs $250 to $700, and hydro jetting for grease, scale or heavy roots $400 to $900. After clearing we recommend a camera inspection at $200 to $500, often credited toward any repair, because in Phoenix the cause is usually roots in clay joints or a collapsed Orangeburg lateral in mid-century homes, and clearing alone does not fix a broken pipe. The lateral from your house to the city main is yours, not the city's.

Because the pipe is telling them where the water is. Clay laterals under mid-century Phoenix homes have joints every few feet, and cast iron and Orangeburg crack and deform with age. Ficus, mesquite, palo verde, mulberry and palms send roots straight to the moisture leaking from those joints, and on flood-irrigated lots in Arcadia, Laveen and parts of Central Phoenix the trees are even more aggressive. Cabling or jetting clears the roots but leaves the openings they came through. A sewer camera inspection shows whether you are looking at annual maintenance, a spot repair at $1,500 to $5,000, or a full replacement at $5,000 to $20,000 or more depending on length, depth and whether trenchless is an option.

In Phoenix that is most often a dry P-trap. Water in the trap under a guest shower, a floor drain or a rarely used tub evaporates fast in the heat, and once the trap is dry there is nothing between your bathroom and the sewer. Running water for a minute usually solves it, and pouring a cup of mineral oil on top slows the next evaporation. The other common cause is a failed wax ring under a toilet that rocks or has been reset badly; that lets gas and sometimes water escape at the floor. A toilet repair including a new wax ring typically runs $150 to $450. Neither is an after-hours emergency unless the smell is strong and sudden.

It depends where the water is coming from. If the tank itself is leaking, turn off the cold supply valve on top and the gas or breaker, and the flow will slow to what is left in the tank; that can wait for morning if the heater is in a garage or outdoor closet with a drain nearby. If it is in an interior utility closet next to finished floors, or the water is coming out fast and the supply valve will not close, call now. Tank water heaters in Phoenix commonly last 8 to 12 years, less with our hard water, and a leaking tank is not repairable. Replacement of a 40 to 50 gallon tank typically runs $1,400 to $3,500 with permit, expansion tank and code upgrades.

Two reasons: hard water and heat. Phoenix municipal water runs 10 to 17 grains per gallon depending on the blend of Salt River, Verde River and Colorado River water, which is classed very hard. Every gallon leaves scale in the tank, the sediment insulates the burner or elements, and the heater works harder for less hot water until a fitting or the tank gives out. Most Phoenix heaters also live in a garage or outdoor closet where summer temperatures run well above 110 degrees, which stresses the tank, the relief valve and the fittings. Annual flushing and a working expansion tank help. A water softener at $1,500 to $4,000 is the long-term fix for the scale.

Six regions across the Valley: Central Phoenix, including Downtown, Midtown, Willo and Coronado; East Phoenix, including Arcadia, Biltmore, Uptown and Paradise Valley Village; North Phoenix, including Sunnyslope, Moon Valley, Deer Valley and Desert Ridge; West Phoenix, including Maryvale, Alhambra, Estrella and Tolleson; South Phoenix, including South Mountain, Laveen, Ahwatukee and Central City South; and Scottsdale, Tempe and the East Valley, including Old Town Scottsdale, Tempe, Paradise Valley and Downtown Mesa. Each region page lists a typical travel estimate, and on the phone you get an honest arrival window based on where the nearest plumber actually is at that moment. If you are just outside these areas, ask; the answer is usually yes.

Yes, and it is one of the first things we ask. Inside Phoenix city limits the City of Phoenix Water Services Department supplies water and sewer, owns the meter and the main, and the customer owns everything on the house side of the meter. Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Glendale, Chandler and Peoria run their own water utilities, Tolleson is its own city, and most of the Town of Paradise Valley is served by EPCOR. Permits for water heater replacement, repipes, sewer line replacement and gas work go through the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department or the equivalent department in your city. The plumbing failures are the same everywhere in the Valley; the paperwork is not.

PHX Emergency Plumber connects you with independent licensed Arizona plumbers; the site itself does not hold a plumbing license. The plumber we put you in touch with gives you their Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC) license number on request before anyone comes out. You can verify any Arizona contractor's license status and complaint history at azroc.gov, and we encourage you to do that with the plumber we refer and with anyone else you are considering. Licensing matters in plumbing because water heater replacement, repipes, sewer line replacement and gas line work all require permits, and only a licensed contractor can pull them. The ROC also gives you a formal complaint process if a job goes wrong. Unlicensed operators working under the handyman exemption offer neither.

You get a written price on site before work starts, based on what the plumber actually finds, not a number guessed from a phone description. The ranges on this site are typical Phoenix ranges for 2026 so you can sanity-check a quote, not fixed prices. If something changes mid-job, for example a sewer camera shows a collapsed section behind the clog, or opening a wall reveals galvanized where we expected copper, the work stops and you get a revised written price before it continues. The business-hours service call fee of $89 to $189 is credited toward the repair, and if the honest answer is that the problem can wait for daytime rates, we will tell you that on the phone.