What counts as a plumbing emergency: rules for an after-hours line

Every plumbing company has an opinion about what is an emergency and what can wait until seven. The problem is that the opinion lives in the owner's head, so the phone either rings for everything or for nothing. Here is a rule set you can hand to an answering agent.

Ring me now

Active water that cannot be shut off. No water to the house. Sewage backing up. A gas smell (and the caller is told to leave the house and call the gas company or 911 first). No heat in winter if you do heating. Frozen pipes with a burst suspected. These transfer live to your phone or the tech on call.

Book it for the morning

A slow drain. A dripping tap. A running toilet that can be shut off at the valve. A water heater that is lukewarm. An estimate for a remodel or a new heater. These are taken with the details you want and filed, with a promised callback window the caller hears.

The questions that sort them

What is happening and where. How long it has been going on. Is the water shut off, and does the caller know where the valve is. Is anyone in danger. The address. The best number and time, read back. The agent asks these in your order and applies your list.

Why the rules belong in writing

Because the tech on call should not be woken for a dripping tap, and the homeowner with a burst pipe should never hear a voicemail. Workup Agent applies the list the same at 2am as at 2pm, logs every call with a transcript and sends you a daily log so you can tune the list after a month.