What to do if a pipe burst and a flood in the apartment?

Troubles, as a rule, happen exactly when you least expect them, and problems with the water supply system in the apartment are taken by surprise. It’s not scary if a faucet has flowed or water is leaking from the toilet tank, but what if the pipe bursts? Who should I call, what actions should be the first, so that God doesn’t flood the neighbors below?

Where to call?

In the case when the torn pipe looks pretty impressive and the liquid pours out very quickly from it, filling the room, you cannot solve this problem yourself - you need to immediately call specialists. If there is another person nearby, then this is just fine, because as long as someone calls the professionals, you can at least somehow reduce the pressure and plug the gap.

• If such an event occurred on a weekday, then you need to call the housing maintenance service or just a housing office, their number can be found at the entrance of each house.
• If an emergency occurred on a weekend, then you should call the emergency service of the water utility, their number should be recorded in the phone’s notebook. If this is not the case, then you need to quickly use the directory. It’s better to always have a list of such necessary phones on hand, because you never know what might happen tomorrow. Forewarned is forearmed.

What should the owners do if they break a pipe?

Of course, specialists in the breakthrough will not be able to immediately be on the threshold of your house pipes, so before the plumbers arrive, you need to take some measures to reduce the amount of water in the apartment.

1. Firstly, the most important thing is not to raise a panic and not to run around the apartment headlong. At such a moment, it is necessary to be adequate and restrained, to give a report to each act.
2. Secondly, you need to substitute a container under the broken pipe so that the water does not pour on the floor and you do not flood the neighbors. This must be done before the plumbers call. Do not forget that the containers need to be emptied by pouring them into a bath or sink so that water does not pour over the edges.
3. Then it is necessary to shut off the water supply in the apartment or in the basement. The valves regulating the water supply are usually located in the same place as the meters controlling the volume of hot and cold water. It will be necessary to turn the desired valve all the way and check whether the water has stopped pouring. Usually, doing this manipulation in the basement, you turn off the water at the entire entrance.
4. After all these actions, it is necessary to collect all the water that was on the floor. You need to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible. Any rags will do, you need to do everything quickly.

Pipe sealing

After all the above steps, it is necessary to quickly close the hole in the pipe so that it does not leak, because when you turn off the water in the basement of an apartment building, you leave all the inhabitants of the entrance without it.

You can try to restore the tightness of the pipe yourself. To do this, do the following.

• With a piece of thick rubber (a bicycle camera is suitable), you need to wrap a hole, make it very tight to carefully tighten the leak.
• After this, you need to fix the piece of rubber with two screw clamps, screwing them all the way. No need to spare money, let your house always have 5 extra clamps, they are very cheap, but sometimes simply irreplaceable.
• After installing such a patch, you must rewind the leakage with a piece of dense fabric. This will help to keep the pressure for a couple of hours, this is just enough for specialists to come.
• You also need to go down to the neighbors below, see if you have flooded them, if this happened, then apologize and solve problems.

Who is to blame for breaking the pipe?

Who is to blame for breaking the pipe in the apartment? This is a very important and necessary question that appears immediately after the elimination of the flood problem. In the case when this happened in a private house, laying sewers is the owner's business. Accordingly, all the problems that may arise with the plumbing system fall solely on his shoulders.

If the breakthrough was in an apartment building, then several options are possible.

• If a pipe breaks from the riser to the first crane, then the managing organization that manages this house will be responsible for all this, in fact, all complaints must be addressed there.
• The rest of the pipes in the house are the problems of the residents. Therefore, you need to monitor the condition of the pipes, change them from time to time, clean and so on.
• If a problem arose with the heating system, then this is a completely different case - the management company should bear all responsibility if the tenant did not change anything in the system.

Now you know exactly what actions you need to take when breaking a pipe. To never such a case has overshadowed your life, you should regularly check the condition of the pipes. If they need to be repaired or replaced, then the managing organization must be notified. You also need to inspect the pipes that are installed in your home, if necessary, replace various parts. The presence of rust, sagging and other inconsistencies indicates that the pipe is in an unusable condition. You also need to inspect the valve in the basement - it is important that it functions correctly, easily unscrews and twists. After all, if an emergency does happen, then it will be necessary to quickly turn off the plumbing system.