What a night call to us looks like
A person picks up, not a machine. Give us the street address, a gate or door code if there is one, and a short account of what you see. In Hidden Hills, where nearly the whole city sits behind guard gates run by the community association, let us know how the gate lets a visitor in. We come to your address from Canoga Park, so rather than promise an arrival time, the person on the line tells you honestly how the night is going. The plumber shows up ready to shut off the water or the gas at its source and to begin the repair right there.
Valley night calls follow a handful of patterns. A braided supply hose under a sink or behind a toilet gives way; LADWP disinfects with chloramines and notes that they slowly break down the rubber inside flexible hoses, so an old hose is a weak link. A pressure regulator wears out, and LADWP requires one wherever static pressure at the house tops 80 psi. A hot water line leaks beneath the floor and warms a strip of tile. Roots close off a lateral and sewage rises in the lowest tub. A tank fails in the garage or in an outdoor heater closet. Our first job is to stop the damage. Then you see the part that failed, and a written repair price sits in front of you before anything more happens.
The housing explains much of it. The Census counts about 457,900 housing units on the Valley side of Los Angeles; the median one dates from about 1968, 69 percent were built before 1980, and the 1950s were the busiest decade of all. Only 46 percent are detached single-family houses, while roughly 45 percent are in complexes of five units or more, where one leak can involve a neighbor, an owner and a manager, so we confirm the source before anything is opened. Many night calls end with the repair finished on that visit. If tonight's work can only be a stopgap, you hear that plainly, and the permanent repair gets its own written price.
Every call, day or night
- Work done under C-36 Plumbing license CSLB #1131308
- A real voice on the line at 2 a.m., on Sundays and on holidays
- A written price that you approve before the work begins
- Our written workmanship warranty on every repair we make
Times to use the emergency line
- A supply hose or angle stop has burst under a sink, a toilet or the washer
- Water is dripping through a ceiling or spreading across the floor
- One warm spot underfoot, or the meter dial creeping while nothing in the house runs
- Sewage is coming up into a tub, a shower or a floor drain
- The water heater is leaking from the tank or from its relief valve
- No water anywhere in the house, or a smell of gas (leave and phone SoCalGas before us)
A person takes the call
Tell us where you are, how to get past any gate and what the water is doing. A person takes it down, and a plumber sets out from Canoga Park to your door.
Water stopped, room protected
The plumber closes the correct valve, covers floors and furniture, and follows the water back to where it begins, whether that is a wall, a ceiling, the floor, the yard or the unit next door.
A written price comes first
The repair is priced on paper, and you give the go-ahead before a pipe is cut or a wall is opened. Daytime or the middle of the night, the sequence is identical.
Pressure tested and dried
With the fix in place, water service comes back on and every fresh joint has to stay dry at full pressure. Then the soaked area is dried before we go.
Why the Valley calls us when pipes fail at night
Night calls reach us in Canoga Park from every corner of Los Angeles County, and three habits travel with each of them.
24-hour emergency response, holidays included
A person answers the phone at any hour. On New Year's Eve, on a Sunday morning or on a Tuesday at 2 a.m., a plumber comes out to your address.
Common parts brought along
Angle stops, braided supply hoses, ball valves, pressure regulators, copper and PEX fittings and PVC come along on each call, so many night repairs end without a second visit.
One written price, approved by you
You approve a written price before work begins. If an opened wall shows more damage than anyone expected, we stop, write up the change and wait for your answer.
Why one emergency repair is bigger than another
Reach matters most. A split hose in the cabinet under a sink is easy to get at. A leak below a concrete floor has to be pinpointed before anything is broken, and after that you decide whether we cut into the floor right there or run a fresh line overhead through the attic. A pipe inside the wall of a condo or townhome may need the association, the manager or the neighbor to agree before anyone can reach it. Hillside homes south of Ventura Boulevard in Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks and Studio City, mostly built from the 1950s through the 1970s, can add steep yards and long runs of pipe.
Next comes what caused it. Patching one pinhole takes less than dealing with a line that has thinned from end to end, and that second case is where repiping comes up. When a regulator fails, full street pressure hits every hose, valve and the heater's relief valve downstream, so replacing the regulator is part of fixing the leak. A sewage backup usually points to the lateral, which in the City of Los Angeles belongs to the owner from the property line to the main, under the street included. Permits come with water heater swaps, sewer repairs and small gas piping jobs: in the City, LADBS issues them as Express Permits with no plan check, Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Malibu and Santa Clarita run their own permit desks, and Westlake Village permits through the County.
Whatever the hour, you get a single written estimate for the job, and nothing proceeds until you accept it.
Emergency calls from Canoga Park outward
We are based in Canoga Park, at the west end of the Valley. Emergency work reaches the Valley side of Los Angeles, the cities to its west and north, and the remainder of the county's 88 cities, and the person on the phone is straight with you about distance.
Canoga Park and the west Valley
The old Owensmouth core of Canoga Park, with about 250 homes built from 1913 to 1939, and the 1950s and 1960s ranch neighborhoods around it in Winnetka, West Hills, Woodland Hills, Reseda and Chatsworth.
The north, central and east Valley
Northridge, Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, Sylmar, Pacoima, Panorama City, Lake Balboa, North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks and Studio City: postwar tracts, apartment buildings and hillside homes, all on LADWP water and City sewers.
Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village
Guard-gated one-acre lots in Hidden Hills, homes from the 1980s in Calabasas, 1970s and 1980s tracts in Agoura Hills and the lakeside neighborhoods of Westlake Village, all supplied by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.
Malibu, Santa Clarita and the rest of the county
Malibu, where septic systems are the rule and District 29 brings the water, Santa Clarita's Valencia, Saugus, Newhall and Canyon Country, and every other city in the county. Long distances are described honestly on the call.
Night emergency answers
Every call to the emergency number reaches a person, on Thanksgiving as on any weekday. Nobody is told to leave a message and try again in the morning.
The wait depends on where the plumber is starting and how many calls are already open. The county stretches from Malibu to Lancaster, so instead of naming an arrival time we tell you plainly how things stand.
Holiday or ordinary Wednesday, the job gets a written price before anyone picks up a tool, and the work begins only with your agreement.
While you wait, close the main shutoff valve for the house. In the City, LADWP maintains the service line and the meter, and everything past the meter is the owner's; Westlake Village draws the same line at the meter. In a condo or apartment the valve may be in your unit or behind a door the building keeps locked. With gas in the air, the steps flip: everyone leaves, SoCalGas gets the first call from outside, and we get the second.
Our 24-hour emergency response is not only for houses. Roughly 45 percent of homes on the Valley side of Los Angeles sit in complexes of five units or more, and restaurant kitchens and other businesses count as well.
Drain Cleaning & Hydro Jetting
Clogs filmed with a camera, then cleared with a cable or a water jet.
Water Heater Repair & Installation
Tanks repaired or replaced, double strapped and permitted with your city.
Sewer Repair & Repiping
Owner laterals repaired out to the main, and worn supply pipe replaced.
Leak & Gas Leak Detection
Slab leaks and gas piping leaks located, repaired and pressure tested.
Any hour, any city in the county
Noon or midnight, the phone is picked up and a plumber heads from Canoga Park to your address, in the Valley or any other part of Los Angeles County.