Who to call first
- A burst water main, or sewage spilling in the street: Council. Its charter treats main breaks and dry weather sewer overflows as emergencies.
- Sewage backing up inside or overflowing in your yard: Council first, as its charter asks. It will say whether you need a plumber.
- A burst pipe after the meter: shut the meter tap, then a plumber. Pipes from the meter connection to the house are the owner's.
- A leaking water meter or water seeping onto the nature strip: Council, though its charter ranks these below emergencies.
- A gas smell: leave the house and call 000. Our gas leak page has the steps.
- Floodwater coming into the home: the SES, which Council's stormwater page points people to.
A burst pipe on your side
Close the meter tap
Meters are usually in line with the front boundary. Turning the meter tap off stops water reaching the house.
Make the hot water unit safe
If water is near it, switch it off at the switchboard or turn off its gas.
Photograph the damage
Pictures of the leak and anything it has soaked help with insurance and with the plumber's quote.
Book the repair
Council's charter puts every pipe and fitting from the meter connection, garden taps and the hot water service included, on the owner's side.
Emergencies the Central Coast way
Vacuum sewers
Some parts of the network use vacuum sewer systems, and Council's charter lists their failure as urgent. If yours stops working, the call is to Council, not a plumber.
Storm runoff
Council says its climate and topography make stormwater flooding a common problem. Gosford's records average 14.3 days a year with 25 mm or more of rain.
Outages that look like faults
Check Council's interruptions map before calling anyone about low pressure. During an outage, Council suggests leaving water-dependent appliances alone and opening cold taps slowly when supply returns.
Freezing mornings at Gosford
Gosford's records, 1965 to 2013, average 2.6 days a year at or below freezing. Norah Head has no days at 2°C or below on average.
Urgent doesn't mean unlicensed
Council normally wants a notice of work two days before a plumber starts, but NSW exempts emergency work, so an urgent repair can begin at once. The certificate of compliance still follows once the work is finished, and you get a copy.
The person contracting for the job needs an NSW contractor licence, whatever the job costs, and their ads must show the licensee's name and licence number. A quick search on the NSW Public Register before you agree to more than making things safe is worth the minute it takes.
What we would do
Find your meter tap and overflow gully before anything goes wrong. When it does, stop the water, then sort the problem by owner: Council for its mains, the sewer and the meter, the SES for floodwater, and a licensed plumber for pipes on your side. Ask the plumber to make it safe tonight and quote anything bigger in daylight, once you've had time to check their licence.