How to stop a leak until the plumber arrives

Waking up in the middle of the night with water running when it shouldn't or coming home from work to find your bathroom has flooded is scary. When this happens, you'll probably immediately be on the phone with a plumbing company to ask someone for the leak repair in Colombes.

But what if they can't get out for a few hours or maybe even until the next morning? What do you do when you have a leak but the plumber won't be around for a while? Here are some tips for stopping the leak until a plumber can fix your pipe.

Close the main water valve

This one is the most obvious one, but during a plumbing emergencyYou may not think about it even though there is a lot of water leaking in your house. So if possible, turn off the water. 

While this means you won't be able to use any other faucets, you may be able to avoid further damage, especially if it's a major leak. It's important to know how to turn off the water in your home, so before it becomes a problem, you need to familiarize yourself with turning off the water in your home.

Get a pipe wrap to repair a leaking pipe

Pipe wraps are not a permanent solution if you have a leaking pipe, but they can help prevent water from causing further damage to your home until a plumber can arrive and provide a permanent solution. 

You can purchase pipe tape at your local home improvement store. These wraps are suitable for both leaks at pipe joints and leaks in the middle of pipes. The wrap is made of fiberglass, which is wrapped tightly around the pipe. 

Then, when the hose is wet, the wrap will shrink and harden to the hose as it dries, causing the leak to stop. These wraps can last a few days, up to a few weeks if necessary. But again, they are not intended to be a permanent solution.

Use epoxy

Epoxy is a very strong glue that can help stop a leak. Keeping plumber's epoxy in your home repair kit, especially if you don't have a pipe wrap, is always a great idea. To use it, simply turn off the water and wipe down the area of the pipe around the leak. 

Then mix the epoxy in two parts and apply it to the area. If you have plumber's tape in your home, you can wrap it over the epoxy for good measure. 

It can take up to 24 hours for the epoxy to fully cure, so it's a good idea to leave the water off for a while just to make sure the glue is completely dry and that water won't run around it.

Use plumbing tape on water pipes

Plumbing tape is made of silicone and can be especially useful if the leak is at the joint of two pipes. If you use repair tape, you must first turn off the water and wipe the pipe to make sure the tape sticks to it. 

If the leak is small, like a pinhole, you can wrap several layers around the area. If it's a seam, you'll need to wrap the seam on both sides to make sure you've covered the area. 

Repair tape will only last a few days, so it's only recommended to use it if you know for sure that a plumber will arrive on a certain day, otherwise you may end up with water leaking through the tape.

It is important to remember that all of these solutions are really only temporary solutions and that you should call a master plumber to repair the leak permanently so as not to cause more damage to your home in the long run.