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Water damage emergency

Who should you call first when you find water damage?

Updated September 2026 · By the Mobile Phonebook editorial team · How we research pricing

The short answer. Shut the water off, then call a restoration company, then call your insurer. That order matters because mold can start inside 24 to 48 hours and drying is what stops the bill from growing. A typical restoration job runs about $3,868 nationally. If there is standing water near live power, call an electrician before you step in.

Standing in two inches of water with your phone in your hand is a bad time to be figuring out the order of operations. Here is the order, why it is that order, and the two calls people make too late. Start with the full water & fire damage restoration guide for how to pick someone in the first place. This page goes deep on one question.

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Who do you actually call first?

The first move is not a phone call at all. Find the main water shutoff and close it. If the water is coming from a supply line, a burst pipe, a water heater or a failed washing machine hose, that one turn of a valve does more for your final bill than anything else you will do today.

After the water stops, the call order below is what restoration pros and public health guidance both point at. It is built around one fact. Water damage gets more expensive by the hour, and insurance paperwork does not.

If your home flooded from outside, from a storm or a river or a sewer backup, skip ahead to the electrical section first. Entering a flooded building has its own rules and they come before everything else.

Order	Who you call	Why they come in that spot
0	Nobody, shut the water off	Free, instant, and it caps the size of the loss
1	An electrician or your utility	Only if water is near outlets, the panel, or you must cross standing water
2	A water damage restoration company	They extract and start drying, which is the clock that actually matters
3	Your insurance company	Claim line is open 24 hours, and the crew is already documenting for you
4	A plumber	Fixes the cause once the area is safe and dry enough to work in
5	A mold specialist	Only if it sat wet past 48 hours or it came back after drying

Call order compiled September 2026 from federal public health guidance on flooded homes, EPA moisture guidance and the water damage restoration standard. Your policy may name a preferred vendor, which changes step 2 and 3. Emergency and life safety situations always come first, call 911.

Why call the restoration company before the insurance company?

Because the damage keeps happening while you wait. EPA guidance is blunt about the window. If wet materials are dried within 24 to 48 hours, in most cases mold will not grow. Past that, you are no longer drying a house, you are remediating one, and that is a different and much larger invoice.

Your insurer is not going to show up with air movers. An adjuster schedules an inspection, and in a storm week that inspection can be days out. Meanwhile your policy almost certainly obliges you to mitigate, which means taking reasonable steps to stop the damage spreading. Calling a crew is you doing exactly that.

The other reason is documentation. A restoration company writes a moisture map, logs readings daily and photographs what they pull out. That is far better evidence than a homeowner with a phone camera, and adjusters read it in a format they already know.

Call the insurer the same day, just second. Most carriers run a 24 hour claim line, so this is usually a difference of an hour, not a day. We earn the same whoever answers the phone, so there is nothing in it for us either way. This is just the order that costs you less.

When do you call an electrician or 911 instead?

There is one situation where the restoration company is not the first call, and it is the situation people get wrong. Water and electricity in the same room is a life safety problem, not a property problem.

Federal guidance on reentering a flooded home is specific. Never turn power on or off yourself, and never use an electric tool or appliance, while standing in water. If you can reach the main breaker from a dry spot, shut it off. If you cannot reach it without wading, call an electrician to do it, even though that delays cleanup.

A few other stop signs worth knowing before you go in.

You smell gas, leave immediately, do not flip any switch, then call the gas company or the fire department from outside
The ceiling is bowing or sagging with trapped water, stay out from under it
The water is sewage or it came from a toilet trap or a septic line, that is contaminated water and needs a pro with the right gear
The house was closed up and wet for several days, assume there is mold before you walk in
You are running a generator or a gas pump, keep it outside and at least 20 feet from any door, window or vent

What does your insurance actually cover?

The single biggest surprise in a water claim is the word flood. A standard homeowners policy is built around sudden and accidental water from inside the house. Water that rises up from outside is a different product entirely, sold through the National Flood Insurance Program, and most homeowners and renters policies simply do not cover it.

The NFIP caps matter too. A residential building policy covers up to $250,000 of flood damage and a contents policy covers up to $100,000 for the things inside. Those are separate purchases with separate deductibles. There is also a 30 day waiting period before a new flood policy takes effect, which is why buying one after the forecast turns bad does nothing for you.

One more distinction that trips people. A sewer that backs up during a heavy rainstorm can be covered under flood insurance, while the same sewer backing up because of clogged pipes is not. The cause of the water decides the coverage, not the mess.

What happened	Usually paid by	Watch out for
Burst supply pipe, sudden	Homeowners policy	Gradual seepage over months is usually excluded
Water heater ruptures	Homeowners policy	The heater itself is often not covered, only the damage
Storm opens the roof, rain gets in	Homeowners policy	Deferred roof maintenance can be used to deny
River, storm surge, flash flood	NFIP flood policy only	30 day waiting period, $250,000 building cap
Sewer backup in a rainstorm	Flood policy, sometimes a rider	Clogged pipe backups are treated differently
Slow leak under a sink for a year	Usually nobody	This is the classic denied claim

Coverage summary compiled September 2026 from National Flood Insurance Program policy terms. Policies vary by carrier and by state, and endorsements can change any row here. Read your declarations page or call your agent before assuming anything on this table applies to you.

Do you still need a plumber?

Usually yes, and usually not first. The restoration company dries the building. They do not repair the pipe that caused it. If you call only a plumber, you get a fixed pipe and a wet house, and the wet house is the expensive half.

The exception is an active leak you cannot stop at the valve. If the main shutoff is seized, or the leak is upstream of your shutoff, the plumber is the one who stops the water and they go first.

If the source was an appliance, a washing machine hose or a dishwasher or a fridge line, an appliance tech or a handyman may be all you need on the repair side. The restoration crew will tell you which one after they open the wall.

When you don't need a pro at all

Not every wet floor is a claim. A clean water spill you caught fast, under roughly 10 square feet, on a hard surface, with no water in the wall cavity, is a shop vac and a fan and a weekend of watching it. Overflowing a bathtub onto tile is the classic version.

The test is whether the water got somewhere you cannot see. Carpet pad, subfloor, drywall bottom plate, insulation and cabinet toe kicks all hold water long after the surface looks dry. If you pressed a paper towel to the baseboard and it came up wet, you have a wall problem, not a floor problem.

Two more honest reasons to skip the call. If the loss is clearly smaller than your deductible, filing a claim can cost you more in premium than the repair. And if you have a wet spot with no ongoing source, no odor and it dries fully in a day, you are done. Save the money.

How do you avoid the storm chaser?

Every bad weather week brings people door knocking with a truck and a clipboard. Federal consumer protection guidance on post disaster fraud is consistent about the tells, and they are easy to remember because legitimate companies do the opposite.

The other check takes one minute. Water damage restoration has an actual industry standard, the ANSI and IICRC S500, and firms get certified against it. There is a public locator you can search by your city to confirm a firm holds certification before you sign anything.

They showed up at your door uninvited right after the storm
They want cash or a large payment before any work starts
The price is only good today, or your house will collapse before the next storm
They cannot give you a business address, a license number or proof of insurance
They hand you a contract that assigns your insurance benefits to them and they want it signed right now
Never pay in full until the work is finished and you are satisfied with it

What happens in the first 48 hours?

Knowing the shape of the job helps you tell a real crew from a slow one. A standard water loss follows the same arc almost everywhere, and the drying phase is the one that runs on physics rather than scheduling.

If a company tells you they will be done tomorrow, or they want to close the walls before the moisture meter reads dry, that is a company creating a mold claim for you six weeks from now.

Hour	What should be happening	Who is doing it
0 to 1	Water off, power made safe, photos taken	You, or an electrician
1 to 4	Crew arrives, extracts standing water, inspects	Restoration company
2 to 6	Claim opened, claim number issued	You and your insurer
4 to 24	Air movers and dehumidifiers set, wet materials removed	Restoration company
24 to 48	Daily moisture readings, drying verified	Restoration company
Day 3 to 5	Source repaired, structure confirmed dry	Plumber, then restoration
After dry	Rebuild, drywall, paint, flooring	Restoration or your own contractor

Timeline compiled September 2026 and reflects a typical clean water loss in one or two rooms. Category 3 contaminated water, multi floor losses and jobs waiting on an adjuster all run longer. Drying time depends on materials and humidity, not on the crew wanting to be finished.

Frequently asked questions

Who do you call first for water damage in your house?

Shut the water off yourself, then call a water damage restoration company, then call your insurance claim line. The restoration crew starts drying, which is the only thing that stops the damage growing. Your insurer cannot dry anything.

Should I call my insurance company before a restoration company?

No, call them second, usually within the same hour. Most policies require you to take reasonable steps to stop damage spreading, and hiring a crew is exactly that. Adjuster inspections can take days, and mold can start in 24 to 48 hours.

How long do I have before mold starts?

Roughly 24 to 48 hours. EPA guidance says wet materials dried inside that window usually will not grow mold. If your home was wet and closed up for several days, assume mold is already there and plan for remediation, not just drying.

Does homeowners insurance cover water damage?

It usually covers sudden and accidental water from inside the house, like a burst pipe or a ruptured water heater. It almost never covers flooding from outside or slow leaks that happened over months. Flood needs a separate NFIP policy.

Is it safe to go into a flooded basement?

Not until the power is off. Never turn a breaker on or off, or use any electric tool, while standing in water. If you cannot reach the main panel from a dry spot, call an electrician even though it delays cleanup.

What does water damage restoration cost?

About $3,868 nationally for a typical job, with most falling between roughly $1,400 and $6,400. Contaminated water, more rooms and longer drying times push it well past that. Our full cost breakdown has the by category numbers.

How do I know a restoration company is legitimate?

Look for certification against the ANSI and IICRC S500 water damage standard and check the public locator for your city. Then apply the basics. No uninvited door knockers, no large cash up front, and no paying in full before the work is done.

Where these numbers come from

Ranges on this page were compiled in September 2026 from the sources below plus our own 2026 cost index. They are planning figures, not quotes. Your market and your specific situation can land outside any range shown.

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