- The test is simple: does waiting make it worse, or make it dangerous?
- Uncontrolled water, heat or smell from electrics, an open property, a lockout, no heat for the vulnerable: call.
- A gas smell is not a tradesman's job first; leave and ring 0800 111 999.
- Drips, slow drains, misted glass and stiff locks can wait, and cost less in daylight.
- You are told the callout price before anyone is dispatched, whatever the trade or hour.
At two in the morning, most problems feel like emergencies. Some of them are. This guide is for the moment when you are standing in a kitchen or a hallway in Manchester, wondering whether to ring someone now or wait until it is light. We run a 24-hour line across several trades, so we have a reasonable view of what turns up at that hour and what genuinely needed us.
What counts as an emergency
The honest test is whether waiting makes it worse, or makes it dangerous. By that test, these are emergencies:
- Water you cannot stop: a burst pipe, a leaking tank, a cylinder or a boiler dumping water, or a ceiling that is bulging and dripping.
- A roof leak in heavy rain with water reaching electrics or coming through in volume.
- Electrical faults that involve heat, smell or smoke: a burning smell from a socket or the consumer unit, or lights and sockets that keep failing and will not reset.
- Any broken window or forced door that leaves the property open, particularly at ground level.
- Being locked out, or locked in, especially with a child, a pet or a cooker involved.
- No heating in cold weather when someone in the house is elderly, very young or unwell.
If you smell gas, that is not a job for a tradesman first. Leave the property, do not use switches, and call the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999. Call us afterwards for the repair.
These are usually not emergencies, and you will pay less by waiting: a dripping tap, a slow drain, a misted window, a door that locks but stiffly, a single socket that has stopped working, a boiler with no hot water in summer. We will still come out at night if you want us to, but we will tell you on the phone that it can wait, and what the difference in price is.
What to do first, before you ring anyone
Water: find the stopcock and turn it off. Open the cold taps to drain the pipes. Move belongings and keep away from electrics. Our guide on what to do when a pipe bursts has the detail.
Electrics: stop using whatever is warm or smells. Do not open the consumer unit. If there is smoke or flame, call 999 before anything else.
Glass and doors: keep people and pets away from broken glass. Photograph the damage before you clear it. If it was a break-in, call the police on 101 or 999 first and do not touch the point of entry.
Roof: buckets under drips, belongings out of the way, and stay off the roof.
None of these involve repairing anything. They are about stopping the damage growing while help is on the way.
What a callout involves
When you ring our emergency line, a person answers. We ask what is happening, where you are, and whether anyone is at risk. We tell you what to do in the meantime if there is something useful you can do. Then we tell you the callout price, before an engineer is dispatched. That is a fixed commitment across every trade we run: the figure you are given on the phone is the figure for the callout, and any parts or additional work are quoted before they happen.
Out-of-hours callouts cost more than daytime visits, and we say so on the pricing page. We do not claim that a plumber at 2am costs the same as a plumber at 2pm, because it does not, and companies that claim otherwise are recovering it somewhere else.
The engineer who arrives is one of ours, in uniform, in a marked van, with identification. In the priority areas we cover, which run from the city centre out through Didsbury, Chorlton and Sale to Altrincham, Hale and Wilmslow, arrival is typically within the hour. Further out, we tell you a realistic time rather than an optimistic one.
The first job on arrival is to make things safe: stop the water, isolate the circuit, board the opening, open the door. Then we assess whether a permanent repair is possible there and then, which it usually is for plumbing, locks and single glazing, or whether it needs parts or daylight, which is usually the case for sealed units and roofs. Either way you are left secure and dry, with a written record of what was done.
One number for every trade
The reason we run several trades under one name is that emergencies do not respect trade boundaries. A burst pipe becomes an electrical problem when it reaches the lights. A break-in needs a locksmith and a glazier. A roof leak needs a roofer and, once it is dry, a decorator. Ringing one number that can send the right person, or two people, is simpler at 2am than working out who to call for which part.
The six emergency services we run around the clock are the emergency plumber, the emergency electrician, the emergency locksmith, the emergency glazier, emergency boarding up and emergency roof leak response. If you are not sure which you need, ring 07343 065023 and describe the problem. Working that out is our job, not yours.
Stop and call if waiting would make the problem worse or dangerous; for gas, fire or intruders, ring the emergency services first.
Call 07343 065023
