Table of Contents
The first ten minutes, in order
If water is escaping right now, do these in order and read the rest afterwards. Each step is explained further down. IHR Dream Cleaning's plumbing service repairs leaks across Abu Dhabi, and urgent leaks can often be scheduled the same day. The steps below keep the damage small until a plumber is at the door.
- Stop the water. Close the small valve on the pipe feeding the leaking fixture. If you cannot find it, cannot reach it or it does not hold, close the main valve for the home.
- Keep away from wet electrics. Do not touch sockets, switches, extension leads or appliances that are wet or standing in water. Switch off the affected circuits at the distribution board only if the board is dry and you can reach it without stepping in water.
- Switch off the water heater at its wall switch, if the switch is dry, whenever the leak is on the hot side or near the heater, or you have closed the main valve.
- Release what is left in the pipes. With the main valve closed, open a cold tap at a basin or sink to drain the pressure. In a villa with a tank or a pump, those have to be isolated as well.
- Catch and contain. Buckets under drips, towels across doorways, a plastic sheet over what cannot be moved.
- Move what water ruins: electronics, documents, rugs, anything on the floor of a wardrobe. Keep people out from under a ceiling that is sagging.
- Tell building security or management if you live in a tower, and straight away if water is coming from above or going below.
- Photograph and film the source and the damage before you clear up.
- Call a plumber and say that it is an active leak.
Step one: stopping the water
Every minute a pressurised pipe is open adds to what has to be dried, repaired and repainted later, so the valve comes before everything except personal safety. There are usually two levels of valve in a home, and it is worth knowing both before the day you need them. We ask about the main valve when you book any plumbing job for the same reason: the work needs access to it.
| Where the water is coming from | Valve to close | Where it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| Basin tap, hose or under-sink pipe | The angle valves under the basin | On the wall below it, hot and cold |
| Toilet cistern or bidet spray | The angle valve beside the toilet | Low on the wall next to the pan |
| Washing machine or dishwasher hose | The appliance tap | Behind or beside the machine |
| Water heater | The heater's cold inlet valve | On the pipe into the heater |
| Inside a wall, floor or ceiling | The main valve | See the notes below |
| The flat above | None of yours | Call building security |
The small valves at each fixture
Under most basins and beside most toilets there is a small chrome valve where the flexible hose meets the wall. Turn the handle clockwise until it stops. Some have a quarter-turn lever or a slot for a coin: in line with the pipe is open, across it is closed. These valves often go years without being touched and can be stiff. Use firm hand pressure only. If one will not move, or keeps weeping when closed, leave it and go to the main valve. Forcing a seized valve can snap it and turn a leak into a flood.
The main valve in an apartment
Apartments differ, so treat this as where to look and not as a rule. Common places are a service cupboard on the corridor outside the flat, next to the water meter; inside the flat near the entrance, sometimes behind an access panel in the false ceiling or in a utility cupboard; and under the kitchen sink. Some flats also have a separate valve for each bathroom and for the kitchen.
If the corridor cupboard is locked, building security or maintenance holds the key, which is one more reason to call them early. If you do not know where your valve is, ask the building's maintenance team this week and label it.
The main valve in a villa
In a villa the main valve is normally close to the water meter, in a box at the boundary wall or near the gate, often with a second valve where the supply enters the house. Many villas also store water: a ground tank with a pump, a roof tank, or both. Closing the valve at the meter stops water coming in from the street, but a full tank can go on feeding the leak, by gravity from the roof or through the pump. So the pump is switched off at its isolator, and the valve on the pipe leaving the tank is closed as well. Garden taps and irrigation usually have their own valve.
Step two: electricity and water
Water carries current, and a leak finds electrics quickly: a socket on a wet wall, an extension lead on a wet floor, a ceiling light filling from above, a washing machine standing in a puddle. Do not touch any of them while they are wet, and do not walk through standing water in a room where something is plugged in at floor level.
The distribution board is the place to make things safe, on two conditions: the board itself is dry, and you can stand on a dry floor to reach it. If both are true, switch off the breakers for the affected rooms, or the main switch if you are unsure which they are. A wall light switch is not isolation. If water is coming through a ceiling near a light, the lighting circuit goes off at the board.
If the board is wet, if water is running down the wall it is mounted on, or if you would have to stand in water to reach it, do not touch it. Leave that part of the home, keep everyone else out, and tell building security or your electricity supplier's emergency line. If anyone is in danger, call the emergency services.
A breaker that has tripped by itself during the leak is doing its job. Do not keep resetting it. Leave it off, and leave every socket, light and appliance that got wet switched off and unplugged until an electrician has checked them, even after they look dry. Checking sockets, switches and breakers is part of our electrical service, and what a tripping breaker is telling you is explained in tripping breakers, flickering lights and warm sockets.
Step three: the water heater
There are two reasons to switch the heater off at its wall switch. If the heater itself is leaking, it is an electrical appliance full of very hot water. And if the leak is draining the hot side, a storage heater can be left heating with too little water in it, which damages the element.
Switch it off, close the valve on its cold inlet if you can reach it without going under the leak, and stay clear of the hot water and of the small relief valve and its pipe. If the heater is above a false ceiling that is staining or sagging, keep out from under it. What can be repaired, and when a heater should be replaced, is covered in water heater not heating or leaking.
Step four: release what is left in the pipes
Closing a valve stops new water arriving, but the pipes between the valve and the leak are still full and still under pressure. With the main valve closed, open a cold tap at the lowest basin or sink and leave it open until it stops running. That drains the pressure and most of the water left in the pipes, so the leak slows to a dribble and stops.
Then leave the valve closed. Do not open it again to see whether the leak is still there. If the escaping water is hot, keep hands and children well away from it.
Steps five and six: contain the water and protect what matters
With the water off and the electrics safe, the emergency is over and the job becomes limiting damage. Water keeps spreading for a while after the valve is closed, under skirting boards and along tile joints, so work from the edge of the wet area inwards.
- Lift rugs and carpets off the floor first. A wet rug marks the floor beneath it, and dyes can run onto marble and pale tiles.
- Unplug, at a dry socket, and move electronics, chargers and extension leads that are near the water but not yet wet.
- Empty the bottom of wardrobes and cupboards on the affected wall. Chipboard swells within hours and does not go back.
- Slip a piece of foil or plastic under the legs of wooden furniture you cannot move, so they do not soak up water and stain.
- Mop and towel up standing water. Use a wet-and-dry vacuum if you have one. Never use an ordinary household vacuum cleaner, which is not built for water and is an electric-shock risk.
- Open the internal doors and run the AC to start drying the room, once you are sure no wet electrics are on that circuit.
Water coming through a ceiling
Put a bucket under the drip and move everything from beneath the stain. If the water is coming from the flat above, you cannot stop it yourself: call security and ask them to reach that flat or isolate the riser. A false ceiling is gypsum board, which goes soft and heavy when it is soaked, and it may be carrying light fittings and cables. If it is bulging or sagging, keep everyone out from under it and switch the lighting circuit off at the board. Do not push it up, and do not pierce it to let the water out. Leave the decision about the board to the people who repair it, which with us is gypsum and false ceiling work.
Step seven: tell the building
In a tower, a leak is rarely one flat's business. Water goes down through the slab to the neighbours below, and the source may be a pipe in a shared riser or the flat above. Security or the management office can do things you cannot: isolate a riser, contact or enter another flat, send the building's own maintenance team for common pipework, and tell the flats below to move their belongings. Call them as soon as your valve is closed, and at once if the water is coming from above.
They will also need to let the plumber in. Many towers ask for visitors to be registered and for tradespeople to use the service lift, and where work touches shared plumbing the building may need to approve it or isolate the supply first. Arranging this while you wait saves time at the door. The guide to visitor registration, service lifts and parking in Abu Dhabi towers explains what buildings usually ask for.
In a villa community, a leak on the street side of your meter, in the road, the pavement or the meter box, is one to report to your water supplier or the community management, not to dig at yourself.
Step eight: record it before you clear up
Five minutes with a phone now saves arguments later, whoever ends up paying for the repair. Who that is depends on your tenancy contract, on the building's rules and on which pipe failed, so do not assume, and do not let the question delay the first seven steps.
- A wide photo of each affected room, then close-ups of the source if you can see it.
- A short video with sound while water is still flowing, if it is safe to take one.
- The water meter reading and the time.
- Damaged furniture, flooring and belongings, before they are moved out.
- The failed part itself. Ask the plumber to leave the old hose, valve or fitting with you.
- An email to the landlord or agent and to building management, sent the same day with the photos attached, so there is a dated record.
Step nine: calling an emergency plumber in Abu Dhabi
Phone; do not send a message and wait. Say first that it is an active leak, then give the details below. A plumber who knows what failed can bring the right parts.
- Whether the water is now stopped, and which valve you closed.
- Where the leak is and what is leaking: a hose, a valve, a pipe in the wall, the heater, the ceiling.
- Whether the water is hot or cold.
- Apartment or villa, the building and floor, and how the plumber gets in.
- Whether any electrics got wet.
- Whether the home is rented, since some repairs need the landlord's confirmation.
- A photo or a short video, sent after the call.
How IHR handles an urgent leak
We treat active leaks and burst pipes as a priority, and they can often be scheduled the same day where a technician is available. We do not promise an arrival time we cannot be sure of, and we are open every day from 8 AM – 8 PM, not through the night. For anything urgent, phone +971 52 723 5299. An urgent visit costs the same as one booked a week ahead: there is no emergency surcharge, no call-out fee and no extra charge on Fridays or public holidays.
The visit is priced from AED 99, which covers one plumber for the first hour on site. Once the plumber has found the fault, the parts and any longer work are confirmed with you before the repair starts, and any replacement part is shown and priced before it is fitted. Payment is online by card, from My bookings on this website once the price is confirmed. After the repair the plumber checks for leaks and correct pressure, runs the water with you, checks the joints for drips and shows you the part that failed.
If it happens at night
A leak at two in the morning is handled the same way, and the first eight steps do not need a plumber. With the main valve closed, the wet circuits off and building security informed, a home is safe until morning even though it has no water. In many towers, security can reach the building's duty maintenance for anything on the common pipework. Then book the repair for the start of the day.
While you wait, and the days after
Do not try to repair the pipe. Do not tighten, tape or glue a failed joint and then turn the water back on. A joint that has failed once will fail again under pressure, usually when nobody is home. Leave the valve that isolates the leak closed until the plumber has seen it, even if that means not flushing a toilet or finishing a wash.
Keep drying the room. Leave cupboard doors open, pull furniture a hand's width away from wet walls and keep the AC running. Damp plaster, gypsum and chipboard grow mould within days in a closed, humid room, and they dry far faster with moving air.
Do not paint over the stain the following week. The wall or ceiling has to dry right through first, or the new paint blisters. The order of the repairs is set out in water stain on the ceiling or peeling paint: what to fix first.
Why pipes and fittings fail in Abu Dhabi homes
Pipes do not freeze here, so the failures are different from the ones cold-country guides describe. Knowing them tells you what to look at before anything bursts.
- Flexible hoses. The braided connectors under basins and behind toilets and bidet sprays age from the inside, and the steel braid rusts in a damp bathroom. A hose with rust spots or a bulge is close to failing.
- Angle valves and old fittings. In established buildings, valves and joints that have not been touched for years corrode and weep.
- Heat. Pipes and tanks on a roof or in an outside wall get very hot in summer. Plastic expands and contracts every day, and exposed plastic is weakened by sunlight over the years.
- Pressure changes. When a building's pumps restart after an interruption, or a villa pump cycles hard, weak joints are tested.
- Water heaters. A storage tank that has corroded inside leaks from the bottom, often onto a false ceiling.
- Appliance hoses. Washing-machine and dishwasher inlet hoses are under pressure for as long as the tap behind the machine is open.
- Empty homes. A hose that fails while the home is closed for a summer trip runs until someone notices, and that may be the neighbour below.
Ten minutes of preparation, before anything happens
Everything in the first section is quicker if you have done these once.
- Find the main valve and every fixture valve, and show everyone in the household, including domestic staff.
- Turn each valve closed and open again twice a year so that it does not seize.
- Find the distribution board and check that the breakers are labelled by room.
- Look at every flexible hose once a year and have any with rust, bulges or kinks replaced. A yearly check of mixers, hoses and under-sink joints catches slow leaks before they damage cabinets.
- Before you travel, close the main valve, switch the water heater off and close the washing-machine tap.
- Keep a torch, a bucket and old towels where you can find them in the dark.
- Save the numbers for building security, the management office and your plumber in your phone.
The leak that is not an emergency yet
A bill that climbs, a stain that grows or the sound of water in a quiet house are the slow version of the same problem, and they give you time to deal with it calmly. The signs, and a meter test you can do yourself, are in hidden water leak: signs to look for and how a leak is found.
Common questions
Do I need to close the main valve for a small drip?
No, if the fixture's own valve stops it and a bucket contains what is left. Closing the main is for a leak you cannot isolate, cannot find or cannot keep up with. If you are going out or going to bed before it is repaired, close the main as well. A drip that is steady at ten at night can be a spray by morning.
I cannot find the main valve, or it will not turn. What now?
In a tower, tell building security or maintenance at once and ask them to isolate your flat. In a villa, switch off the pump, which takes the pressure off everything it feeds, and call your water supplier's emergency line about the supply at the meter. Meanwhile contain the water with buckets and towels and keep the electrics safe.
Is it safe to stay in the home?
Usually, once the water is off and the wet circuits are isolated. Stay out of any room where water reached sockets or appliances until they have been checked, and out from under a soaked ceiling. If the distribution board itself got wet, or you smell burning, leave and get help.
Can I use the water again before the plumber comes?
If the leak was at one fixture and its own valve holds, yes: the rest of the home can have its water back. If you closed the main because the leak is in a wall, a floor or somewhere you cannot isolate, leave it closed until the repair is done.
How long does the repair take?
Our service page gives 30 to 60 minutes on site for a single tap or fitting repair. A pipe inside a wall or above a ceiling takes longer, because it has to be reached and the opening made good, and the plumber tells you what is involved before starting.
When the water is off: booking the repair
Once the home is safe, book the repair. Phone for an active leak. For a leak that is contained, book on the website or in the IHR Dream app and reply to the confirmation email with the photos you took. The plumbing service page sets out what is covered and how the visit runs, and you can book a visit for a time that suits you.
