The First Hour: What to Do When You Find Water in Your Home

You just stepped in it. Literally. Water where water should not be, and your brain is doing the thing where it wants to solve everything at once. Here is the order of operations, tuned for how homes in the 209 actually fail.

Minute 0-5: Stop the source

Fixture leak (toilet, sink, washer): turn the angle stop valve behind or under the fixture clockwise until it stops.
Unknown source or major flow: shut off the whole house at the main. In most Valley homes that is a valve near the front hose bib, in the garage, or at the meter box by the sidewalk. If the meter box valve needs a tool, adjustable pliers work.
Water heater: close the cold inlet valve on top of the tank. If the tank itself failed, also shut off gas (valve to “off”) or the breaker for electric units.
Rising water from outside: you cannot shut off a storm. Skip to safety.

Minute 5-10: Kill the electricity in the wet zone

Water near outlets, cords, or fixtures is a shock hazard. Flip the breakers for affected rooms. If water is dripping through a ceiling light fixture, that circuit goes off before anything else, and do not touch the fixture.

If the panel itself is in a flooded garage and you would be standing in water to reach it, do not. Call PG&E or wait for the crew.

Minute 10-20: Make the call

Call before you start bailing. Two reasons. First, dispatch can tell you what actually matters for your specific situation while a crew is already rolling. Second, the response clock matters more than your bucket: truck-mounted extraction moves more water in ten minutes than you will move all night, and drywall is wicking water upward the entire time.

This is also the moment to note the time and take ten photos on your phone: the source, the standing water, anything already damaged. Your insurance claim starts here whether you know it yet or not.

Minute 20-60: Protect what you can

While the crew drives:

Move electronics, documents, photos, and anything irreplaceable to dry ground.
Put aluminum foil or plastic under furniture legs sitting in wet carpet. Wood stain and rust transfer into wet carpet fast and permanently.
Lift curtains and bedskirts off wet floors.
Do not run the HVAC. It pulls moist air through the whole house.
Do not use a household vacuum on standing water.
If sewage is involved, keep kids and pets out entirely and skip the DIY. Black water is a biohazard, not a mess.

What not to worry about tonight

Whether the flooring is ruined, what the rebuild costs, whether to file a claim. All of that has answers, and none of them get worse in the next two hours. Wet materials getting wetter is the only thing that gets worse. Handle the water, and handle the rest in daylight.

If you are reading this with wet socks on: what to do about insurance can wait, the call cannot. Dispatch is open right now.