Emergency plumbing in St Ives
We cover emergency work across St Ives and the surrounding villages. Before anything else, get the water off — the steps are below, and those five minutes prevent more damage than anything we can do once we arrive. Then send the form marked urgent and we will call you back.
- TR26 and surrounding villages
- Fixed price agreed before we start
If you can smell gas, stop and call 0800 111 999 first. That is the National Gas Emergency Service and it is free from any phone. Open the windows, do not touch any electrical switches, get everyone out, and contact us afterwards.
Why emergency plumbing in St Ives is its own job
St Ives is the hardest town on this list to work in, and any plumber who tells you otherwise has not tried to get a bathroom suite into Downalong in August. It is also one of the most rewarding — beautiful granite property, a huge amount of high-end refurbishment work, and owners who care about the job being done properly.
The property here
The old quarter, Downalong, is a dense maze of granite fishermen's cottages on lanes measured in feet rather than metres. Above it, Victorian and Edwardian terraces climb the hill, and out at Carbis Bay and Lelant you find larger detached property and a good deal of recent high-specification renovation.
What catches people out in St Ives
Access defines everything here. Much of Downalong cannot take a van at all, so kit and materials come in by hand and the job has to be planned properly in advance — you cannot nip back to the merchant for a fitting. We order and stage materials before we start rather than discovering the problem on day one. On top of that, the granite cottages have thick solid walls, minimal plant space and no obvious route for a flue, and a very high proportion of the town is second homes and holiday lets, which means unoccupied properties where a small leak has weeks to become a large one.
Emergency plumbing in St Ives — what actually matters
Emergency access
Where the van cannot get to the door we come in on foot with what we can carry. It means being realistic on the phone about what can be achieved tonight versus tomorrow, and we would rather tell you that upfront.
When nobody is in the property
The worst leaks are the ones nobody sees. If you are up-country and a neighbour has called you, we can attend, make safe, and send you photographs and a written account of what we found, so you are not making decisions blind from two hundred miles away.
Finding the leak in solid walls
With no cavity and no plasterboard void, water in a granite cottage tracks a long way from the actual fault before it appears. The damp patch is evidence, not a location, and we trace it properly rather than opening up the first likely spot.
Storm and exposure damage
An Atlantic gale takes out flue terminals, external pipework and vent covers. After a big blow we get a run of these, and we carry the common parts rather than ordering them in.
What we cover
- Burst and frozen pipes
- Major leaks and water coming through ceilings
- Complete loss of water or hot water
- No heating in cold weather, especially where there is a health need
- Overflowing or blocked toilets where there is only one in the property
- Leaking or failed hot water cylinders
- Suspected gas smell — though your first call must always be the National Gas Emergency Service
What to do before we arrive
Turn the water off first
Your internal stopcock is usually under the kitchen sink, in a downstairs cloakroom or by the front door. Turn it clockwise. If you cannot find it, the outside stop tap is generally under a small metal cover at the boundary.
Then open the taps
Once the stopcock is off, opening the cold taps drains the pipework down and stops it feeding the leak. It makes a real difference to how much damage you end up with.
Water near electrics
If water is anywhere near a consumer unit, lights or sockets, switch the electricity off at the main switch and do not touch anything wet. This is the one part of the job we would rather you did not wait for us on.
If you smell gas
Call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 immediately, open the windows, do not touch switches and get everyone out. Call them first and us second — that order matters.
How it works
- 1
Get the water off first
Stopcock clockwise, then open the cold taps. Do this before you contact anyone — it is the single most useful thing that happens in the first ten minutes.
- 2
Send the form, tick urgent
Urgent enquiries are flagged and go to the top of the list rather than into a queue. Give us your number and as much detail as you can.
- 3
We ring you back and triage
We work out whether this needs someone tonight or whether it is safe until morning, and we tell you honestly which it is.
- 4
We give you a realistic arrival time
Cornwall is long and thin. A truthful hour beats an optimistic twenty minutes.
- 5
We make it safe, then fix it
The first job is stopping the damage. The permanent repair sometimes follows the next day, and we will be clear about which is happening.
What it costs
Emergency and out-of-hours work is charged differently from planned work, and you will be told exactly how when we ring you back, before anyone is dispatched. Nobody should discover the rate on the invoice.
Mains gas in St Ives
St Ives and Carbis Bay have mains gas in most of the built-up area, but running a new supply into the older parts of Downalong is rarely straightforward.
Where we work around St Ives
TR26 and the villages around them. These are the places we are in most weeks — if yours is not listed, it does not mean we do not cover it.
Near Tate St Ives, Barbara Hepworth Museum, Porthmeor Beach? That is well within our normal patch.
Everything else we do in St Ives
Plumbers in St Ives
Leaks, taps, toilets, tanks, pipework and everything else that carries water around a house.
Read moreBoiler repair in St Ives
Fault-finding and repair on gas, oil and LPG boilers — diagnosis first, parts second.
Read moreBoiler installation in St Ives
New boilers and full replacements, sized properly to the house rather than to the old one.
Read moreBoiler servicing in St Ives
Annual servicing and landlord gas safety certificates — the full check, not a five-minute glance.
Read moreBathrooms in St Ives
Complete bathroom installations, managed start to finish by the people doing the plumbing.
Read moreCentral heating in St Ives
Radiators, pipework, power flushing, controls and full system installations.
Read moreEmergency plumbing in St Ives — your questions
If yours is not here, send us the form and ask. We would rather spend five minutes answering a question than have you book something you did not need.
How fast will you come back to me?
As fast as we can, and urgent enquiries are dealt with first. We will be straight with you: we do not currently run a staffed round-the-clock phone line, so if water is escaping right now the most valuable thing is to get your stopcock off yourself using the steps above — that stops the damage immediately, which no plumber arriving later can undo.
Where is my stopcock likely to be?
Under the kitchen sink is the most common, then a downstairs cloakroom, by the front door, or in an airing cupboard. It is genuinely worth finding it now, while nothing is wrong.
Is a leaking radiator an emergency?
Usually not. A radiator can normally be isolated at both valves and left until morning, which is cheaper for you. We will tell you that on the phone rather than sending someone out at night.
Will my insurance cover this?
Escape of water is covered by most home policies, but they generally want the cause fixed and documented. We photograph and write up emergency work so you have something to give your insurer.
Do you cover the villages around St Ives as well as the town?
Yes — Carbis Bay, Lelant, Halsetown, Zennor, Towednack, Porthmeor and Downalong are all part of our normal St Ives patch, along with the smaller places between them. If you are not sure whether we reach you, send the form and ask.
How quickly can you get to St Ives?
In via Lelant off the A30. Summer access into the town is genuinely difficult and we plan around it rather than over-promising.
We also cover, close to St Ives
Need emergency plumbing in St Ives?
Get the water off first — stopcock clockwise, then open the cold taps. Then send the form and tick urgent, and we will ring you back to work out how fast we can reach you.