Toilet backing up into the shower.
About 24/7 emergency plumber
Smell gas? Get everyone outside first.
In a plumbing emergency, turn the water off at the stop tap beside the meter, switch off power to any wet room at the switchboard if you can reach it without touching water, and ring. A plumber answers 24/7, works out with you whether it needs someone tonight or can hold until morning, and quotes any after-hours attendance on the phone. The repair is priced in writing before work starts.
Not sure how serious it is? Ring and describe it: a plumber tells you straight whether it needs someone now.
Find the water meter, usually near the front boundary or in a box set into the footpath side of the lawn. The stop tap sits beside it; turn it clockwise until it stops. If water has reached power points, lights or the ceiling, switch that circuit off at the board, provided the board is dry and you aren't standing in water. Move what you can out of the way, put buckets and towels under the worst of it, and take a few photos for the insurer. If it's sewage, stop using every tap and toilet in the house, because it all ends up in the same pipe.
More about 24/7 emergency plumber
Not every problem at midnight needs a truck at midnight. A toilet leaking at the base can be turned off at its own tap and booked for the morning. A dripping mixer can wait. A slow shower drain can wait if the toilets still work. Water running into a ceiling, sewage in the house, no water at all, or a gas smell cannot. We will tell you honestly which side of that line you're on, even when the honest answer is to go back to bed.
Signs it cannot wait: a brown ring spreading on the ceiling, water running down the inside of a wall, or a hissing from under the house that wasn't there at dinner.
