If a pipe in your basement ever bursts open, here are some tips that you should try to remember.

Turn the stop tap off and ring an emergency plumber before going down into the basement

When you hear the sound of the pipe breaking and the water surging out of it, your first instinct might be to go down into the basement so that you can see exactly what has happened and try to soak up the water on the floor. However, it is important to ignore this urge and instead turn the stop tap off and ring an emergency plumber.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the faster you cut off the water supply, the less damage your basement (and crucially, the foundation directly below it) will sustain.

Secondly, if you postpone calling the plumber and there happen to be several plumbing emergencies occurring in your local area on the day of this incident, other customers may make bookings whilst you are busy soaking up the water in your basement; this could result in the plumber not being able to come to your home for several hours. During this time, you won't be able to reconnect your water supply, which could be quite frustrating.

Thirdly, if you keep any electrical appliances in your basement (such as your washing machine or clothes dryer) and these are plugged in, going into the flooded basement could result in you receiving a serious electric shock. If this occurs before you have contacted a plumber and there is no-one else in your home, you could be left injured in the basement for a long period of time. 

Don't stuff the broken pipe with towels or rags to stop the water coming out of it

If there are no electrical appliances in the basement and you have been told by the plumber that it may take them a while to come to your home, you might be tempted to go down to this room and to use rags and towels to stuff up the pipe in order to prevent whatever water is left in your plumbing system from flowing out of it.

This is not a good idea. Instead, if you believe it is safe to go down into the basement, you should lay the towels and rags next to the pipe to absorb the water before it seeps through the basement floor and into the foundation.

The reason for this is that if you stuff up the pipe with these pieces of fabric, the water pressure in the pipe might build up and cause another section of the pipe in a nearby part of your home to also burst. This could then cause more damage and lead to a more expensive plumbing bill.

Call a company like Sam's Local Plumbing for more information or assistance.