Burst And Split Pipes
Copper, galvanised and plastic runs, above ground and buried. Isolated first, then repaired or renewed once the section is exposed.
Home/Emergency Plumber
An emergency plumber in Hermanus should establish two things before touching anything: where the water is coming from, and whose pipe it is. Both change what you pay. The call-out figure is quoted before anyone is sent.
If water is running right now, phone rather than type. If it is contained and you would rather write it down, this reaches the same place.
Everything below is an active-water or a safety problem. Everything else is a booking, and we would rather book it than charge you an emergency rate for it.
Copper, galvanised and plastic runs, above ground and buried. Isolated first, then repaired or renewed once the section is exposed.
A cylinder emptying into a ceiling. Isolated, drained down safely and quoted for repair or replacement the same visit.
Toilets and gullies overflowing. Cleared where the blockage is on your side, reported where it is not.
A stopcock that will not close, a seized isolating valve, or a leak with no accessible shut-off anywhere near it.
The smell of gas, a regulator that will not seal, or an appliance that needs isolating until it can be looked at properly.
Nothing from any tap. Usually the network rather than your house, and we will establish which before charging for a repair.
In most towns a plumbing emergency is a private event. In the Overstrand it very often is not, and the difference is worth money to you. This is a network that fails publicly and in ways the municipality itself publishes. During the February 2026 floods Overstrand reported that a main water pipeline in Hawston had been damaged by floodwater and supply had to be cut; the following morning its operational team was still working out why a reservoir would not fill, and tankers were being sent in as an interim measure.
That was not an isolated week. The raw water pump station on the Palmiet River has been out of service with flood damage, and the main line carrying water from De Bos Dam to the Preekstoel treatment works has been severely damaged, along with the secondary line and the borehole line from the Hemel-en-Aarde wellfields. When infrastructure at that level is being repaired, properties lose pressure, lose supply, and then get it back suddenly. A system that refills suddenly is a system that finds every weak joint you had.
So the first two minutes of a genuine emergency are diagnostic, not physical. Is water surfacing in the road or only on your erf? Have the neighbours lost pressure too? Is the meter spinning with your stopcock closed, which would put the fault on the municipal side of the connection? Those three questions decide whether this is a job you are paying for or a call to a control room that answers 24 hours a day on 028 313 8000.
The reason to ask them before phoning a plumber is not thrift for its own sake. It is that a plumber who arrives to a network failure can honestly do nothing except charge you for arriving. We would rather spend a minute on the phone establishing that than take the call-out and tell you afterwards. Where it genuinely is your pipework, the same questions have narrowed the search before the vehicle has even loaded.
None of that changes what you should physically do first, which never changes. Close the stopcock, switch the geyser off at the board, and stay out from under a loaded ceiling. Then look at the street before you look for your wallet.
The rules do not get more relaxed because it is dark and you are worried.
You hear the after-hours call-out figure before anybody gets in a vehicle, not when the invoice arrives.
If it is a network failure we tell you on site and point you at the right number instead of finding something to do.
Stopping the water is the emergency. The proper repair can be quoted calmly and booked for daylight.
If we cannot be there for two hours we say two hours. December included, when that answer is harder to give.
What does an emergency call-out cost in Hermanus after hours?
The after-hours figure is higher than the weekday one and it is quoted to you on the phone, before anybody leaves. Nobody is dispatched on "we will see when we get there". If the fault turns out to be on the municipal side and there is nothing on your property to repair, you are told that on site and the visit ends at the call-out fee.
How do I turn the water off before you arrive?
Find the main stopcock, which on most Overstrand properties is in a small box near the street boundary alongside the water meter. Turn it clockwise until it stops. If the box is seized or buried, the next best isolation is the valve on the cold feed into the geyser, which will at least stop a hot-water flood.
Should I switch the geyser off at the board?
Yes, if the water is hot or if the cylinder itself is what is leaking. An element left switched on in a cylinder that has drained will burn out within minutes and turn a repair into a replacement. The geyser breaker is usually labelled on the distribution board.
How do I know whether the problem is mine or the municipality’s?
Ask the neighbours, and look at the street. If several properties have lost pressure at once, or if water is surfacing in the road rather than on your erf, it is a network failure and Overstrand deals with it. Their control room runs 24 hours on 028 313 8000 or 028 313 8111.
Do you come out on a Sunday?
Sundays are emergencies only, which means an active leak, no water at all, or sewage where it should not be. A dripping tap on a Sunday gets booked for Monday and we will say so rather than charge you a weekend rate for it.
My ceiling is sagging and full of water. What now?
Keep everybody out from under it, switch the geyser breaker off, and do not try to drain it yourself by poking a hole. A saturated ceiling can come down in one piece. Tell us it is a ceiling when you call, because it changes what gets loaded on the vehicle.
What if the emergency happens while the house is empty?
Give us a key-holder and we will send photographs of what we found before we start, and photographs of what we did afterwards. Nothing beyond making the property safe and stopping the water gets done without your written go-ahead.
Can you make it safe now and do the proper repair later?
Often the sensible thing. Stopping the water and isolating the affected section is a small job; renewing a buried run properly may need a day and a dry trench. We will quote the two separately so you are not paying emergency rates for work that can wait until Tuesday.
Get In Touch
If it is running now, phone. If it is contained, write it down here and we will come back with a time and a figure.