Where is my main water shut-off?

Usually where the supply enters the house — commonly a basement wall on the street side, near the meter. It is worth finding and turning once on a dry day, because a valve nobody has moved in fifteen years can be seized, and discovering that during a leak is the wrong time.

Why is the ceiling stain not under the leak?

Water runs along the top of whatever stops it — a joist, a pipe, the back of the drywall — until it finds somewhere to drip. The stain marks where it collected, not where it got in. That is why when the water shows is more informative than where.

Do you do plumbing, or do I need a licensed plumber?

Both, depending on the fault. Traps, drain connections, toilet internals, shut-off valves and supply lines are ordinary repair work, as is all the damage repair afterward. Water heaters, re-piping, anything behind the meter and anything needing a permit are licensed and get referred. You are told which before anything starts.

My ceiling is bulging. What should I do?

Stay out of the room and do not poke it. A bulging ceiling is holding water and releasing it deliberately is how people get hurt and how the damage spreads to everything below. Shut the water off if you can reach a valve safely, and get it looked at.

Can you repair the wall straight away once the leak is fixed?

Not if the framing is still wet, and that is not a scheduling preference. Closing a wet wall behind new insulation and board traps the moisture against the wood and grows mold inside a finished wall. Framing gets checked with a meter first, and sometimes that means a second visit.

Water only comes in after heavy rain. Is that a plumbing problem?

Almost never. Rain-driven water is the building envelope — gutters overflowing, ground sloping toward the house, a downspout discharging at the wall, a window well or a foundation crack. The cheapest fixes in that category are outside, and they are worth checking before anybody opens a wall.

Where the Water Shows Is Not Where It Comes From | Lansing, MI

First, if water is moving, stop reading

Everything else on this page will keep. What will not keep is the water, because almost the entire cost of a leak is decided by how long it ran.

Look under the fixture first. Sinks and toilets have small shut-off valves on the supply lines, usually at the wall. Turn clockwise. If a valve is seized, do not force it hard enough to snap it.
Then the main. It is where the supply enters the house — commonly a basement wall on the street side, near the meter. Worth finding on a dry day so you are not learning it at midnight.
If it is coming from a water heater, there is a shut-off on the cold inlet at the top.
If a ceiling is bulging, do not poke it and stay out of the room. A bulging ceiling is holding a quantity of water and it comes down all at once.

Note the time you shut it off. That single fact changes what anybody can tell you afterward.

The stain is not the leak

Water does not fall straight down through a building. It runs along the top of whatever stops it — a joist, a pipe, the back of drywall, a vapor barrier — until it finds somewhere to collect or drip. A ceiling stain in the middle of a room can be fed by a connection several feet away in any direction, and quite often on the other side of a wall.

This is why the single most useful thing you can tell anybody is not where the water is showing. It is when it shows.

The timing is the diagnosis

Only when a particular fixture runs — a shower, a washing machine, a dishwasher. That is a drain or a connection on that fixture, and it is the easiest kind to find.
Constant, regardless of use — that is a supply line, which is under pressure all the time. These waste the most water and do the most damage.
Only after heavy rain — that is not plumbing at all. That is the building envelope: gutters, grading, a window well, a foundation crack.
Worse in winter — think condensation or a freeze risk rather than a failure.
Appeared once and never came back — frequently an overflow rather than a leak. Still worth saying so, because it saves everybody looking for a fault that is not there.

What actually drives the cost

People expect the price to track the plumbing. It usually tracks the drying and the rebuilding instead.

A trap that has been dripping for a week is a small repair and a cupboard base. The identical trap dripping for two years is a subfloor, possibly a joist, and a kitchen cabinet that has to come out to reach it. The plumbing part of those two jobs is the same; everything else is not.

That is the whole reason the first section of this page is about the valve.

What gets taken on, and where the line is

Being straight about this matters more here than on most pages, because plumbing is a licensed trade in Michigan and not everything that looks like a leak is handyman work.

Ordinary repair work: traps, tailpieces, drain connections, basket strainers, toilet internals and wax rings, shut-off valve replacement, supply lines, the water damage afterward — the drywall, the subfloor, the trim, the paint.

Referred: water heaters, supply re-piping, anything behind the meter, gas work, and anything requiring a plumbing permit. You are told which one you have before anything starts rather than after.

In practice a lot of calls are the first kind, and much of the real work is the repair of what the water ruined rather than the plumbing itself.

After the water stops

Two things matter and they both have a clock on them.

It has to dry before anything is closed up. Sealing wet framing behind new insulation and new board does not let it dry — it holds moisture against the wood inside a finished wall where nobody can see it. That is how you get mold in a wall that was repaired, which is a worse outcome than the original leak.

Mold is a judgment, not a panic. Surface growth on a non-porous surface after a short wetting is often a cleaning job. Growth on framing, insulation or the back of board after a long one is a different and specialist conversation, and anybody who tells you either answer before looking is guessing.

Before you call anybody

Shut the water off and say when you did.
Say when it shows — constant, with one fixture, or after rain. That is the diagnosis.
Photograph the stain and also the room above it if there is one.
Say how long it has been happening, honestly, including if the answer is "a while".
Do not poke a bulging ceiling.

Want it looked at? Say where the water shows, when it shows, and whether it is shut off. Somebody traces the path rather than the stain, says plainly whether any part of it is licensed work, and puts a fixed price in writing for the part that is not. Coming out is free and there is no trip charge. Leaks, flooding & water clean-up · Water damage repair · Get in touch.