Burst Water Main in the Street: Who Fixes It?

Is it the water main, or something else?

Water bubbling out of the road or pavement is not always a burst main. Before you report it, spend a minute looking at where it comes from and what it looks like, because it changes who you call.

A burst main usually shows as clear water rising through the tarmac or between paving slabs, often in the middle of the road or along the line of the footpath, and it keeps coming whatever the weather. A big one lifts the surface, washes out gravel and can run downhill for several streets. A smaller one might be a steady wet patch that never dries even on a hot day.

Other sources look similar. Water that smells of sewage, is grey or carries toilet paper is a sewer, which in most of London is Thames Water’s sewerage side even if another company supplies your drinking water. Water around a small metal or plastic cover near the edge of a front garden may be a boundary stop tap or meter chamber, which points to the pipe between the main and one house. After heavy rain, water rising from a road gully is usually a blocked drain, a highways matter for the council.

• Clear water, constant flow, middle of road or footpath: likely a water main
• Clear water around a stop tap or meter cover at a property edge: communication pipe or a private supply pipe
• Grey, smelly water or sewage debris: a sewer, report it as a sewer problem
• Water only after rain, from a road drain: a blocked gully, report to the council

If you can smell gas near the damaged road surface, keep people away, do not smoke or use anything that could spark nearby, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. If the smell is inside too, open windows and get out before you call. Fast-flowing water can undermine a gas pipe nearby.

How to report a burst water main

Report it to the water company that supplies the street, not the one that takes the waste away. Thames Water supplies most of London, but parts of outer London get their drinking water from Affinity Water, SES Water or Essex & Suffolk Water. Your water bill names your supplier. If the burst is outside a neighbour’s house, their bill works just as well.

Every supplier takes leak reports around the clock, by phone and online. Thames Water also takes reports through its website and a 24/7 WhatsApp service. Give them the nearest house number or a landmark, which side of the road, how fast the water is flowing (a trickle, a steady flow or a gushing jet) and whether any homes have lost water or pressure. A photo helps them grade it.

You do not need to wait for someone else to report it. Water companies rank leaks by how much water is being lost, how many customers are affected, how complicated the dig will be and where it is, so a clear report with the flow rate moves a serious one up the list. Our guide to reporting a water leak in the road covers the smaller, slower leaks that tend to sit for weeks.

What happens to your water supply at home

When a main bursts, the houses fed from it often lose pressure first, then lose water altogether once the company shuts the valves either side of the break to repair it. You might also see brown or cloudy water when the supply comes back, as the flow stirs up sediment in the main.

While the main is off, your central heating keeps working, because the heating circuit is sealed off from the mains. A combi boiler will not give you hot water, since it needs mains flow to fire for the taps. If you have a cold water tank in the loft, the taps and toilets it feeds keep running on stored water until it empties, so save it for flushing and washing, and do not drink from it.

When the water returns, run the cold kitchen tap until it runs clear before you drink it or fill the kettle. Cloudy white water that clears from the bottom of a glass upwards is just air and is harmless. Brown or orange water should clear after a few minutes of running; if it does not, tell the water company. See cloudy water after the supply comes back for the detail.

Under the Guaranteed Standards Scheme, if an unplanned interruption goes on longer than 12 hours, your water company in England owes you £50, plus £50 for each further full 12 hours the supply stays off. Since July 2025 that applies to large strategic mains too. The company should pay it automatically, but contact them if nothing appears on your account.

When the leak is actually on your side

This is where most of the confusion sits. The water company owns the main under the road and the short communication pipe that runs from the main to your boundary stop tap. The supply pipe from that stop tap to your house, and everything inside the house, belongs to you. If you are a tenant, it is your landlord’s. If several houses share one supply pipe, the owners share responsibility for it.

So water appearing in the pavement right outside your gate, around your stop tap cover, or in your front garden, could be your supply pipe. A quick check is your water meter: turn off every tap and appliance, note the reading, wait 30 minutes without using any water and read it again. If it has moved, you are losing water on your side of the meter. Our guide to reading a water meter walks through it.

If the water company confirms the leak is on your pipe, Thames Water expects the repair to be done within four weeks. Fix it in time and you can usually claim a leak allowance for the water you lost; leave it and they can carry out the work themselves and bill you. The pipe responsibility guide explains where the line falls in awkward cases such as flats and shared pipes.

What we do if the problem is your supply pipe

When a burst turns out to be on your own pipework, the job is a normal emergency plumbing visit. The engineer first isolates the supply at the boundary stop tap or internal stopcock so the flow stops, then locates the leak. On an older London house that often means an ageing lead or iron supply pipe, or a failed joint where a newer plastic pipe meets the old one.

A short section can usually be exposed and joined with a repair coupling rated for underground use. A long, corroded or lead supply pipe is better replaced, and that is a larger, planned job involving digging or moling under the path. You pay the £60 call-out, and the repair price is agreed with you on site before any work starts. For water pouring out now, see emergency burst pipe repair.

As a rough market guide, a simple underground joint repair on a front path often costs a few hundred pounds, while a full replacement of a supply pipe across a front garden commonly runs into four figures depending on length, depth and what has to be dug up. Many buildings insurance policies cover the cost of tracing and reaching a hidden leak, so check your policy before any digging starts.