TL;DR: If a pipe has burst in your Gulfport home, shut off the main water valve first, then call a licensed plumber to stop the leak at its source. Within the same hour, call a water damage restoration company, since standing water needs extraction and drying to start inside 24 to 48 hours to limit mold growth. Both calls matter; they’re not interchangeable.
If you’re standing in your kitchen or laundry room right now watching water spread across the floor, stop reading after this paragraph and go shut off the water. A burst supply line under a sink, a split pipe in a slab home near the beach in Gulfport, or a failed connection behind a washing machine can dump dozens of gallons an hour. The next ten minutes decide whether this is a one-day cleanup or a multi-week rebuild.
What do I do in the first 60 seconds?
Shut off your home’s main water supply valve immediately, which is usually near the street-side meter or where the line enters the house. This stops the flow no matter where the break is.
If water is anywhere near outlets, light switches, or your electrical panel, cut power to that area at the breaker box before you step into standing water. Never touch an energized outlet in wet conditions.
If you can do it safely, move furniture legs, rugs, and electronics off the wet floor and onto blocks or a dry room. Don’t try to mop up a real flood yourself; a wet-dry shop vac helps on a small puddle but can’t keep pace with a burst pipe, and time spent chasing water with a mop is time your home sits saturated.
Who do I call first, a plumber or a restoration company?
Call a licensed plumber first if water is still actively running, since only a plumber can diagnose and physically repair the broken pipe. Call a water damage restoration company within that same hour, because they handle the extraction and drying the plumber doesn’t do.
These are two different jobs done by two different companies, and skipping either one costs you later. A plumber stops the source. A restoration crew pulls standing water, measures moisture inside walls and under flooring with a meter, and runs commercial air movers and dehumidifiers to dry the structure before mold has a chance to start, usually within 24 to 72 hours per the ANSI/IICRC S500 water damage restoration standard. In the Gulfport area, HomeLyft Restoration MS handles that extraction-and-drying side, along with documenting the loss for your insurance claim; they don’t repair plumbing, so plan on both calls.
If the water involves a backed-up toilet or sewer line instead of a clean supply line, that’s a different hazard, Category 3 water, and the who-to-call guide for Gulfport water damage covers that distinction in more detail.
What happens in the first 24 hours after you call?
A restoration crew typically arrives, assesses the extent of the water, and starts extraction with truck-mounted or portable pumps within the first couple of hours of the call. The faster extraction starts, the less material has to be torn out later.
After standing water is removed, the crew maps moisture levels in drywall, baseboards, subfloor, and framing with a moisture meter, marking which materials are salvageable and which need to come out. Anything porous that’s been wet more than 24 to 48 hours (drywall, carpet pad, particleboard) is usually a loss.
Then comes the drying setup: air movers positioned to create airflow across wet surfaces, and low-grain-refrigerant dehumidifiers pulling moisture out of the air itself. In a typical single-room Gulfport bathroom or kitchen loss, this equipment runs for three to five days with daily moisture checks before the space is confirmed dry. Homes near the coast with slab foundations and high ambient humidity sometimes take a day or two longer.
Will insurance cover a burst pipe in Gulfport?
Most homeowners policies cover sudden, accidental water damage like a burst pipe, but they exclude damage from a leak that was gradual or went unaddressed. The Insurance Information Institute’s guide to what standard homeowners insurance covers explains this distinction in plain terms.
In practice, that means the adjuster will want to see when the pipe failed, what was done right away, and photo or moisture documentation of the extent of the water. A restoration invoice and drying logs are exactly the paper trail most adjusters ask for. Our water damage insurance claim guide walks through what to photograph and what to keep.
Once the plumber has stopped the leak and the restoration crew is actively drying the structure, that’s the point to call your insurance company, not before. Filing the claim after mitigation has started shows the adjuster you acted to limit the damage, which matters for how smoothly the claim moves.
If you’re dealing with a burst pipe right now, make the two calls in that order: a plumber to stop it, then a restoration company to dry it out before mold or structural damage sets in. Call HomeLyft Restoration MS at (228) 284-5200 for the extraction and drying side once the water is shut off.