What to do when a water heater bursts

A burst heater dumps the tank. On a Vero Beach slab that water crosses the garage in minutes. The shell is done. The visit is a burst water heater replacement, not a sealant stop.

If you are still reading, the water is either slowing or you are on dry ground. If it is still roaring, leave the closet and call.

Order	Move	Skip it when
1	People and pets off the wet floor	Never
2	Open the water heater breaker if you can reach the panel dry	You would stand in water to do it
3	Close the cold inlet if the handle is dry and obvious	The valve is under water or seized
4	Call us with the street and ZIP	You smell gas. Then call the gas utility from outside first

Ready.gov tells people to move themselves and valuables, then shut utilities only when it is safe. A garage flood is smaller than a storm flood. The order does not change. The shutoff article is the longer version for a leak you can still walk around.

Electric heaters and standing water are a shock risk. Do not mop toward the panel. NFPA home fire and electrical safety guidance is the reason we treat a wet panel as off limits.

If you smell gas, the heater is no longer the first call. Leave, and call the gas utility from outside. Do not flip switches on the way out.

The fuel guide helps you name what you have when you call us after the house is safe.

We haul the failed tank, set the new storage heater, set a pan, and connect the inlet, outlet, and relief line. Like for like fuel unless we have already talked through a change.

A tankless conversion in the middle of a flood is the wrong project. Read tank versus tankless on a dry day.

We cover Florida Ridge, West Vero Corridor, Gifford, Wabasso, and South Beach. Have the ZIP ready. You approve the price before we start the swap.

The new heater goes in only after the old water is under control. We do not set a new tank in a lake. If the garage is still filling from a valve that failed open, the house main comes first, then the swap.

You will see the pan, the relief pipe aimed down, and the inlet open slowly while we watch the connections. A burst visit that ends with a drip at a new fitting is not done. We stay for that check.

Drywall and flooring are a separate trade. We can point at what got wet. We do not pretend a heater swap is a rebuild of the hall. Get the water stopped the same day. Schedule the dry-out with someone who does that work. The heater itself is a replacement, not a patch.

If water reached outlets, leave those breakers off until the floor is dry and someone has looked at the devices. A new heater does not make a soaked receptacle safe. That is outside our heater work, and we will not flip those breakers to prove a point.

Photos of the split tank help your own records. We do not need them to know the shell failed. We need the address, the fuel, and a safe way in. Meet us at the garage if the house is full of water and the front door is the long way around.

Once the new heater is in and the connections are dry, run a hot faucet until the air clears. Spurting at the tap is leftover air, not a second failure. Cloudiness that clears is air too. Rust that does not clear is a reason to call us back the same day. Keep the closet door open until the floor stays dry.

After the inlet is closed, the tank still holds what it held. That water is hot. Do not open the drain valve to hurry it onto the driveway unless the hose is already outside and you are not standing in the puddle. Most of the time the right move is to wait. We drain it when the replacement starts.

Furniture that got wet can be moved to dry tile if you can do it without crossing a live puddle. Drywall that is soft can wait. The heater cannot. Order the day around the water, not around the baseboard.

We set the new heater level, pipe the relief line down, and fill it before we fire it. Firing an empty tank is how elements and gas controls die on day one. You will see water at a faucet before we turn the heat on. That sequence is the visit, and you approve the price before any of it starts. We do not fire the heater until a faucet proves the tank is full. Air at the tap is normal for a minute. Rust that stays is not.