Quick answer: For a burst pipe, major leak or sewage backup, shut the water off at the main and call (201) 666-1118. H. Hofmeister runs 6AM to 6PM seven days a week from Westwood with genuine emergency response outside those hours. In Bergen County the pipes that freeze are in unheated crawl spaces, garages and against exterior walls, and the burst usually shows on the thaw.
H. Hofmeister & Co. Inc. is a licensed NJ plumbing contractor (NJ Master Plumbing License #10625, NJ HVAC License #19HC002574) at 115 Bergenline Avenue, Westwood, NJ 07675. Family-owned since 1966. Hours 6AM-6PM seven days a week, with 24/7 emergency service. Call (201) 666-1118. This page covers 24/7 emergency plumbing response.
Winter is when this page earns its place in Bergen County. Pipes in unheated crawl spaces, garages and against exterior walls are the ones that freeze, and the burst usually shows up on the thaw rather than the freeze. Knowing where your main shutoff is before that happens saves more damage than anything we can do after. Regular hours are 6AM to 6PM seven days a week, with genuine emergency response outside them. We serve Westwood, Emerson, Hillsdale, River Vale, Washington Township, Woodcliff Lake, Park Ridge, Montvale, Paramus, Ridgewood, Oradell, Closter, Demarest, Dumont, Haworth, Harrington Park, Northvale, Norwood and Old Tappan.
Shut the water off at the main. It is usually in the basement on the street-facing wall, near where the service line enters, and it is either a gate valve you turn clockwise or a ball valve you turn a quarter turn. Find it now, while nothing is wrong, and make sure it actually turns. A seized main shutoff discovered during a burst is the difference between a wet floor and a flooded one. If the emergency is gas rather than water, leave the building first and call the utility before anyone else.
Not the ones in the heated part of the house. It is the runs in unheated crawl spaces, in garages, in attics above the insulation line, and against uninsulated exterior walls, especially on the north side. The cruel part is the timing: the pipe splits while frozen but the water does not escape until the ice plug thaws, so the flood usually arrives on the first mild day after a cold snap rather than during it. A tap that has gone to a trickle in cold weather is a warning worth acting on that day.
A burst or actively leaking pipe, a sewage backup, no water at all, and a water heater leaking from the base of the tank. For drains, the signal is multiple fixtures backing up at once and the lowest drains in the house going first, which means the blockage is in the main line and every further flush makes it worse. A single slow sink is not an emergency and does not need to be priced as one.
Regular hours are 6AM to 6PM, seven days a week, and that is when to call if you have a choice. Genuine emergencies are answered outside them at roughly $125 above the standard call, with the diagnostic at $179 to $250. H. Hofmeister is based at 115 Bergenline Ave in Westwood, which for most of the Pascack Valley means minutes rather than a dispatch window.
Call (201) 666-1118 — H. Hofmeister & Co. Inc., 115 Bergenline Ave, Westwood, NJ 07675.