24/7 Emergency Plumber in Winston-Salem, NC

Profyce is a free referral service. Your call goes to an independent local provider; Profyce does not do the work itself.

If water is spraying or pouring somewhere in your Winston-Salem home, call the number below first. The line connects you to an independent local plumber who takes emergency calls in Forsyth County, and the call costs you nothing.

While you wait, find your main shut-off valve. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Utilities says it is usually in the basement, the garage, or outdoors by the foundation. Turn it clockwise until it stops, then open the lowest faucet in the house so the lines drain.

If the supply is off, switch off the water heater at its breaker or gas valve so the tank does not heat empty. Cut power to any wet room at the panel only if you can reach it with dry feet. Move rugs, boxes and electronics off the floor. Do not open the meter box at the street; the utility allows only its own staff, licensed plumbers and utility contractors inside it.

What makes Winston-Salem different

Winston-Salem sits in Forsyth County and gets its water from Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Utilities, which draws from the Yadkin River and Salem Lake. For a water emergency or a sewer backup the utility says you must call CityLink at 311 or 336-727-8000, not file the online form. CityLink is staffed 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and an after-hours call center picks up main breaks and sewer spills at night.

The split matters when you are standing in water. The utility repairs breaks in the main under the street. Anything on your side of the meter, from the service line to the kitchen faucet, is yours to fix, and that is what the plumber you reach through this page handles. If you need the meter shut off and cannot reach your own valve, CityLink can send someone.

Winston-Salem housing is older than many people expect. The 2024 American Community Survey counts 116,276 housing units in the city, and 45.3 percent were built before 1980. About 7 percent date to 1939 or earlier. The oldest houses cluster in the National Register historic districts, such as Old Salem, West End, Washington Park, Ardmore, West Salem and Waughtown-Belview, and in Buena Vista, which was developed from the 1920s. Houses built before the 1950s commonly carry galvanized steel supply lines and cast iron drains unless a prior owner replaced them. Galvanized pipe typically lasts 40 to 60 years, so most of it is past due.

The 1970 to 1989 cohort is a different problem. Roughly 22.7 percent of city units were built in that window, which overlaps the years polybutylene supply pipe was installed. Chlorine in municipal water degrades polybutylene, especially at fittings, and the utility’s 2025 water quality report lists an average chlorine level of 1.02 parts per million in the distribution system. If your house dates from that window and has gray plastic pipe, tell the plumber on the call.

On the positive side, the water is soft. The same 2025 report shows hardness between 9 and 28 parts per million, averaging 17.5, which is about 1 grain per gallon. Scale builds slowly on water heaters and fixtures here compared with hard-water cities. Lead was not detected at the 90th percentile, though the utility maintains a lead service line inventory and asks owners to report what their private line is made of, since its crews cannot enter private property.

Freezes are real. The January mean daily minimum at Smith Reynolds Airport is 30.7°F, and the record low is -10°F. During the December 2022 Arctic blast, Greensboro hit 5°F on December 24 with no snow cover. The city’s guidance is that pipes become more susceptible at 20°F or below, so drip an indoor faucet and insulate lines in the garage, attic, basement and crawlspace once the forecast dips that low.

One recent event is worth knowing. On July 29, 2026 a major treated-water main broke about 40 feet underground beneath a pond and disrupted service for roughly 200,000 residents in eastern Forsyth County, including downtown Winston-Salem, Kernersville and Walkertown, with a boil-water advisory. When pressure returns after an outage like that, weak joints in older houses sometimes start to drip, so a new leak in the days after a city repair is not unusual.

Common plumbing problems in Winston-Salem

• Burst or split pipe after a hard freeze. Lines in unheated crawlspaces, garages and exterior walls are the usual victims once temperatures reach the 20°F mark the city warns about. The December 2022 cold snap, with Greensboro at 5°F and no snow cover, is the kind of event that splits them.
• Galvanized supply lines closing up. In pre-1950 homes around Old Salem, West End and Washington Park, rust builds inside galvanized steel until pressure drops to a trickle. Pinholes and brown water follow.
• Polybutylene fittings letting go. Houses from the 1970s and 1980s may have gray plastic supply pipe that fails at the joints without warning, often inside a wall or ceiling.
• Cast iron drain collapse. Cast iron waste pipe lasts 50 to 60 years underground, per InterNACHI. In the oldest districts that clock ran out decades ago, and a collapsed section shows up as every drain in the house backing up at once.
• Water heater leaks and failures. A tank water heater lasts 6 to 12 years. Soft water helps here, but a rusted tank or a stuck relief valve can still put 40 gallons on the floor.
• Sewer line backup. Tree roots and sagging pipe are the common causes. If sewage is surfacing in the street or at a manhole, that is the utility’s side and CityLink needs the call. If it is only inside your house, it is a plumber’s job.
• Running toilets and hidden leaks. A toilet flapper or a slab leak under a 1960s ranch can run for weeks before the bill gives it away. Slab leak detection is a separate step before the repair.
• Pressure loss after a utility main break. After the July 2026 break, service returned under a boil-water advisory. If your pressure never came back, check your own main valve and faucet strainers before assuming the problem is in the street.

What it might cost

These are national ranges published by Fixr, This Old House and Bob Vila. They are not quotes. The independent plumber who answers sets their own prices for Winston-Salem, and Profyce has no part in that. After-hours and holiday work usually costs more, and Fixr does not put a number on how much.

• Plumber hourly rate: $75 to $150 per hour, with an average near $90 (Fixr).
• Emergency call-out: about $150 per hour plus a $50 to $200 trip fee, or a $200 to $300 flat call-out fee (Fixr). This Old House also reports a flat emergency fee on top of the hourly rate.
• Burst pipe repair: $200 to $1,000 (Fixr).
• Water heater repair: $150 to $750. Tank replacement $600 to $2,500. Tankless replacement $2,500 to $4,500 (Fixr), or $1,333 to $3,721 (Bob Vila).
• Kitchen drain cleaning: $150 to $500 (Fixr).
• Main sewer line clog: $350 to $650. Sewer line repair $400 to $1,500 (Fixr). Full replacement $1,390 to $5,320 (This Old House).
• Toilet repair: $60 to $200 (Fixr).
• Slab leak: detection $100 to $400, repair $1,000 to $4,000 (Fixr).

Ask the plumber for the hourly rate, the trip fee and the after-hours charge before they leave the shop, then get the repair price in writing once they have seen the problem.

Who answers when you call

The number on this page is a tracking line that forwards to an independent plumbing company serving Winston-Salem. Profyce is a referral service, not a plumber, and holds no plumbing license. Ask the person who answers for the company name and the North Carolina plumbing license number, then check it at the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors lookup: public.nclicensing.org. Any price, schedule or warranty is between you and that company.

Common questions in Winston-Salem

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