The first move is mechanical: close the main shutoff. Every gallon after that decision is a gallon that does not need drying, and the shutoff is the one tool every homeowner should be able to find in the dark. If water has reached outlets or appliances, cut power to those rooms at the breaker before wading in.
In Pico Rivera the first hour is a meter reading: after the shutoff, check whether the meter still turns with every fixture closed. In tracts plumbed in one season, a burst that is found is often not the only line at its limit, and the meter's verdict after the repair, still moving or still, is the sentence that decides whether you have had an incident or met a schedule.
The second move is evidence: photographs of the failed line, the rooms, and the water's reach, taken before anything is moved or mopped. Insurers approve documented sudden losses; undocumented ones get argued. Note the time you found it and the time the water stopped.
The third move is the repair read: a split is a symptom with a cause (freeze, corrosion, pressure, age), and the repair visit should name the cause, because a patched effect with a live cause is next season's burst in a nearby section of the same run.
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