After broken furnaces or air conditioners, a plumbing emergency is probably the worst thing to happen to any household.
The only question is what's worse - something clogged in the pipes of a toilet or a backed up drain in the basement.
Either way, that's when most people seem to need a plumber - at the last minute.
Unfortunately, that also seems to be the hardest time to find a plumber locally.
Most of the time it is trivial to find a good plumber at the last minute, but often times either the plumber you go to is busy that day, or you find somebody at the bottom of the barrel.
There are some steps you can take to make it so much easier to find a plumber on short notice.
Hopefully you're reading this before you've had a plumbing accident, because the first thing you should do is look around for a plumber while everything is in good working order.
Consult the phone book, friends, family members, online classifieds - any one of those locations will have a section for plumbers in your local area.
For any contacts you get from any of the sources above, call and find out if they operate on short notice.
If they require 12-24 hours you can probably still deal with them for non-emergencies, but don't expect them to drop everything and rush to your house in an emergency.
Ideally you'll want to hear that they have a fast response time for jobs that can probably wait to be completed, which means they'll be there quick in case of an emergency.
Find out too if they charge extra for emergency situations - you don't want a surprise on your bill.
If you happen to find yourself in the middle of an emergency, don't panic.
If you've done your homework, you should have a list of reliable plumbers in an easy to find location, so start at the top of your list and work your way down.
This is your list of plumbers who will help in emergencies as well as regular jobs, so it is unlikely that all of them will be busy at the same time.
Still that possibility always exists.
You need to have a back-up plan in an emergency.
It is important that you keep calm during an emergency (especially if the result is a quickly-flooding house).
If none of your regular plumbers are available, and you don't trust a plumber you haven't consulted, call for help.
Ask your neighbors for help, and if it's really bad, 911.
With the amount of plumbers available locally, your options should be many.
As long as you set up a list before any emergency breaks out, and stay calm in the event of an emergency, you're likely to get through it with minimal damage to your house or plumbing system.
Unless you're a plumber yourself, though, do not attempt any repair jobs under any circumstances.
You might make things worse, and make for a much more expensive bill in the long run.