TL;DR: If a pipe just burst in your Sioux Falls home, shut off the main water valve first, then cut power to any outlets near standing water. Call a licensed plumber to physically stop the leak, and call a water damage restoration company within the same hour to start extraction and drying. Waiting past 24 to 48 hours lets water soak into subfloors and drywall, which turns a repair into a reconstruction job and invites mold.
Water is spreading across your floor right now in McKennan Park, Prairie Green, or anywhere else in the Sioux Falls metro, and you don’t have time for a long explanation. You need the next three moves, in order, and you need to know which phone call actually stops the damage. Here they are.
What do you do in the first 60 seconds?
Shut off your home’s main water valve before anything else. It’s usually in the basement, a crawlspace, or near the water heater, often where the line enters from the street. Turning this one valve stops the flooding at the source, even before a plumber arrives.
Next, cut power to any circuit near standing water, at the breaker panel, not by reaching for a switch in a wet room. Water and live outlets are a shock hazard, and older Sioux Falls homes around the Cathedral Historic District and Whittier often have original wiring that wasn’t built for this kind of exposure.
If you can do it safely, move furniture, rugs, and electronics off the wet floor. Don’t try to vacuum standing water with a regular shop vac rated for dry use only, and don’t run a space heater into a wet room to “dry it out” yourself. That just pushes moisture into the walls faster than it evaporates.
Who do you call first, a plumber or a restoration company?
Call both, within the same hour, because they do two different jobs. A licensed plumber repairs or replaces the pipe itself, the part that actually failed. A water damage restoration company removes the standing water, dries the structure, and repairs what the water touched, which is usually the bigger job.
If you only call a plumber, the leak gets fixed, but the wet drywall, soaked subfloor, and damp insulation behind it keep sitting there. Drying needs to start within hours, not days, because the IICRC S500 standard for water damage restoration exists precisely because untreated moisture starts supporting mold growth in as little as 24 to 48 hours. If you only call a restoration company, they can start extraction, but water keeps flowing until the source is actually stopped.
For the restoration half, a water damage restoration company such as Crew Restoration & Construction can typically get a technician out quickly across the Sioux Falls metro, document the loss for your insurance claim, and begin extraction and structural drying the same day you call. That documentation step matters more than most homeowners realize, since it’s what your adjuster uses to approve the claim.
Our burst pipe emergency checklist walks through the shutoff and documentation steps in more detail if you want the full sequence written out.
What happens in the first 24 hours after you call?
In the first 24 hours, a restoration crew extracts standing water, pulls back or removes materials that can’t be saved, and sets up drying equipment. Expect a moisture assessment first: a technician uses a moisture meter and sometimes a thermal camera to map exactly how far the water traveled behind walls and under flooring, since burst pipes often push water further than the visible puddle suggests.
After extraction, air movers and a dehumidifier go in to pull moisture out of wet materials over several days, typically monitored and adjusted daily until readings return to normal. Carpet pad, insulation, and drywall below the waterline are often cut out at this stage, since they rarely dry cleanly once saturated.
If your basement took the brunt of it, our post on what to do when there’s water in your basement covers the specific steps for that situation.
Will insurance cover this?
Most standard homeowners policies cover sudden, accidental water damage from a burst pipe, since it’s treated differently than a slow leak that built up over time. According to the Insurance Information Institute, a pipe that bursts suddenly is generally covered, while gradual seepage from a pipe that’s been dripping for months often isn’t.
Your adjuster will want photos of the damage, the moisture readings from the restoration crew, and a written scope of work before approving the claim. This is exactly why calling a restoration company quickly matters beyond just the drying: they create the paper trail your insurer needs to pay out. For a broader rundown of what’s typically covered and what isn’t, see our guide to homeowners insurance and water damage.
Once the plumber has stopped the leak and the drying is underway, it’s worth getting a written scope for any repair work, since every loss is a little different and estimates should reflect your actual damage, not a generic number.
If water is still spreading and you need someone on the drying and structural side today, Call Crew Restoration & Construction at (605) 965-2727.
About Crew
Crew is an IICRC-certified restoration company serving Sioux Falls, SD since 2015 (license #3814). Its crews handle water damage restoration, burst pipe cleanup, basement flooding, and the structural repair that follows, across the Sioux Falls metro and surrounding South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota communities. Crew holds a 4.9 rating across 647 Google reviews and answers calls 24/7.