Getting a licensed contractor to the worst days at home.

Who runs this site

Emergency Services 24H is a US emergency home services referral network, reachable at our contact page and on the terms set out in our terms of service. Editorial responsibility for everything published here — every cost figure and every safety instruction — sits with the site’s editorial team, who sign it off before it goes live and correct it when a reader shows us it is wrong. Corrections go to the contact page and are made on the page itself, not quietly.

What that person is not is a licensed plumber, electrician or exterminator, and we will not imply otherwise. Our contribution is research, triage and disclosure: reading what the trade bodies actually publish, comparing it against what homeowners report paying in public threads, and putting the number on the page before the form. Where a topic genuinely turns on a licensed professional’s judgement, the goal is a named “reviewed by” byline from a real pro — and that byline only appears once it is true.

How the contractor network is built

The network is not a scraped directory. Contractors join one of two ways: they apply to us, or we approach an established local firm in a trade and ZIP range where we have demand and no coverage. Either route runs the same checks before a single request is sent to them.

We verify a current state or municipal licence in the trade we intend to refer them for — a general contractor licence does not qualify a firm to take our gas or electrical referrals. We verify active general liability cover and, where the trade requires it, workers’ compensation. We check the business is trading under the name and address it gave us, and we look at its public review history for the specific pattern that matters here: complaints about price changing after arrival.

Two things we are honest about. First, a licence check is a snapshot taken on a date, not a live feed — licences lapse and insurers cancel policies, so we re-check periodically and we still tell you to ask for the licence number at the door. Second, we do not supervise the work. Once a contractor contacts you, your agreement is with them: they set the price, they carry the warranty, and they are responsible for the repair. If a referral goes badly, tell us — repeated complaints remove a contractor from the network, and that is the only real enforcement a referral service has.

What happens to your request

When you submit the form, your name, contact details, ZIP code and description of the failure are matched to contractors licensed for that trade in that ZIP, and passed to one or more of them so they can contact you directly. They pay us a referral fee for that introduction. You pay us nothing, and you are under no obligation to hire whoever calls.

By submitting, you give express written consent for us and the matched contractors to contact you by phone, text and email about your request — including by automated dialling system, prerecorded message and text. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Reply STOP to any text to opt out of that sender, or tell the caller directly to stop. We retain service requests for 24 months so disputes about whether a job was handled can be resolved, then delete them. We do not sell your details to advertisers or data brokers, and we do not use them for anything other than matching your request. The full detail, including how to have your data deleted, is in our privacy policy.

One limit worth stating plainly: we are a referral service, not an emergency service. We cannot dispatch anyone, we cannot guarantee a response time, and we are not a substitute for 911 or your utility’s emergency line. If there is fire, gas, flooding near live electricity, or a medical reaction, call the emergency number first and use this site afterwards.