About us
Getting a local contractor to the worst days at home.
Emergency Services 24H is a US emergency home services referral network covering plumbing, electrical, HVAC, water damage, lockouts, appliances, garage doors, pests and storm damage.
What we are
A referral service, not the contractor. You describe the failure and we route the request to independent contractors who work in that trade, and they contact you directly.
They pay us the referral fee, not you. We do not employ technicians and we do not do the repair work ourselves.
Why we exist
When something breaks at 2am, most of what you find is either a scare-tactic page pushing a call-now button with no price on it, or a thin listicle that never tells you what to do. Meanwhile the locksmith category has a documented bait-and-switch problem and the big directories send your details to whoever pays most, sight unseen.
We built Emergency Services 24H to do it the other way round: publish the safety steps and the honest price range first, on the page, then route your request only to contractors whose license and liability cover we have checked. You get the number before the van arrives, and no obligation to hire anyone.
Check the license for this job
We do not vouch for any contractor. Ask for the license number for this exact trade, confirm it with your state board, and see a current certificate of insurance before work starts.
The price is on the page
Every service page publishes real US cost ranges before it asks you for anything, attributed to named 2026 data and cross-checked against what homeowners report paying. A referral service that hides pricing is working for the contractor.
We never fake experience
We are not tradespeople and we do not pretend to be. There are no invented founder stories, no fabricated testimonials, no made-up job counters. Safety guidance is attributed to the bodies that publish it.
Who runs this site
Emergency Services 24H is a US emergency home services referral network, reachable at our contact page and on the terms in our terms of service. Editorial responsibility for every cost figure and every safety instruction sits with the editorial team, who sign it off before it goes live. Corrections 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 publish, checking it against what homeowners report paying, and putting the number on the page before the form. A “reviewed by” byline appears only 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 region 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 license in the trade we intend to refer them for: a general contractor license does not cover our gas or electrical referrals. We verify general liability cover and, where the trade requires it, workers’ compensation. We check the trading name, the address and the review history for price changing after arrival.
A check is a snapshot, not a live feed
A license check is a snapshot taken on a date, not a live feed. Licenses lapse and insurers cancel policies, so we re-check periodically and still tell you to ask for the license number at the door.
We do not supervise the work. Once a contractor contacts you, your agreement is with them: they set the price, they carry the warranty, they own the repair. Repeated complaints remove a contractor from the network, which is the only enforcement a referral service has.
What happens to your request
When you submit the form, your name, contact details and description of the failure are matched to contractors who work in that trade, 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 dialing 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 (per our privacy policy), then delete them.
- We do not sell your details to advertisers or data brokers.
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.
How we build trust without pretending
Our expertise is a method, not a memoir. We synthesize what tradespeople and homeowners report, ground every safety and cost claim in a named authority, and state the commercial model plainly: contractors pay us a referral fee, and that fee never moves a price range.
Two examples: the 24 to 48 hour drying window for wet materials comes from the EPA guide to mold and moisture, and the figure of about $25,000 of damage from one inch of water comes from FloodSmart, the NFIP site. The rest is in our editorial policy.
What “licensed, bonded and insured” actually buys you
The phrase appears on every van and every landing page in this industry, ours included when we describe the contractors in the network. It is worth being precise about what the middle word means, because it is the one people misread.
- A contractor’s bond is not a warranty on the work, and it is not there for you specifically.
- California, the state with the clearest numbers, requires a twenty five thousand dollar bond but caps most homeowner recovery at seven and a half thousand in aggregate.
- It is a shared fund: three claimants in one year queue for the same money.
“Consider only contractors who are licensed and insured. Check with your state or county government to confirm a contractor’s license, and ask the contractor for proof of insurance.”
Sources for this page
- Electrical Safety Foundation International
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission: Carbon Monoxide Information Center
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home: the 24–48 hour drying window
- National Flood Insurance Program (FEMA): One inch of water can cause about $25,000 of damage; NFIP policies carry a 30-day waiting period
Reviewed on . If a figure here no longer matches its source, that is a bug, so tell us and we will correct it.
24/7 dispatch network
Get help from a local contractor
Tell us what has failed and how soon you need someone. We route your request to local contractors covering your area, and they contact you directly.
Fire, a gas smell, or an injury? Leave the building and call 911 first, then your gas utility or power company. Use this form once you are safe.