Plumbing in Tennessee freezes in the east, scales in the basin, and rots faster in western humidity. Mountain and foothill lines in open crawls burst on nights the delta does not respect. Middle Tennessee often has basements, where a leak is visible and a water heater may sit below grade. The west is mostly slab or crawl, with a high water table and fewer basements to catch a drip. Older towns in all three divisions still have galvanized supply and cast-iron drains. Say which water and which foundation.
Stop the flow if the main will turn. Say supply or drain, and say if you already did. A heater that let go through a ceiling is not a weeping lavatory stop. Gurgling at several fixtures points to the building drain or a vent. Water that rose from a creek or a low western street into a floor drain is not a split supply line. Describe the mark it left. Basement seepage in the hills is its own description. Do not treat it as a faucet job. Attic heaters, where the house has them, take the plaster with them.
A cable clears a stoppage and leaves a broken or root-bound pipe alone. Ask whether this visit clears or repairs, and whether a camera follows a repeat. Heater work should list the fuel, whether it is a tank, where the pan drains, the shutoff, discharge piping, and haul-away. In the basin, mineral and the pan both matter. In the west, humidity and a pan in a closet matter. In the east, protect new lines from freeze. Call small jobs small: a running toilet, a dead disposal, a valve that will not shut.
Thaw without flame under a cabin or a bungalow. After an ice night in the middle or east, walk the house when the water is back, because a limb on the roof steals attention from a burst. Western freezes are rarer and therefore sloppier. People are not practiced. Say if that is this week. Septic and wells are common outside the cities. Correct a city-sewer assumption if it is wrong.
Say leak, drain, heater, seepage, or freeze, and say if the main moves. Plumbing in Tennessee depends on the division you are standing in. Call the number on this page.