Plumbing in Newark runs through older stacks in buildings where another flat is usually on the other side of the leak. A wet ceiling is often the tub or the supply above you. Galvanized lines, stiff valves, and cast stacks are common. The main shutoff may be in a cellar you share or cannot enter. Basements take water when rain is heavy. Say the floor, say if water is still moving, and say if you can shut a valve without asking anyone.
Pick one of three openings. A supply leak. A drain that is slow or backing up. A water heater in a closet or a low cellar that is leaking or done making hot water. They are different work. A backup that starts only in a hard rain may be the low drain or the street, not your kitchen trap. A roof leader that dumps into the same system can make a storm look like a plumbing failure. Say if the trouble tracks the weather.
Age shows up when you touch it. An old angle stop can fail the moment you try to shut it for a drip. A galvanized riser can be thin where it hides in the plaster. Do not turn every valve to experiment. Describe what you see: brown water, a wet chase, a tub that drains to the flat below, a heater pan that is full. If both flats lose hot water together, the heater may be shared. That single fact changes who has to be home.
Have the plain inventory. One bath or a line of them. Tank or tankless, gas or electric, if the heater is the subject. Whether a drain was snaked and came back. Whether the ceiling below is finished and occupied. Ask who patches what has to be opened. If you do not control the main, say who does. A cable clears a clog. It does not replace a stack. Say which problem you can point at.
Shared older plumbing in a damp brick city is the job. Plumbing in Newark starts with the flat above, the cellar, and the valve you can actually reach. Call the number on this page.