Plumbing in Portland hides in crawls and then announces itself as a soft floor. Galvanized supply and cast-iron drains are ordinary in the older bungalows, and a slow weep at a joint can rot the wood before a ceiling drips. Shut the main if the supply is loose. If the meter moves with the fixtures off, chase the pipe. If the meter is still, look at the grade, the gutter, and the west-hills slope before you open a wall that was only rained on.
A cable clears a clog and does not heal a scaled cast-iron line or a belly under the house. Ask about a camera if the backup returns. Gutter water and hill water imitate a leak at the foundation, especially where the west hills shed at the uphill wall. Say if the wet spot followed rain. That sentence keeps a roof problem from being opened as plumbing.
Water heaters in closets fail on their own clock and are awkward when the vent and the pan were an afterthought. Name gas or electric, the shutoff, and whether you smell trouble. Stop using a gas unit if you do. A leak under a finished floor will travel farther than the stain. Say if the hatch is blocked by storage, because access is the whole visit on a bungalow.
Hose bibs and exposed lines still deserve a plan when a cold snap reaches the valley, even though the winter is usually mild. That is not the same emergency as a split you can hear. Know which one you are calling about. A sweet smell in the crawl is not something to deodorize. It is wet wood, and it may be a pipe, a tub, or the hill. Say what you can see from the hatch so the visit starts at the right joint.
Say leak, drain, water heater, or a wet crawl, and the part of Portland. Say if you can shut the water off. A soft floor is not a bucket you live with. Rain at the foundation is not a faucet. Call the number on this page.