The first move is mechanical: close the main shutoff. Every gallon after that decision is a gallon that does not need drying, and the shutoff is the one tool every homeowner should be able to find in the dark. If water has reached outlets or appliances, cut power to those rooms at the breaker before wading in.
In Golden, the first hour adds a question to the standard order. Shutoff, power, photographs, as everywhere; then name the material. In a Washington Avenue Victorian or a postwar ranch on Orangeburg and galvanized, the failed run is evidence about its siblings, and the photographs should include the pipe itself, its markings and corrosion, before it is cut out. That evidence is what turns the repair visit into a plan instead of a patch.
The second move is evidence: photographs of the failed line, the rooms, and the water's reach, taken before anything is moved or mopped. Insurers approve documented sudden losses; undocumented ones get argued. Note the time you found it and the time the water stopped.
The third move is the repair read: a split is a symptom with a cause (freeze, corrosion, pressure, age), and the repair visit should name the cause, because a patched effect with a live cause is next season's burst in a nearby section of the same run.
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