What you're probably seeing right now
Maybe it's a dark ring spreading across the ceiling under an upstairs bathroom. Maybe it's water pooling faster than a towel can soak it up, or a hissing sound behind a wall that wasn't there yesterday. Or maybe it's just a slow drip under the kitchen sink that's been going on for a week and you've finally decided to do something about it.
Not all of these need a call at 11pm. Some can wait until a normal business day. The trick is telling them apart quickly, because in the Ozarks, a small leak ignored over a weekend can turn into a bigger problem once the ground freezes or the humidity does its usual work on old crawlspaces.
Why Nixa homes are particularly exposed
A lot of housing stock around Nixa dates from the building boom of the 1990s and 2000s, with PEX and copper mixed depending on when additions went in. Older farmhouses and homes near the original town square still have some galvanized pipe, which corrodes from the inside and fails without much warning.
Winters here aren't brutal, but they're inconsistent. A week of hard freeze followed by a 50-degree thaw is normal, and that freeze-thaw cycle is hard on pipes running through unheated crawlspaces, which plenty of homes here still have instead of basements. Summers bring heavy clay soil that swells and shifts with rain, putting pressure on buried lines and slab foundations. Both seasons create their own kind of leak.
More on this from The Leaks That Cannot Wait Until Morning And The Ones That Can.
The leaks that cannot wait
A burst supply line is the clearest emergency. Water under pressure doesn't stop on its own, and a half-inch line can put out gallons a minute. If you hear rushing water you can't account for, or see water actively spreading rather than just sitting, shut off the main and call for help immediately.
Anything near electrical panels or outlets is also urgent, obviously. So is a water heater that's leaking from the tank itself rather than a fitting. These don't get better by morning, and a tank failure can dump 40 or 50 gallons onto a floor fast.
A frozen pipe that's already split, usually found in an exterior wall or crawlspace during a cold snap, counts too. You might not see water yet if it's still frozen solid, but once it thaws, it will go everywhere at once. If you suspect this, turn off the water to that section if you can, and don't wait to find out.
The leaks that can wait until morning
A slow drip from a faucet, a toilet that runs a little, or a small damp spot under a sink that isn't growing are all things you can live with overnight. Put a bucket under it, shut off the local valve if there is one, and deal with it during business hours.
A hose bib that weeps a little in cold weather, or a water softener line with a small seep, falls in the same category. These are worth fixing soon, not instantly. The cost of waiting a day is usually a little more water on the floor, not structural damage.
What you can check yourself before deciding
First, find your main shut-off valve now, not during an emergency. In most Nixa homes it's near the water meter at the street or in the garage. Knowing where it is before you need it saves real time.
Second, look at how fast the water is appearing. Spreading visibly in front of you means it's urgent. Staying the same size after twenty minutes means it's probably not.
Third, check whether it's near anything electrical, or whether it's coming from a water heater tank, main line, or frozen section of pipe. Those three categories justify a call regardless of the hour.
If none of that applies, and it's just a fixture dripping somewhere, it's reasonable to shut off that one valve, mop up, and wait for daylight.
When it stops being a homeowner job
Once you've shut off water and the leak is still active somewhere in the system, or once you can't locate the source at all, that's the point to stop troubleshooting. Water hidden in a wall or under a slab doesn't announce itself clearly, and guessing wrong means tearing into drywall for nothing.
Anything involving the main line, the water heater tank, or a frozen pipe that's already burst needs a professional the same day, not eventually. The rest, the slow stuff, is worth handling calmly during business hours rather than paying for a midnight call that could have waited.