A burst pipe left water gushing down an Alderley Edge street for more than eight hours. The fault arose on Congleton Road at around noon last Thursday.
Resident Sue Rylands, and her husband Anthony, rang the United Utilities emergency line after water began pouring down the hill but engineers did not attend until 8pm.
The leak was stopped in the early hours of Friday. There was no damage to Mrs Rylands' home but her driveway and those of neighbours were left strewn with dirt and debris.
She said: "It took many further phone calls from neighbours and police before we had a visit from a contractor who is to carry out the clean-up work."
Scott Beard, UU water network manager, said: "We are really sorry it took longer than we would have liked to attend to this burst. Unfortunately there was more than one burst in the area that day and our engineers were working flat out."