How to Turn Off Water to Your House

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Do you know where your home’s water shut-off valve is, and how to turn it off? Learn what to do before you’re faced with a plumbing emergency.

Chances are there will come a time when you’ll have to turn off the water supply to your home. You may need to do so for a scheduled plumbing repair, or before leaving on a long trip. Then there are the emergency situations, such as when a pipe bursts somewhere behind the drywall or your bathroom is flooded with water, when you’ll need to cut the water off, and fast. Even if repairs or emergencies haven’t come up yet, it’s still important to know where your home’s main water valves are and how they function. Closing and reopening them periodically will prevent them from getting stuck in place, and give you an opportunity to inspect them for corrosion or broken connections.

There’s no one universal spot in every house where water supply valves are located, so it could take some time to find them—time that you won’t have if water is rapidly soaking through the second-floor ceiling. Before there’s any urgency (or water all over the floor) at your place, consider familiarizing yourself now with how to turn off the water supply. Show family members, too, where the valves are and how to cut them off quickly. This knowledge will make regular maintenance easier, and it could save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in repair costs in a worst-case scenario.

Project Overview

Working Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Skill Level: Beginner
Estimated Cost: $0

Types of Water Valves

There are a wide variety of valves that are used in commercial, industrial, and institutional plumbing scenarios. However, there are two types of valves that are commonly used in residential homes as building control valves: gate valves and ball valves. In residential settings, these valves tend to range in size from ½ inch to 1½ inches, and they can be maneuvered by hand without using any tools.

• Gate valves consist of a circular handle attached with a stem to the body of the valve. When you turn the handle, it slowly closes a gate inside the body of the valve, blocking the flow of water. Turning the valve in the opposite direction will open the gate and allow the water to flow freely.
• Ball valves are the preferred type of valve for home use because they are less likely to seize up or develop leaks over time. You can recognize ball valves by their lever-style handle. As the name indicates, there is a ball inside the body of the valve that has a hole through the center. When the valve is open, the handle should be in line with the pipe, allowing the water to flow through the hole in the ball. Turning the valve 90 degrees, so that it is perpendicular to the pipe, will rotate the ball to the side so that water cannot flow through the hole.

How to Find the Water Shut-Off Valve to Your Home

The main water shut-off valve is usually located on the main water line, where it enters the home. In most cases, this will be in a basement, cellar, or crawl space because the water line extends from the neighborhood water main and enters the home from under the ground. In warmer areas where freezing pipes aren’t a concern, the main water shutoff might also be found outdoors on an exterior wall, or buried near the street.

Look in these areas for your home’s main water valve:

• Inside the house. Water supply pipes from the city typically run from the street side of your house to the indoors. So check out utility areas—such as the garage, laundry room, or basement—along exterior walls facing the street. A likely place to start looking is near your water heater. In a basement, the pipe will likely be at eye level; on main floors, it will often be located lower down.
• Outdoors on an exterior wall. In some warmer climates, the shut-off valve may be located outside the home on an exterior wall. Start looking for it near your outdoor faucet.
• Outdoors buried near the street. If you can’t find the valve in or around the house, it’s time to hit the street. There’s usually a water supply shut-off valve next to your water meter outside where the city can easily turn your water on or off. It will likely be below an access panel buried in the ground, near the street. The access panel may require a special tool called a water meter key (sold online and at most hardware stores) to remove the cover. There may be two valves: one for the homeowner (on the side of the water meter closest to the house) and one for the city (on the side of the water meter closest to the street). Or there may just be one valve, which is for the city’s use. It may not be permitted for homeowners to use this valve, so it’s best to confirm with your water utility company.

Step 1: Locate the valve.

The water main shut-off valve could be in a number of places, depending on the age of your home and the climate of your location. Valves can sometimes be buried inside drywall or behind the furnace. If your valve is in one of these tight locations, you may need a professional plumber to relocate the valve or to install an easy-to-access secondary valve further down the line. The shutoff will either be a gate valve, which looks like a circular spigot, or a ball valve, which has a lever-style handle.

When you find it, take some time to inspect the valve for any problems. If the valve is rusted, aged, significantly worn, or if you spot a leak, then you are better off contacting a plumber to replace it instead of taking a risk on an unreliable valve that may break if you attempt to use it.

Tried-and-True Advice

There have been two times when I’ve had to turn off the water in my home quickly: One was a burst frozen pipe in an unfinished part of the house. Another was when I was constructing a built-in and happened to drill right through a water supply line hidden in the wall. In both cases, I found myself scrambling to locate the water shut-off valve as a geyser of water sprayed from the wall.

Even if you’ve had to shut off the water in your home before, panic can make it difficult to remember where it is. Once you do locate the main shut off, tag it with a brightly colored label so it’s easy to spot should disaster strike.

—Tony Carrick, Contributing Writer