Quick! Where’s the shutoff?

• Posted on January 2, 2017
• by mikew
• in Fix It & Use It
• No Comments.

So you’ve got a major problem and you need to get the water shutoff to your house. Have you figured out where it is located? Take a few minutes this week to find it and label it!

Common places the plumbing shutoff might be are garages, near hot water tanks, front entry coat closets, and under main level bathroom sinks. Laundry rooms, in a service box by the front door or under the kitchen sink are also possibilities. In some cases it may be in the crawlspace (a terrible location in my opinion!) or at the street (a special tool or channel locks for the physically robust required!). My inspections usually identify its location and provide a picture in the report. If you have trouble finding it or decide it is impractically located, contact a plumber to help you install this in a better location. This can usually be done without too much work.

Once your main water shut off is located, is it accessible? Get the boxes or shelving moved so that you can reach this. I appreciate it when people label the shutoff so they do not forget. Sometimes two or more faucet handles may be present in close proximity. One is the main shutoff and the other is probably for the outdoor faucets. Label them correctly!

When the shutoff is needed it is probably for an emergency. Hunting for this and moving storage to access it will waste valuable time and create incredible stress for you. Five minutes today might save 15% or more of TLC (time, labor, cost) in the future!