Shutting Off Your Water

Shutting off water to a fixture. If you want to shut off the water to a particular sink or toilet, look for a valve under the sink or behind the toilet.

It’s desirable to have valves which control the flow of water to each fixture in your house so that it’s not necessary to turn off the water to the entire house to fix or replace a particular fixture. We can easily install these for you.

Shutting off water to the entire house. If you’re not finding a valve to a specific fixture, you can shut off the water to the entire house. Look for a main valve outside, possibly located in the basement on an outside wall that faces the street. If you don’t have a basement, it may be located outside on a wall of your house. There should also be a main valve near the street or sidewalk in front of your house, although it may require a special tool to turn off this valve. Often this water shut-off valve is located in a buried box with a cement or metal lid.

Know in advance how to shut off the water. It’s a good idea to know where and how to turn off the water to your house in case of an emergency. Water pipes can break due to an earthquake, a freeze or other causes.

If you need help in locating and working the shut-off valve, a neighbor may be able to help you, or you can always call us and we will have a technician there as quickly as possible to help you out with your plumbing emergency needs.