Where Your Shut-Off Valve Is, And Why You Should Find It Tonight
· 4 min read · Harbor Plumbing
Every emergency call we take starts the same way: we ask where the shut-off is, and the person on the phone does not know. Water runs for another four minutes while they look. Four minutes is a ceiling.
Start at the street
Your meter box is usually near the kerb, a rectangular lid at grade marked WATER. Inside, on the house side of the meter, there is a valve. That one shuts off everything. It may need a meter key, which costs about eight dollars.
Then find the house valve
Most Central Florida homes also have a valve where the supply enters the building, often in the garage, near the water heater, or on the exterior wall behind a hose bib. This is the one you actually want at 2am, because it is inside and you can reach it in the dark.
Test it once, today
A valve that has not been turned in fifteen years may not turn at all, and finding that out during a burst is the worst possible timing. Close it, check a tap runs dry, open it again. If it is seized or weeps afterwards, that is a twenty minute job to replace and worth doing.
The valve you cannot find is the same as no valve at all.
Once you have found both, put a photo of each in your phone. When you are standing in water at midnight, you will not be reading a blog post.
Valve seized, or cannot find one?
It is a twenty minute job and worth doing before you need it. Open a ticket and we will price it flat, or call and we will talk you through finding yours for nothing.