Main water shutoff

[Default User]

This is somewhat embarrassing, but I'm not sure where the main water cutoff is for my house. I have slab foundation, so obviously not in the basement where most guides tell you to look.

Brian

[Halvey]

[HA HA Budys Here]

Check in the small bedroom, in the closet under the trap door. May have to remove carpet.

[Speedy Jim]

Could be anywhere from the street to your back bedroom. One person knows: Call the utility.

Jim

[DanG]

slab floor. No trap door, do not remove carpet.

I would expect it to be at the meter pit.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[Default User]

The only possibility in the front yard would be the water meter access. I haven't looked down in there, worth trying tomorrow. I think that cover comes off without a special tool.

Brian

[Default User]

I'm guessing this is joke.

Brian

[Colbyt]

Other posters are correct there is a cutoff in the meter box.

On slab homes the main inside cutoff is usually near the water heater. Follow the cold pipe backwards from the heater to the wall or floor that is where it usually is. There is also a cutoff close to where the cold enters the heater that shuts off only the hot water.

Colbyt

[HeatMan]

The utility won't know where the cut-off is inside the house.

There will be one on the street, but locally, you aren't supposed to use that one. It's against the law.

[maradcliff]

Why is it against the law? Back when I lived in the city, I once had a crappy plastic water meter snap off. I was a handyman at the time, so I had a street shutoff tool, and shut off the water. If not, I would have flooded. When the water company arrived, they were glad I had shut off the water. They just replaced the meter WITH AN ALL BRASS ONE, and turned the water back on. They never complained in the least.

Not that most people have the tool, but what are people supposed to do, let the house flood? I'd think it would be MORE illegal NOT to shut it off if a tool was available. I'd call that insurance fraud.

PS. All plastic water meters were replaced a year later. I heard they were breaking off regularly, and the water company was getting real tired of the hassle. Just proves you cant make EVERYTHING out of plastic. They sure try though....

Mark

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Under the circumstances, you did the right thing. Problem is, many people would shut off the water, remove or bypass the meter and save a few bucks. Same reason your electric meter is sealed. Ed

[nospambob]

[RVerDon]

I can turn the shut off valve at the meter off with a crescent wrench. Don't know whether I'm supposed to or not but I've done it several times.

Don

[Claudia]

Don't be embarrassed in the least, what should be easy isn't always. since you know where the meter is, then go to the first logical place (straight line) inside your residence and the shut off should be there. I say SHOULD, because I had a house with the main shut off in the utility access at the rear of the property and the residence shut off had become part of the addition and was under the floor (altho with a handle to lift up the floor).

Some home shutoffs, are outside by the sprinkler shut off. Don't know which Boeing location you are at, but snow/no snow would also be a clue. Freezing ground would mean shut off in conditioned space.

I personally have more than once (tence) shut off at meter for various reasons. Having the shut off key it particularly useful when something major breaks and you can't get to the house shut off only the meter/main.

[Default User]

The garage or laundry/utility room seemed most logical to me, but I haven't come up with it. The garage is attached, with the laundry room behind it. I looked at the water heater, but no luck. The cold water pipe comes out of the drywall behind it, and the hot pipe (which has its valve) goes right back in.

Brian

[Default User]

The meter is about middle of the house, so in such a case the access would be in the living room. There's nothing that I can see that seems likely there.

St. Louis. As I mention in another message, the logical place to me would be the garage or the utility room, but no luck.

Thanks.

Brian

[HRL]

Did you check your meter area? I would expect there would be a turn off there. Then another down line from it. Do you live in an area where the lines could freeze?

In my area where it freezes the meter is in a hole near the street. It has a turn off valve built in. Then there is a turn off valve where the line enters the house in the basement.

In the Los Angeles area with a slab there was a valve outside the house where the line came up out of the ground and entered the house. There was another at the street in the meter area.

[Default User]

I have not yet, I need to do that. I'm in St. Louis where it most definitely can freeze.

Brian

[ameijers]

Could be in a metal or plastic valve box in the front yard, perhaps hidden under landscaping, or the yard 'swallowed' it. (Same way a lush yard trys to overtake a concrete patio, and you have to keep cutting it back with a flat shovel.) Doesn't have to be big- 8" round or 8x10 rectangle. Not the best way to do it, and not code in some areas, but I have seen it before in slab houses. If drywall job in utility room isn't original, it could also be buried in there, or under a floor tile. Lotsa clueless people make changes over the years.

aem sends....

[nospambob]