Water Cutoff

[Bill]

Is there an easy way to find the water cutoff for my house?

[Bill]

Is there an easy way to find the water cutoff for my house?

[Rick]

The one inside your house or the one the utility shuts off when you don't pay your water bill?

[Bob]

Not without getting up from the computer and looking for it.

[Bill]

I don't have a cutoff in the house for the shower that's why I need to find the outside cutoff. In the past I have usually found one in the front yard close to a hydrant but not here. I know I could cut the water off at the water meter if I had a key to unlock the box but I don't.

[Bob]

There is probably a shut off very near to the water meter, possible one on both sides.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Follow the pipe that feeds the water. Look for a lump in hte pipe with a handle on top.

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[Cue]

Usually right inside the house near the spot where the main water pipe enters through the wall.

[HeyBub]

You got a bolt cutter?

[Mark Lloyd]

My house has where the water line comes in. It's outside (next to a faucet) and has a L-shaped handle sticking out of the ground, which is stuck and won't turn.

[Carpenter]

You are asking us?

Draw a straight line from the water meter to the house. The shutoff valve should be on that line, possibly close to the water heater? (the HOT water heater, as some simple souls call it).

[Dan C]

Of course, he won't know where that is either... Kinda makes you wonder how some people even make it into adulthood, doesn't it?

[George E. Cawthon]

Do you have a crawlspace or basement or is the house built on a slab. If the former there should be a valve where the pipe enters crawlspace or basement. If the former there is possibly one near where the pipe reaches the house.

[Bert Byfield]

And just past the water meter. The water company doesn't want you messing with the pipe on their side of the meter, but there should be a cutoff just inside your side of the meter, to be sure it can cut off all the water. Is the pipe buried or something? Have you looked where the pipe comes into your house? It should be there. (If your water has been cut off and you need to find the water company's underground valve for some reason, it's probably in a hole in the ground in your front yard; Home Depot might have the six-foot (or so) wrench that turns that underground valve.)

[Sacramento Dave]

I found a the shut off valve in the middle of a front lawn once. Old house never understood why it would be there, maybe a valve instead of a coupling.

[DanG]

2 different states I've lived in had no separate shut off. The shut off was the curb box. Some have a hex bolt, others use a flag shaped skeleton key like this: The flagged key is often on one end of a long t shaped shut off wrench.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]