Emergency guide
How to shut off your water before it costs you a floor
Read this on a calm afternoon, not while standing in an inch of water in a finished basement. Two minutes now means you know exactly where to go later.
- Find your main shutoff today
- Where it usually is in these houses
- What to do after the water is off
- When to shut off power too
The short version
Start here
Work down the list. Most situations are answered in the first two rows.
Find it now, not later
Follow the pipe from your water meter into the house. The main valve is usually within a few feet of where the line enters.
Do this today
In a Florissant ranch or split-level
Most often on the basement wall facing the street, frequently near the meter, sometimes in a utility area by the water heater.
Where to look
How to close it
A round handle turns clockwise several rotations. A lever valve turns a quarter turn until it sits across the pipe.
Two types
Fixture shutoffs
Under sinks and behind toilets. If the leak is at one fixture, close that valve instead of the whole house.
Smaller leaks
If it will not turn
Sixty-year-old gate valves seize. Do not force it hard enough to snap it — shut off at the meter if you can, and have the valve replaced.
Common here
General guidance for Florissant-area homes. Every house is different — call if you are unsure.
Detail
After the water is off
Open a low faucet
Opening a tap on the lowest level drains remaining pressure and stops water still in the lines from finding the leak.
Kill power if water is near it
Finished lower levels put outlets, furnaces and panels at floor level. Shut the breaker before you walk through standing water.
Photograph everything
Before you clean up. If insurance is involved later, photos taken now are worth far more than a description.
Start moving water out
Towels, a wet vac, anything. Standing water does damage by the hour, especially into subfloor and drywall.
Call
Tell us what you shut off and what you are seeing. We will tell you what else to do while we are on the way.
Do not turn it back on to check
People do this. Turning the water back on to see if it is still leaking is how a contained problem becomes a second flood.
The honest answer
Make it easier on future you
Three small things that make an emergency much less bad in a house this age.
Tag the main shutoff with something visible so anyone in the household can find it, including a house sitter or a teenager home alone. Exercise the valve once a year — turn it fully off and back on — because sixty-year-old gate valves seize from disuse, and discovering that during an emergency is the worst possible timing. And if your shutoff is a round-handle gate valve that is stiff or weeping, ask us to swap it for a quarter-turn ball valve next time we are out. On a house built in the 1960s that is one of the highest-value small jobs there is: it turns a two-minute struggle into a one-second motion.
Common questions
What homeowners ask us
Where is the main water shutoff in a Florissant home?
Usually where the service line enters — most often on the basement wall facing the street, near the meter, or in a utility area by the water heater.
Which way do I turn it?
Clockwise for a round handle, several full turns. A lever-style ball valve is a quarter turn until the handle sits across the pipe.
What if the valve will not turn?
Do not force it hard enough to break it. Old gate valves seize, and a snapped valve turns a leak into a flood. Shut off at the meter if you can reach it, and have the valve replaced.
Should I shut off the water heater too?
If the heater is the source, or if you are shutting the house down for a while, yes. There is a valve on the cold inlet at the top.
Can I turn the water back on to check the leak?
Not until it is repaired. Turning it back on to test is a common way to cause a second round of damage.
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Related: emergency plumber, leak detection, signs you need a plumber, shutoff replacement, water heater service
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