Find your shut-off valve before you need it

Most emergency calls start the same way. We ask the homeowner to shut the water off, and about half of them don’t know where the valve is. Finding it while nothing’s wrong takes five minutes.

Where to look

Start where the supply line enters the house — a basement wall, a crawl space, or a utility closet on the street-facing side. There’s usually a second valve out at the meter. Close and reopen each one now, because a valve that hasn’t moved in ten years often won’t move when it matters.

What to do while you wait

Shut the main, then open the lowest tap in the house to drain the standing water out of the pipes. Our emergency line is answered by a real person, 24 hours a day — but those two steps stop most of the damage before we arrive.