How to Turn Off Your Main Water Valve
When disaster strikes, and you need to react fast, can you locate and shut off your main water valve?
Even if you are not the handiest person, knowing where your main water valve is and how to turn it off can be crucial to saving your home and belongings.
Your kitchen tap releases around 2-3 gallons per minute of water. Using this as a bench mark, you can imagine that even a small water leak could release a whole gallon of water every minute until you shut off your main water valve. This is why time is of the essence when you are experience an emergency.
Where to find your main water valve
In Toronto, most homes have the incoming water line coming through the front of the home and your main shut off for the line could be located:
- Close to the floor in a crawl space or basement.
- Behind an access panel
- Around your water heater
If you are unsure where your main water valve is located, find the curb stop cap on your lawn/driveway outside (it is a metal round cap) and follow it straight to your house. Then look inside around that spot.
The “curb stop” is a secondary point that the city uses to turn your water off. As a homeowner, you should also know where this is located on your property. If, for whatever reason, your main valve will not turn off or needs to be replaced, the city will use the ‘curb stop’ to shut down the water so a plumber can make repairs.
How to turn off your main water valve
Valves should be easily turn-able by hand in a clock wise direction. You should audibly be able to hear the water stop flowing if you get close enough to the pipe.
If you shut off the valve and your leak persists, the valve is not holding. This is the time the City needs to be called in to shut off the water from the “curb stop”. Then a plumber can repair the leak and the leaking main water valve.
If you are experiencing an emergency leak or need your main water valve changed, call on the trusted plumbers at Trouble Shooters. We have been doing plumbing repairs in Toronto since 1944.
