A water shut-off valve is one of the most essential parts of plumbing systems that saves a lot of water, hence money and with it spares a lot of inconvenience that could be caused due to the flooding of water. A shut-off valve is a safety valve that stops the supply of water completely during any problems.

Most of the houses do have a shut-off safety valve installed, but people do not know where to find it. Water leakage problems could really be a headache for most people as it causes a great deal of loss to the property. A shut off safety valve at such time could solve the flooding problem temporarily. These days, according to the plumbing codes, it is essential for houses or any building, for that matter, to have a safety shut-off valve installed. It is our responsibility to know how to locate the shut-off valve quickly.

Locating shut-off valve

• Shut-off valves are mainly installed on the crawlspaces or the basements of a house.
• Sometimes the safety shut-off valves are installed in the front portion of the house where the water goes through a water meter that notes the water consumption.
• If a shut-off valve has not been installed in the house, it is very important to have one installed by calling a local plumber.
• To know where the safety valve is located becomes even more important since, during emergency, things might get worse if the valve is not closed at the right time.
• It would also be great if a map or a plan is kept along which could guide even other family members to locate the valve easily.

It’s highly recommended to know which all pipes are controlled by the shut-off safety valve. Not all the pipes are controlled by a single safety valve. Pipes located outside are generally not connected with the shut-off valve; hence closing the valve during problems in this pipe would not help you.

Best way is to, first, find out which pipes can be controlled using the safety valve. For this you can turn off your safety valve and check manually each pipe if the water still flows. On the other hand to make things simpler, you can always call your plumber to know the parts of the plumbing system that could be turned off by the safety valve.

During any leak problems an efficient way of dealing with problem is to call a professional plumber who himself would switch off your main shut-off valve and solve the leakage problems.