When you have a major issue with pipes, sewer lines, drains, and other water-related issues in your home, you’ve probably heard the old axiom that you should not attempt to fix these kind of problems yourself and only a professional plumbing contractor should.
Shut The Water Supply Off?
Maybe you’ve taken those words to heart and decided you will hire a professional plumber, but you may still be wondering if there are any steps towards fixing your problems that you can do yourself, and the answer is yes. There are some things you can do for residential plumbing preparation that are quite safe and don’t require any advanced tools.
Probably your biggest concern when there is plumbing issues in your home, is to make sure your water supply is turned off to prevent any accidents. There are a variety of different places you can shut it off from.
If you only need plumbing done on an individual sink, toilet, tub, or other faucet, you can usually find the water valves located under the fixture, or sometimes under the floor right below the fixture. Simply turn the valve until you feel it seal shut and test it by turning on the faucet and making sure the water isn’t coming out.
In some cases, you may need to completely shut off all water to the house, and that can be done by finding a valve either on the inside or the outside of the house connected to the water meter. If you only need to work on a hot water tank, softener, filter, or a few pipes connected to the tank, you may just want to shut off the supply going into the tank itself which can usually be done by shutting off a valve just outside of the incoming water. You can usually find the incoming water valve by looking at your tank’s manual.
You may have a well that holds your water supply if you live in a rural area, and if that’s the case, your valve and pumps may be located in a hard to reach place. If you do need to shut off the valve at the well itself, you may need to call your plumbing contractor to find out where that valve is. Otherwise, most residential plumbing systems in rural areas have a pressure tank that pumps the water through the pipes, and most pressure tanks have a valve located on their outgoing pipe that you can shut off.