Locate Your Main Water Shut Off

As a homeowner, and even a renter, it is extremely important to know how to locate your main water shut off valve.

Why?

Because if you live in a home long enough you are bound to spring a leak somewhere, at some time. Often, that leak will appear behind a wall, in a ceiling, or on your water heater, and you may not have any choice but to shut down all your water to prevent flood damage until you can get a plumber out to help.

So in this week’s blog I’m going to show you how to recognize, find, and use your main water shut off valve so you can rest easy knowing what to do in case of an emergency.

Step One: Recognize Your Valve

There are 2 very common types of shut off valve you will find in not only Colorado homes, but most homes across the United States. They are ball valves and gate valves. They can range in size, but the most common are 3/4″ and 1″ for residential purposes. Handle colors may also vary, so don’t necessarily expect yours to be red or yellow. They could be blue, black, pink, or any other color of the rainbow.

Ball valves are very trustworthy and shut off with a simple quarter turn of the handle. When the handle is parallel to the body (as seen above) it is in the open position. When the handle is perpendicular to the body, it is in the closed position.

Gate valves take a little more effort to close and can become stiff with age. They are, however, very reliable and have a very long life. To shut off a gate valve simply turn the handle clockwise until it will not allow you to turn anymore. Make sure the handle is snug. Some gate valves require a little extra effort on the final quarter turn, but if you find yourself exhausted, hurting, or needing tools to fully close the valve it would be a good idea to have it replaced before an emergency.

Step Two: Find Your Valve

You main water shut off valve is usually in a basement or utility room of your home. In Colorado it is also common for the valve to be located in a crawl space if one exists. Due to the cold temperatures in Colorado it is rare to find a water shut off outside the home or in a garage and it is not recommended that you relocate your shut off to such a place.

Start by following the wall that faces the city street side of your home at the lowest point. If your home does not face city streets (i.e. rural properties) look toward the side of the home that faces your well. The shut off may be behind an access panel, coming off of a copper pipe that pokes through your concrete foundation, in the furthest corner of your crawlspace, near a water heater/furnace, or right in plain view. Less often the shut off is located in an upstairs mechanical room. This happens more in apartments, condo units, and multi-home complexes.

Step 3: Test Your Valve!

Once you have located your valve it is recommended that you test it to ensure it is operating properly. As with all metals in contact with water it will wear down and eventually become non-functional. If this has happened, you want to know before an emergency, not after.

In order to test your valve turn it’s handle following the directions in step one based on your type of valve. Once you have fully closed the valve go to your nearest faucet and turn both the hot and cold water handles to the “on” position. You should have a steady flow of water for a few moments which will become lesser and lesser until the water completely stops flowing. The more faucets you open the faster this process will occur.

If you have the main water valve turned off and you are still seeing water drip out of fixtures after a few minutes of waiting your valve may not be fully closing. Contact your plumber to have them come test the valve and properly replace it if necessary.

If you have a small leak coming from the packing nut (see picture below) on your shut off valve simply use a small crescent wrench first remove the handle stem nut and handle, then lightly tighten the nut and replace handle. Gate valves normally require a Phillips head screwdriver to remove the handle, however the packing nut is in the same location. Tighten only enough to stop the leak, starting a quarter turn a time time. Check after each quarter turn. If you over tighten two things may happen: 1) the handle may become too tight to turn, or 2) you may break the packing nut which will mean you must replace the whole valve.

If you are not comfortable performing the previous task contact your plumber to tighten the bolt for you. Sometimes it’s better safe than sorry, especially on older devices.

Residential homes often also have a water shut off located in a pit at the city street. You’ll recognize this by the round iron lid that is marked with your municipalities insignia. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS! This shut off is for licensed professionals and city workers only. Because this valve is city property, not property of the homeowner, you could face a fine ($500 – $5,000) from your city for using this device.

For Licensed Professional and City Use Only

When you are ready to turn your water back on, do so slowly and purge the air from your waterlines starting with bath tub spouts first. There will be a lot of bubbling and gurgling as your system regains water pressure.

I hope that’s a helpful walk though. If you have any tips or ideas to help your neighbors find their valves, post them below. Also feel free to send pictures or messages with crazy places you’ve found your main water shut off valves.

Extra tip: Occasionally when you shut down your water system small pieces of debris can come loose. This is nothing to worry about, it causes no damage, however this debris can clog the aerators in your faucets. You can avoid this in one of two ways:

1. Simply unscrew and remove your faucet aerators prior to turning you water back on to allow the debris to pass. Then re-install the aerator after purging water.

2. Open a bathtub faucet on the top floor first. They allow for unrestricted flow, therefore if you let this run for a couple minutes it should remove the debris from your system without you needing to remove faucet aerators.

All the best!

-Chris

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WaterCop Has Your Back – Flood Prevention

Recently, one of our industry partners decided get on the flood prevention train and install a WaterCop Pro Series automatic water shut-off valve. After the installation was complete and the system operational, he was inspired to blog about how cool the system is.

So that’s where we come in. Since he did such a great job writing the blog, it doesn’t make sense for us to try and report on what he said, rather we’ll just post it up for him. So, please enjoy the following blog written by our friend Mark from Disaster Restoration Services.

Please click here to read the original blog posting in its entirety.

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Here to Help with the Colorado Floods

McAdams Plumbing is here to help with the current Colorado floods. In this time of devastation the most important thing is to ensure that friends and family are safe and accounted for. We ask that you please cooperate with any requests for evacuation that may still come. While it seems the worst has past, the forecast shows that it’s not quite over yet.

With all of the excess water that is affecting the Colorado homes, MP has noticed that it seems sump pumps and water heaters are the most common items to fail. Because of this we have decided to offer $100.00 off ANY sump pump or water heater installation for homes affected by flood waters, good through the month of September. There is going to be a lot of stress and worry as our friends and neighbors get their lives and homes back in order. Hopefully we can help take a little of your shoulders.

At McAdams Plumbing our relationships with our customers mean the world to us. If you have been affected by the flood, please don’t hesitate to call. We’re here for you. 303-465-1900.

MP

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Dishwasher Flooding Repair DIY

A common problem the folks at MP run into with their customers is dishwasher flooding. Luckily, just last week, we came across a great blog written by Chris Barnes of the Huffington Post about some DIY tips for checking your dishwasher before you call out a plumber. And since we’re in the business of trying to save you money, we’d like to pass on the info. Thanks for the great write-up Chris!

You can find the link to the article here.

Dishwasher Flood Damage

Some Main Takeaways

If you find your dishwasher flooding:

• First things first – unplug the dishwasher or turn off the circuit at the breaker box
• Remove all the dish racks and check the drain grate on the floor of the machine – food and debris can clog this and cause flooding
• If the water doesn’t drain after clearing the drain grate check the hose running from the machine and see if there’s a clog
• Remove the hose connection from under the sink
• Grab a bucket and remove some of the water from the washing machine to make it easier to pull the washer out (you’ll need to)
• Run some water from your sink into the dishwasher hose to see if the line clears
• Re-assemble and see if it drains properly – if yes then hooray! – if not then give us a call and we’ll see what we can do, or refer you to someone who can help!

Thanks for your time folks! As always drop any questions, comments, or suggestions below. Remember, the Proof is in the Plumbing!

Barnes, Chris. “Dishwasher Flooding Repair You Can Try Before Calling A Plumber.” Huffington Post. The Blog. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.

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Beware of Water Damage!

Water damage is can happen to anyone, at anytime. Water, as you probably know, is the most destructive force on Earth! It can carve valleys and move mountains. It can also collapse the ceiling in your home and destroy all your floors.  3 cubic feet of water weighs roughly 1,700 pounds, that’s as much as a Smart Car or an average Plains Bison. For that reason McAdams Plumbing wants to continue to push the point that during the cold winter months you must be careful to avoid freeze break in your pipes.

Since December of 2012 McAdams Plumbing has been called out to 31 calls for leaks related to freezes. Most of them were caught swiftly and (relatively) little damage was seen. But some of the others were not so lucky. This blog is going to highlight what happened to one of our “not so lucky” friends in Longmont.

What you see above is 4 separate water lines that froze, then burst in an unoccupied home in Longmont. Now this event was no fault of the owners. This was a home he owned and was remodeling one floor at a time. While he was away from the home for a week the furnace failed and afterward, with the very low temperatures outside, the house began to freeze. When the pipes burst (almost all in different locations) water began filling the home. I wish I could say it happened slowly but it did not.

All in all, 180,000 gallons (no, that is not a typo) of water flooded 2 stories of this 3 story home. If we follow the math that says every gallon of water weighs 8.34 lb., then this house withstood (over time) 1,501,200 lb. of water! That’s just an amazing.

This is why we always remind everyone we can to leave the heat in their home at no less than 62*F at all times and to insulate pipes that are on outer walls or exposed directly/indirectly to freezing temperatures. In cases like this one though, even those measures weren’t enough. You just can’t anticipate a furnace failing. That’s why we so strongly recommend the addition of a WaterCop Automatic Water Shut-Off Valve to any home that you claim ownership on. A little money out of pocket in advance could save you several thousand dollars in the future.

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