How to Shut Off the Water in Your Home

"I’m Lee. I have a degree in architecture and about ten years experience in construction field and today we are doing a kitchen remodel and we have to cut the hot water pipe back about four to five feet away from where it should be. So what you want to do - we have installed a temporary valve on the end down there so we can use it temporarily to get hot water. You want to get yourself a water key. Or, if you know when you’re going to do the project, and about how long it’ll take, you can just call the city and they’ll come out and turn off your water, and then they’ll come out so many hours later and turn it back on for you. Or you can just get one of these. If the water meter has a lock on it, don’t break the lock - that’s illegal. But if there’s no lock on it, you can turn off your water.

Most homes have a water shut off valve on the customer side, also. Just go outside and find your water shut off valve, turn it off with the water key. Some of them are just like normal valves, and you just turn them off. And then you want to go to the lowest point, which is usually outside in the back yard and drain all the water after you open up the topmost points, which would be your kitchen sink faucet- turn it on and then your shower- turn that on- and open up your back outside faucet, and all the water from your house will drain out, thus allowing you not to get water everywhere. Okay, and that is how you would turn off your water to repair a plumbing problem."