I have just bought a house and cant find my stop tap. Any ideas of who i can contact for help? thanx?
Question:The previous owners left no details and i have checked with my neighbours to make sure our water is'nt controlled by theirs. would be grateful of any help of who to contact thanx.
Answers:
Contact your water company or the city. They would know.
Main water shut-off to your house would be on the side of your dwelling before water enters your house usually connected before a water faucet, if not there then go to the sidewalk outside your property and look for a metal plate usually with a name of your water supplier, open the metal plate and there should be a large valve there to shut off water to your house. (P.S. Make sure the pipe connected to that valve is facing your property.
Water supply usually comes from a main line under the street in front of your home, thus the supply line usually comes through the front basement wall about four feet below ground level (depth depends on the building codes in your area). At the point where the supply pipe comes through the wall, a good plumber will install a shut off.
If you find you don't have a shut off you should have one installed - you'll need it for emergencies.
Phone the city and they will come and find the shut off valve that's deep under the sidewalk in front of your house and, using a long handled 'key' - that only they have - they'll turn it off for you. (You'll have to phone them again to turn it back on - so find out from the city what the standard wait times are for this service.)
Once your main supply is off, install a shut off on the basement wall close to where the pipe enters.
Now get the city to open the main valve, but be sure to check for leaks before they leave again!
building insp, or a plumber is your best bet. walk all around your water tank its usually on it in most cases the taps are near the bottom however as a safty catch in case they do not work sometimes they will place an extra set of turn off valves on the ceiling 5 to 10 feet away from the tank so follow the pipes. water tanks usually have one intake pipe and two exit pipes intake pipe is your city water suply, the two exit pipes are your cold and hot water pipes. see if the water tank has a trap door.- a square held onto the water tank with four screws, sometimes they hide the taps sorta inside the tanks at the bottom usually at the back of the tank, this style is a much older water tank and you might want to up grade to a new one if you have this type of model...hope these idea's help you find what your looking for.
My house is almost 60 years old and does not have a shut off valve at the house. The only way I can shut off the water to the house is at the valve at the water meter which is at the sidewalk.
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