There are a few things that every homeowner should always know, no matter what. One of them being, where the shutoff valve is for the water.
Water, generally speaking, comes into the building in one place, and that’s in your foundation. So, if you’ve got a typical house, like a cape or a ranch or something like that, you’re going to go down to the front of your basement stairs, and you might have to turn right or turn left. It might be right in front of you.
You’re going to see that copper pipe coming straight in. There’s going to be a valve of some sort, and it’s going to run through the water meter. You have to know where that is, and you have to know whether the valve is working or not.
In the suburbs, in newer homes, you’re going to have a newer valve. That’s going to be usually a ball valve which is that yellow lever handle type valve that you most likely have seen. That just kind of swings off and it’s shut. So, if you have an explosion, a pipe burst, or something like that, with the water lines, you’re going to want to be able to run down to shut that valve off. Keep your valve accessible. It’s very important. After shutting off the valve you can call your plumber to fix your plumbing problem.