Find the valve before the water finds you

Chosen when: What do you want to find: The main water valve

Find the wall where the water pipe comes in and follow the pipe a short way inside. The main valve sits on that pipe before it branches, often near a meter if you have one. It will be a lever handle or a round wheel. On a lever valve the handle usually lies along the pipe when it is open and across it when closed, but check yours, because designs vary. A wheel closes clockwise. Test it now: close it, open a tap, and check the water stops, then open it again. If it is stuck, leaks, or will not turn, have a plumber replace it on a calm day, not in the middle of a leak.

Chosen when: What do you want to find: The main water valve; Where does the water pipe come into the house: Through a crawl space

Follow the water pipe from where it enters. Crawl space pipes are among the first to freeze in Michigan winters, according to the state's winter preparedness page, so the entry point and the pipes around it are worth knowing. If the valve is reachable only by crawling, find another way: ask a plumber about putting a valve where you can reach it. Test it the same way: close it, open a tap, check the water stops.

Chosen when: What do you want to find: The main water valve; Where does the water pipe come into the house: Through the floor, no basement

Without a basement the valve is often inside the house near where the pipe comes through the floor or wall, or in a utility space, or outside near the meter. We could not find a Michigan source on where valves typically sit, so we will not guess for your house. Look where the water heater and the first pipes are, and look for a meter. If you cannot find it in a few minutes, stop and ask the plumber to show you on the first visit.

Chosen when: What do you want to find: The main water valve; Where does the water pipe come into the house: I am not sure

Look first for the water meter. Then look at the water heater: the cold water pipe feeding it comes from the main. Follow that pipe back. If you cannot find the valve in a few minutes, stop searching and phone a plumber, and say so; do not take apart anything to find it. When the plumber arrives, ask them to show you and to test it.

Chosen when: What do you want to find: A fixture's own valve

Under a sink or behind a toilet there are small stop valves on the supply lines. Turn them clockwise until they stop, or a quarter turn for a lever type, then open the tap to confirm the flow has stopped. If the stop valve itself leaks or will not turn, close the main instead and call. A fixture that drips from a nut at the stop valve is a leak repair, not an emergency, unless it will not stop.

Leak repair

Chosen when: What do you want to find: The gas shutoff for an appliance

Gas appliances have a shutoff on the pipe just before the appliance, usually a lever. On many gas valves the lever lies along the pipe when the gas is on and across it when off, but check yours. If you smell gas, do not stop to turn it off: leave the house and call 911 and your gas utility from outside, DTE at (800) 947-5000, Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050. If a pilot light goes out, DTE says to contact a licensed professional, who should relight it for your safety.

Gas line

Chosen when: What do you want to find: I am thinking of digging for a sewer line

A camera on a push rod shows what is in the pipe and where, which is the only way to tell a blockage from a crack, an offset joint or a collapse, and you should ask to see the footage. The pipe between your house and the street may be yours to fix: in Traverse City, for one, owners maintain their own lateral including the connection to the main, and other cities differ, so ask yours. Digging needs a MISS DIG 811 notice, which is free and which the statute puts at least 72 hours ahead, excluding non-business hours; MISS DIG describes that as 3 business days. Lateral work needs a permit, and Michigan lets a licensed plumbing contractor or a homeowner doing their own work apply for one.

Sewer line repair · What a main sewer line replacement costs in Michigan, and who pays for it