Guide · 24/7 Emergency Help
How to Shut Off Your Water in an Emergency
Knowing where your water shutoff is — before you need it — can save you thousands in water damage. Here's how to find and use both fixture valves and your main shutoff.
The best time to find your water shutoff is before an emergency, not during one. When a supply line lets go, every second the water keeps running is more damage — and fumbling to find the valve while a room floods is the worst time to learn where it is. Take five minutes now to locate yours.
There are two levels of shutoff. Fixture valves are the small oval or football-shaped handles directly under a sink or behind a toilet; turn one clockwise ("righty-tighty") to stop water to just that fixture, which is all you need for a leaking faucet or a running toilet. The main shutoff stops water to the entire home and is what you want for a burst pipe or a leak you can't isolate. In a NYC apartment it's often in a closet, under the kitchen sink, or near where the line enters the unit; in a house it's usually in the basement or a utility area near the front wall, sometimes at the water meter.
Two practical notes. Older gate valves (the round wheel type) can seize from years of disuse — if yours won't budge, don't force it hard enough to snap it; that turns one emergency into two. And if you find your main valve is stuck, corroded, or dripping, that's worth replacing on a calm day rather than discovering it fails you in a crisis. Swapping a seized shut-off valve is straightforward handyman work we handle on accessible lines. Know where your valves are, make sure they actually turn, and you've given yourself the single most valuable head start against water damage.