How to Shut Off the Water in a DeKalb Home
Two minutes of looking today saves a finished basement later. Nearly every large water loss we attend in DeKalb has the same sentence in it somewhere: nobody could find the valve, or the valve would not turn.
Where the main shutoff is in a DeKalb house
Because almost every house here has a full basement, the main shutoff is nearly always indoors rather than in a yard box. Look on the basement wall closest to the street, near where the service line comes up through the floor or through the foundation wall. The water meter is usually right there, and the valve sits immediately before or after it.
Variations worth knowing:
- Two valves. Many installations have one on each side of the meter. The one on the house side is the one you want; closing it leaves the meter pressurised but stops water entering the building.
- Slab-on-grade homes and additions. In a house without a basement, the valve is often in a utility closet, a mechanical room, near the water heater, or in the garage.
- Multi-unit buildings near campus. There is usually a building main in the mechanical room plus individual unit valves. Find both, and label them.
- The curb stop. There is also a shutoff in the parkway between the sidewalk and the street, under a small metal lid. That one belongs to the city and needs a special key. Do not try to operate it yourself — call the Water Division at 815-748-2050.
The two valve types and how each one closes
Gate valve. A round handwheel, common in older DeKalb homes. Turn it clockwise, and keep turning — it may take six or more full rotations to seat. These are the valves that seize. If it has not been operated in twenty years, it may refuse to move, or worse, it may turn freely without actually closing because the internal gate has corroded off the stem.
Ball valve. A lever handle. A quarter turn, so the lever ends up crossways to the pipe instead of parallel with it. These are far more reliable and they are what we fit as replacements.
Test yours this week
Close the valve fully, then open a tap upstairs and confirm the water actually stops. Then open the valve again — slowly, because opening it fast can knock loose sediment and send it to every aerator in the house. If it will not close, will not reopen, or drips from the stem afterwards, have it replaced. It is a small job and it is the single cheapest insurance in your plumbing system.
While you are down there, check the smaller shutoffs too: under every sink, behind every toilet, and on the cold inlet on top of the water heater. Those let you isolate one fixture instead of the whole house.
Shutting off water for a specific fixture
- Toilet. Oval or lever stop on the wall behind and below the tank, on the left.
- Sink. Two stops under the cabinet, hot and cold.
- Water heater. The valve on the cold inlet pipe at the top of the tank. Closing this stops the tank refilling, which is what you want if the tank itself has failed.
- Washing machine. Two valves behind the machine. Consider a single-lever replacement so both close at once.
- Outside hose bib. Many have a dedicated interior shutoff a few feet inside the rim joist.
After the water is off
Open the lowest faucets in the house to drain the pipes. Get photographs of everything before you start cleaning up, because an insurance adjuster will want them and you cannot recreate them. Start moving air across wet materials once it is safe to do so. Then call us at (815) 849-0091 — the leak line is answered at any hour, and we will work out on the phone what is likely to have failed before we arrive.
Label it before you need it
Put a tag on the main valve. Tell everyone in the household where it is. If you own rental property, put it in the tenant welcome pack and mark the valve with tape. In a building near campus where the occupants change every year, that label is worth more than any amount of plumbing upgrades.
Quick answers
Do not force it with a wrench — a corroded gate valve can snap and turn a leak into a flood. Call the City of DeKalb Water Division at 815-748-2050 to have the curb stop closed, and get the valve replaced with a quarter-turn ball valve afterward.
For anything longer than a weekend, yes, and it costs nothing. Close the main and, if the trip covers winter weather, leave the heat at 55°F minimum. Supply line and washing machine hose failures while nobody is home are the largest residential water losses there are.
You can usually close the stops at individual fixtures. The unit or building main may be in a locked mechanical room, which is why knowing your building manager's after-hours number matters. Ask now rather than at 2am.
More leak guides
The 30-minute meter test that tells you whether water is escaping, and whether it is inside the house or underground.
Where DeKalb pipes freeze, how to prevent it, and the first five minutes when one bursts.
Eight causes of a sudden bill spike, ordered from the cheapest fix to the most serious.
Leak line, answered 24 hours
(815) 849-0091Call nowOne call does it. We work out what is likely wrong on the phone, quote before we come out, and book you in on the same call.