Article
Close the house valve once, and leave it closed
The house valve is at the sidewalk meter for most Los Angeles houses, on the pipe between the meter and the foundation. Some houses also have a valve where the line enters a garage or a crawlspace. If water is running and you cannot find the fixture, the sidewalk valve is the one that stops the supply to everything past it. Turn it clockwise until it stops. Leave it there.
Do not open it every twenty minutes to see if the ceiling has calmed down. Each time you open it you send a fresh charge of water into the same failed joint, and you reset the test we need. A closed valve and a note about what time you closed it is more useful than a story about how the stain grew and shrank. LADWP's own leak check assumes the water stays off while you read the meter. Cycling the valve makes that check meaningless.
Find it before you need the speech
Look on a dry day, not during a leak. The meter box is in the parkway. The utility's valve, if you can see one on the street side of the meter, is not yours to force. The valve on the house side is the customer valve. If it is buried, stuck, or rounded off, do not break it with a bigger wrench. A broken valve at the meter is a worse leak than the one in the wall. Call 818-631-7296 and say the valve will not move.
Inside, many houses have local stops under sinks and behind toilets. Those stop one fixture. They do not stop a line that failed upstream of them. If you can see the drip and you can reach its stop, use that stop and leave the rest of the house with water. If you cannot see the source, use the house valve and stop guessing.
What the valve does not stop
It does not stop a drain. If the tub is filling from below, or sewage is at a floor drain, closing the meter stops new supply water from being added, which still matters, but the line that is already full will not empty because you touched the valve. Do not run another fixture to see. Do not keep flushing. That problem is a drain, and it is sorted in slab leak or a drain and, when the whole house is slow, in hydro-jetting a main line.
It also does not empty a water heater that is already full. If a hot line is open below the heater, the tank can still drain what it holds. Shut the heater's cold inlet if you can reach it without standing in water. If you cannot, leave the house valve closed and leave the heater alone. If a breaker is in reach and the water is near an outlet, shut that breaker from a dry place. Do not walk through the water to reach it.
After the valve is closed
Open one faucet on the lowest floor for a few seconds to let the pressure off the lines, then close it too. That small release keeps a failed joint from staying under pressure while you wait. Do not open the hot and the cold all over the house. One faucet is enough. A dozen open faucets become a mess when the supply is turned back on for the test.
Move what you can off the wet floor. Do not cut the drywall to help it drain. The hole you make is not the hole we would have marked, and it does not tell us where the pipe failed. If you rent, tell the owner you closed the valve and why. A closed valve that nobody knows about becomes a morning with no water and a second, angrier call. If you own the house and a tenant is downstairs, tell them too.
When we arrive we open the valve long enough to test, then close it again if the leak is still active. That test is the meter check and, if you want it booked as the free visit, the leak inspection. If you already know a repair is coming and you want the payment conversation with the range, use the financing form. We cover Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood, Valley Village, Toluca Lake, Northridge, Glendale, Studio City, Calabasas, Beverly Hills, Woodland Hills, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Porter Ranch, and Santa Clarita. If water is active, call. Do not wait on a form while a ceiling is filling.
Meters that are not in the parkway
Some buildings put the meter in a closet, a garage, or a basement room rather than the sidewalk. The same rule holds: the valve on the building side of that meter is the one that stops the house. Do not shut a neighbor's meter because it was the first box you found. Match the number to the bill, or shut only the valve you can trace into your own wall.
If the valve is a gate valve that has not moved in years, turn it slowly. A fast turn on a stuck stem can snap it. If it will not travel, stop. Forcing it can open a leak you did not have. Tell us it is stuck when you call, so we bring what that valve needs instead of assuming the water is already off.
Once it is closed, label it with a piece of tape if other people live in the house, and leave a note on the kitchen counter. The next person who wants a shower should not be the one who opens it at midnight and refills the ceiling. We will open it when we are there to watch the meter. If you already opened it twice tonight, stop. Tell us the times. That is more useful than another test you run alone in the dark. A valve left half-open still feeds the leak, so either it is closed or it is not. If you cannot tell, leave the handle where it stopped and say so when you call.
Questions people ask
Where is the house shutoff in Los Angeles?
On most houses it is at the sidewalk meter, on the pipe between the meter and the foundation. Some houses also have a valve where the line enters a garage or a crawlspace. The sidewalk valve is the one that stops supply to everything past it.
Which way do I turn it?
Clockwise, until it stops. Then leave it. Opening it every few minutes to check the ceiling sends a fresh charge of water into the same failed joint.
Will closing the meter stop a drain backup?
No. It stops new supply water from being added, which still matters, but a line that is already full of sewage will not empty because you touched the valve. Do not keep flushing or running other fixtures.