The Manufactured Housing Forums

Today is 'national check your water shut-off day.' Mobilehomerepair.com has started this national day because we've found that maybe 3 out of every 10 people know how to shut off their water.

On 'national check your water shut-off day', you need to know where to shut off your water and to verify if the shut-off valve does indeed work. You also need to inform your family members how to shut off the water.

Sure, hardly no one dies because a pipe broke in your home, but knowing where
your water shut-off is could save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in
repair bills and a lot less headaches.

This is also the time to assess whether or not your current water shut-off is
easily accessible in case of an emergency. If not, make plans to have one
installed where everyone in the family can shut off the water.

In my home, our 7-year-old son knows how to shut off the water. Normally when
we leave overnight, we shut off the water for good measures. When we return,
my wife and son knows exactly what to do to turn it back on. Does yours?

It'll take a few years for 'national water shut-off day' to become known, but
have to start somewhere. I can't believe the insurance companies don't harp in
this subject.

Mark
You gotta see my repair manual!

My water shutoff is just inside the crawl space (yeah, that's handy.. not).

I can't imagine turning the water off every time I was going to be gone for a while, honestly IMO that's just silly...

If you are turning the water off, I hope you are also turning off the hot water heater, you might end up with leaky connections anyway from the pressure build up.

That's a good point -- we also flip the breaker on the hot water heater. Or if you have gas, turn it to pilot.

I know so many people who have left for a day or two and come home to a house full of water, that NOT shutting off your water seems like a really dumb thing to do. I probably know more than most because I'm the one they call to get damage estimates in hopes that the customer elected to have coverage due to plumbing on their insurance policy. I'm also the one who gets the midnight calls because the customer doesn't have the ability to crawl underneath the home and shut the water off. Of course by the time I get there, the damage is already much worse.

If your fittings are going to leak, they'll leak whether the water is shut off or on.

Whenever I install a water heater for a customer, I automatically include a shut-off and advise the customer of that. Most are very appreciative of it if they haven't had one before.

Mark

Feed lines to toilets and hoses to washers are the two places where blowouts
to lines cause 99.9 percent of water flooding to homes.In both of these areas premium steel braided lines can be purchased which pretty much eliminate any
future problems.The slightly higher cost of them are a small price to pay fo peace of mind in the future and the inconvience of shuting your water off for weekend trips.

How many people have I seen who was washing a load of clothes and took a quick trip to the store to come back to a flooded house from a blown line. Its never a dumb idea to be safe than sorry. Tom