I cannot find my main water shut-off on our house... bought a new in 2012 (Plantation Homes) in Houston.
I've walked all around the perimeter of the house, nothing. I checked the covered water meter thing in the front yard and it doesn't have a valve... it's just the gauge. Unless it's buried deep deep. I dug a lot of crap out of there and cannot find a valve handle.

Do I need to call the builder and see if they can come out and find it... maybe in the attic? Any other suggestions?

how about the inside of the garage?

Eesh, non-fun treasure hunting. Most likely is by the meter. It may not look like an hose bib circular knob and will require the "wrench" to turn something that can look like a small rectangle or semi-circle.

Its possible the cutoff could be in a PVC sewer size vertical pipe at the front of your house or in the front lawn. One may will be a sewer cleanout, the other could be a shutoff valve. This would be atypical.

More typical of new construction will be a shutoff valve near the water heater or inside the garage.

Thanks everyone for the responses... I have a few more things to look for. It's frustrating not being able to find something that should be so obvious.

I can turn mine off at the meter (with a special tool like flown-the-coop mentioned or a pair of vice grips) or a valve in the laundry room. My last house had a shut off valve next to one of the hose bibs.

It's at the meter if your in a neighborhood that was set up by a MUD.

There should be a main water shutoff valve at the meter. Look for something likein the following pic. There may be one on each side of the water meter but may only be one and some are several inches lower than the water meter so you may have to dig on either side of the meter to locate it.



I also have a shut off valve near the house foundation near the water bib in he front yard but not all houses have one like it or it may be buried so the first place to look should be at the meter...good luck!

Home that new in Houston should have a shut off in the house. Either in the garage or in a closet or pantry next to an exterior wall. Shut off at meter is a few inches in front of meter on the street side.

If you have a shutoff valve in or near your house, there is no telling where it might be. Ours is in one of the master bedroom walk-in closets at the very back of the house at the absolute furthest point from the water meter. Water meter is on the far north-east part of our lot at the curb, internal shut-off valve is at the far south-west corner of the house.

Same for us. Meter is at northwest corner of lot. Shutoff valve is in laundry room in southeast corner of the house.

Gary79Ag said:

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There should be a main water shutoff valve at the meter. Look for something likein the following pic. There may be one on each side of the water meter but may only be one and some are several inches lower than the water meter so you may have to dig on either side of the meter to locate it.



I also have a shut off valve near the house foundation near the water bib in he front yard but not all houses have one like it or it may be buried so the first place to look should be at the meter...good luck!

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This. There will ALWAYS be a shutoff valve at the meter. Should always be 2, but that depends on the plumber that installed the piping and whether or not they put one downstream of the meter.

The water purveyor always has a shutoff valve upstream - called a corporation stop as shown above. It's basically a ball valve, has no hard stop, so it's just a 90 degree turn with an adjustable wrench.

Odds are your plumbing is located in your attic - you should be able to go up there and find the main header to determine where it comes into the house at. Should be a valve outside to shut off flow, pretty sure that is code.

Street side of meter box. It may not look like a valve because there's usually a special tool for it. It also had holes do the water company can lock it. You may have a main shutoff after the meter, but I always go for the water company's.

Did you check for a shutoff at the water heater?

We finally found ours in a second underground box just downstream of the meter box. It was a shorter box and sod had been laid over it and grown in. Seven years later, there was no evidence of that second box visible from the surface.

Section327Ag, now that you mention it, I do remember seeing another box thing, about a 6" diameter circle... but that could be for the sprinkler system? Not sure, I'll finally have some actual daylight this weekend to take a look in the meter box again. I'm pretty sure my meter just has straight pipes leading into and out of the meter. It didn't seem to have anything that looked similar to valve like in Gary's pic. But then again, the last time I looked in the box it was pretty nasty, several frogs and mud and I was in a rush.

The city's shut off is in there I guarantee it. That's where the city turns your water on and off. Anything beyond that is up to the plumber that built your house, the actual builder, city codes, and the inspector.

The city keeps just enough of the mud, frogs, snakes, spiders, etc out of there to read your meter. Even less if they use s remote sensor to do drive by reads

Lefty Ag '89 said:

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Section327Ag, now that you mention it, I do remember seeing another box thing, about a 6" diameter circle... but that could be for the sprinkler system? Not sure, I'll finally have some actual daylight this weekend to take a look in the meter box again. I'm pretty sure my meter just has straight pipes leading into and out of the meter. It didn't seem to have anything that looked similar to valve like in Gary's pic. But then again, the last time I looked in the box it was pretty nasty, several frogs and mud and I was in a rush.

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take a screwdriver and poke through the grass around the meter.. we had an old house that had a separate box that was completely grown over by st Augustine.. had no idea it was there until I saw an old neighbor out accessing his.

Might be a good idea to ask one of your neighbors where his is...

Should be able to turn off at street I city box with correct tool.

House one could be in flowerbed (may be buried) (should be near drain clean outs), front corner of the house in ground, garage in wall, laundry room wall, master closet wall, etc (plastic or metal door cover type thing).

Could call the builder or ask a neighbor.

Thanks to all that replied. I finally got back out to the meter box and dug another 3 inches of mud/dirt out of there and finally hit the valve, it was way down there. I had tried a couple of months ago, even jabbing a metal rod down in the mud and didn't seem to hit anything.

I'm good to go now! Thanks again.

Had the same problem a week ago around midnight on a Friday. Only problem was I had a pipe leak near my water heater. Three hours later (3 am) I found the meter in my neighbors yard and got the water shut off. Thankfully, my water heater is in my garage and it was a pinhole leak. Felt like a dumbass for not gathering this info when we moved in.

Lefty Ag '89 said:

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Thanks to all that replied. I finally got back out to the meter box and dug another 3 inches of mud/dirt out of there and finally hit the valve, it was way down there. I had tried a couple of months ago, even jabbing a metal rod down in the mud and didn't seem to hit anything.

I'm good to go now! Thanks again.

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Its great that you found it, but I would be really surprised if there wasn't a shutoff actually in the house. I spent a considerable amount of time in residential construction and most builders have a shut off in the house somewhere. Most are in the garage (especially if it attached.).

Is pretty much a city thing around here. Some cities require them in the house, some still allow them in the flowerbed.

Ours is in the laundry room right by the valve for the refrigerator water supply on the other side of the wall in the kitchen.

Same, luckily it's accessible in the flower bed.