Home > Plumbing Questions Information > Plumbing Questions Questions > Plumbing Question: water to the house, but will not come out of the faucets!?

Plumbing Question: water to the house, but will not come out of the faucets!?

We are looking at buying a house and wanted to have the water turned on for the house inspection. The water company come and turned the water on... we could hear the water and the meter was spinning but water wouldnt come out of the bathroom sink or kitchen sink. We did soon find out that a line behind the shower had seperated and water was coming out there. We also couldnt find the water shut off valve. We looked everywhere:in the house and in the crawl (which you cant really get into because there isnt enough clearance.) So I have two questions... Where else could the shut of valve be and why isnt water coming out of the two facuets? The house is a forclosure and the law firm that owns it knows nothing about it. We have no one to ask where the valve is.

Public Comments

  1. You HAVE to have a main water shut off somewhere near the water meter. Look harder!
  2. contact seller to get the right answer
  3. I hope you had the water turned off , otherwise the house would be flooded from the pipe behind the shower. Go to an immediate neighbour, and ascertain where THEIR shut-off valve is located, It is sometimes under an inspection chamber located inside your boundary, even under grass !!! Failing that , you may have to get a plumber with a "listening device" or other device to find the "run-in"
  4. Water shutoff are not always there, they should be but they are not. Ideal is to turn off the main shut off to the house, (shut off that is not always there, and in older homes if is, is usually rusted or hard to turn). go to your hotwater heater, follow the pipes(cold water) back until you find the one leading out an exterior wall, on some water heaters you can look on top of it, and where the pipe connects will be H, or C, obviously means hot and cold, follow the cold one back. If you can't find it, then go out to your yard, and you can shut it off from the street in most cases, in the yard will be a metal plate, labeled water company or to the sort, pull cover and you will see meter and a connector to turn, usually has a hole in it so when it matches up the water company can lock you out.
  5. sometimes there are not any valves but at the street,thats why you call plumbers not,jack-legs