What you need to do to guard your home against water leaks

Kya deLongchamps says a little discovery now could save you from the damage and distress of a water leak this winter

Don't be left in a panic if there's a leak in your house: Now is the time to learn how to turn off the water supply in the event of an emergency.  Picture: iStock

Discovering you’ve created your own magnificent Fontana di Trevi, ceiling-high in the kitchen, is a moment of raw panic. It’s a truly terrible time to realise you have no clue where the infinite supply of the wet stuff is coming from. Let’s find out how to go into complete water shut down, now — while the going is good. If you have a leak — a gusher of a leak —  the first thing you’ll want to do before even calling the plumber, is to isolate (turn off) the local feed or even the mains water supply, and if possible any stored water feed. A couple of hours of pooling water can lift laminate flooring, drench carpets and wreck MDF kitchen carcasses.

Indoors, there’s generally a principal stopcock (valve) and potentially other isolation valves to various inlet pipes, controlling the mains and stored supply (from tanks). These are all your responsibility to identify and maintain. In an older home a principal mains stopcock indoors could be anywhere from under the kitchen sink (common) to the stair cupboard, to a dim corner of the boiler house.