Ep 037 - What Every Homeowner Should Know About Shutoffs and Safety

Welcome to Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, where you'll discover strategies to save money, save time, and be better organized in managing your largest financial asset and biggest expense, your home. Your hosts, John Bodrozic and Beth Dodson, who are co-founders of HomeZada, have been supporting homeowners for over 20 years. They are here to share with you their tips and suggestions, as well as interviews with industry experts, with the goal of helping you become a smarter homeowner. Now here's your hosts, John and Beth.

Hello, and thank you for being with us. I am Beth Dodson. This is John Bedrosik, and we want to teach you a little bit more about homeownership because we want everyone to be the Smartest, best homeowner they can possibly be. So welcome to Be a Smarter Homeowner podcast. And John, I want to talk about what people need to know about their house in case they have to mitigate any damage, because in a previous episode we talked about our own water damage experience. So what do people need to know, and what are some of the big things? This may not be a really long podcast, but what do they need to know?

Yeah, great intro. And I'll start with, I think, a high-level perspective.

Sure.

It's when, when you think about a home, we take for granted as homeowners that the house has electrical power because the light switch just comes on. It's like magic. And, and then we also— some, many of our homes have some form of gas, natural gas or propane gas, for some of our gas appliances and our equipment. We have water that gets delivered to our house. We have, um, uh, internet and other cable communications that get delivered to our house. So I'm— and they all get delivered in sort of different ways.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, there is HVAC and heating units that sort of create hot air and cold air depending on what type of season it is. So most people, when you think about a house, it's just like, okay, I'm cooking, I'm cleaning, I'm entertaining, and all these rooms and all this other stuff. And you take for granted all of these, what I call call utilities that are servicing your house. Those utilities create massive conveniences for our lives in, in America, right? Because we get to cool our house, we get to heat our house, we get to wash our clothes, we get to do all these other things. However, all of those conveniences of water, electrical, gas, air can also be a source of damage to our homes.

Correct.

And we forget about the damage potential that could contribute to those homes. So our big tip and theme for this podcast is, how do I protect my home from those things damaging my home in either a proactive way or in a reactive way where you have time to necessarily react because something is actually happening and you're trying to minimize damage, meaning damage has already started, but you can take steps to minimize the damage. And then there's just the proactive of knowing how all these things work is the huge part of the, what I call learning process that every homeowner should take, especially as we buy a brand new home. The home may be 10 years old, 5 years old. Knowing how all these systems work before any damage happens will give you a huge head start in terms of protecting your home from these utilities that make our life convenient. But can be a cause of damage to the house.

So I hear what you're saying. Our homes are like these beautiful, magical entities that bring us all this goodness and keep us safe and warm and cozy and all these things. But behind the walls and in the attics and in the basements and outside, we don't know all the parts and pieces sometimes.

Correct.

And they can hurt us or cause more problems if we are not prepared.

So, yes, you want me to start?

Yeah, I do. I want you to tell us which ones that I think we need to know, because I'm going to tell everyone how I documented it.

Uh, I'll start with water. So most homes in America get their water delivered from a utility district.

Mm-hmm.

Which means there's water pipes that your utility district has got a source of water in your neighborhood, and they're delivering water under the streets in your house that ends up connecting from the street to your house. And that's how water gets delivered to your house. However, in that pipe that goes from the street to your house, before that water enters into your house or somewhere, there's a main valve that turns the water on and off to your entire house. So imagine you've got a, let's just say, an average 2,500 square foot home, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 stories, whatever. Your water's coming into your house, somewhere in your house, on the outside of your house or in the inside of your house, right? A lot of people with basements, it might be on the inside of your house in the basement. People who don't have basements, it may be on the outside of your house. There is a main water shutoff that will shut the entire house off from water. And it'll disconnect it from the city or utility that's delivering the water. Now, we're all used to not even ignoring that because we all turn the water on and off at the actual end fixture. We flush the toilet, we turn on the washing machine, we turn on the shower, and magic happens, right? We get water, hot and cold, and we have this make great convenience. Most homeowners don't know where their main water shutoff valve is.

Correct. And it's very challenging because if ever you're in a position where you have a water leak, the first thing you need to do is shut that off.

Yes, because where the leak is— like, the, the most people think of a leak as the leak is, oh, my shower head is leaking. Oh well, I just shut the water off at the shower head and it stops leaking. Yeah, that's great, but what if the leak is in your Pump plumbing systems, right? Again, things that people don't see. You don't see it. There are all these pipes that are feeding hot and cold water to every single fixture of your house, and those pipes are going either in the crawl space under the house, in the attic, you know, or they're coming down into the walls. That's how the magic happens.

Yeah.

Now, what, what if the leak is— you've got, as we all know, pipe gets fit with a pipe, a big long pipe, and then it makes a 90-degree turn, and that fitting— and what if that Fitting is old and gets a source of leak, then shutting the water off at the shower and this, that, and the other is not going to solve that leak. You have to know where your main water shutoff valve is to stop those much more significant and severe leaks.

Yes, and because of that, you will actually minimize your risk if you shut off those main sources of water. And the same holds true even if you have like a well. A well area also has shutoff valves that you can also turn off.

Yes, I'll throw in one other dynamic, which is at least many homes— I can't say all of them, but a fair number of homes— you have that main water that's coming in from the street that's feeding your house, but a branch of that before it goes into the house Maybe the water system for your irrigation, because you're turning your water on for your sprinklers and filling up your pool and all of the sort of things that going on as it relates to the homes that have irrigation, that may have its own separate connection. So you could shut the water off to the house, but water could still be being fed to your irrigation system.

Yeah.

And/or vice versa, that may have its own shutoff. Why is that important? Especially if you live in, you know, areas with wildfires and this, that, and the other, right? If you are not irrigating, your landscaping becomes extremely dry and now becomes a fuel source for a much quicker fire.

Correct.

Right? So knowing even, you know, where— how water gets serviced in your— and do you have an irrigation controller that's automatically turning your sprinklers on and off? All of those things is like a separate connection. Some may be on the same one, some may not. But this goes back into what I call the journey of you should really learn about your house so you know how these things work. So when a situation comes, you know how to take action quickly. Quickly.

How to take action quickly. So, um, and let's talk about another one. So let's talk about, um, even shutting off your gas or your electric. 'Cause some people have gas, some people have propane, some people have electric, some people have all the above.

Yes. Yeah, I'll, I'll let— let's start with electricity.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause they're— they are separate, and then we'll go to gas separate. But it's the same concept, right? Most people have their power, their electrical power delivered from in the street. Sometimes it may be on a tele— on a wire above the street in old neighborhoods, but somehow there's power from your local utility being delivered into your house. At the main place that it's being delivered into your house, most people will We'll call it your main electrical panel to your house. And in that panel, you open up that panel, and again, sometimes it's on the outside of the house, sometimes it may be on the inside of the house, inside your garage. You'll see a whole bunch of what's referred to as circuit breakers.

Mm-hmm.

And essentially the main power comes into that main panel and then it delivers the power to your house in, let's just say, 10 to 15 to 20, depending on the size of your house, individual circuits, because the circuits can only supply so much power. And oftentimes it depends on when your house was built and the electrical design, because certain circuits require more power. Your HVAC units require more power than your light fixtures.

Mm-hmm.

So it needs to have higher amps. So you have 20-amp circuit breakers and sometimes even 50-amp circuit breakers. And if you open up that panel, most people will have written what circuit each one of those breakers manages.

And if you haven't, it's a smart idea to do that.

Yes, and oftentimes that little Sharpie pen fades over time.

Correct, but it's important that you need to know what is what for what location.

Yeah, so one is you could shut the entire power off at the house because there's probably a main switch. The power's coming in from the utility into the main panel. You could shut the entire power off to your house with one switch, which is the main switch. But then below that, you've got each individual circuit breaker where if you have an issue with like your HVAC units, you can shut the power off to your HVAC units, but you can still keep power onto your refrigerator to keep your food You know, cold.

Mm-hmm.

And your lights, et cetera. So understanding how you can shut off the electricity into portions of the house is usually done at that main circuit breaker. And knowing what each one of these is and actually even testing it to make sure that like, okay, let's switch off the refrigerator. Did the refrigerator go off? It did. Okay, it's working. And oftentimes in older homes, those circuit breakers tend to trip. Sometimes you actually have to hire an electrician to come out and replace those individual circuit breakers.

Correct. And sometimes those circuit breakers are aligned not with appliances, but they're aligned with rooms or spaces.

Yes. Yes. It's a combination of total use, total amperage required based on what's on that circuit, as well as the geometry of your house in terms of rooms.

Correct. Now, we talked about Water. We've talked about gas, or excuse me, um, electric. Go ahead.

I have one more thing.

Go ahead.

Uh, I, I'm not an electrician, but I certainly know this given our house, that, that most homes, the size of the home— again, I'm saying let's say it's a 2,000 to 3,000 square foot home— probably only has one main panel.

Correct.

But when you get to homes that start to get a little bit bigger, maybe 3,500 square feet or bigger, Oftentimes you have what's referred to as a subpanel.

Mm-hmm.

Which is essentially like in our house, we have a main panel that's on the outside of our house that serves everything, but we actually have a subpanel inside of our pantry. And that subpanel is like a big main feed with a lot of things. And in that subpanel starts to feed some other aspects of your house. So you really need to understand, do you have one main panel or do you have one main panel and perhaps one or two other subpanels? Because the circuits for some portions of your house may be fed from the sub-panel and not from the main panel, if you have a home that has main and sub-panels.

Correct. But it's important to understand, if you need to shut this off because you're at risk of some damage— and remember, we talked about shutting off the water— if you have water connected to some electrical component near it, You then could not go beyond water damage and now have fire damage. So it's important to understand shutting off the electric is also important if you are at risk of this scenario.

Now, one other quick one before I get to gas. One other quick tip is oftentimes when you hire an electrician or, or somebody that's coming in to do, to service and/or replace something in your house, let's say you need to replace the garage doors. Oh, that's right. You also want to make sure that your— the people that are coming are performing the work in a safe manner. So oftentimes the person coming in to replace your garage doors may be like, hey, we need to shut the power off on where the garage doors are powered. They're going to ask you, where's the circuit breaker to the main house? So if you already know this, you're going to be helping out the contractor that's coming out that's trying to shut a certain circuit off because they're working on it.

Yeah.

And you want to make sure the people that are coming to your house are operating safely. And so you also need to ask them, hey, do you need to shut the power off to do this? Some might say yes, some might say no. It really just depends on what type of electrical work it is. But that's another huge reason why you need to understand the— how your house is designed from an electrical circuit breaker perspective.

That's a good point. That's a good tip. All right, are we gonna hit gas/propane?

Yes, yes, gas. Let's do it.

That's why I like to cover it.

So again, I'd say most homes in America probably have gas delivered, again, from the street, from a utility. Sometimes it's the same utility that delivers your power. Sometimes it's a different utility where you have one utility does gas, the other does power. The gas runs through a pipe and usually you have a gas meter. That's how they charge you for how much gas your bill is, right? But then after that meter is a main gas shut-off.

Right.

And but it doesn't blink at you and say there's a main gas shutoff valve. Most people may not even be able to detect what it looks like, but think of a pipe going into a fitting and it's got a little knob on it. And usually the knob, if it's in line with the pipe, that means gas valve is open and gas is flowing. The main shutoff gas sometimes may need like a crescent wrench where you're going to stick it on that little piece Usually a quarter turn. So if the if the if that gas valve does a quarter turn and it's perpendicular, so here's your main gas line coming in, and if that little knob is perpendicular, that usually means you've shut the gas off. If it's if it's horizontal in line with the thing, then it's basically gas is flowing to your house. So you need to understand where your gas shut off valve is, and you may also need to understand. That, like, for instance, the water valve and the electric, usually you can do it by hand. The gas one, you may need a wrench to actually do it, especially if it's never been turned off before. Maybe, you know, a little bit stuck, and you may need that extra torque of a wrench to be able to do that. And again, downstream, if there's some other issue where you need to shut gas off at your house, you absolutely need to know where your gas shutoff valve is.

Yes, because I'm always worried about gas. Because if gas causes problems in my house, it could cause problems for my whole neighborhood. Once again, I'm sitting here concerned about my neighbors, and I don't want to be the cause of problems everywhere. And one of the things that I like to do in understanding all this— because John knew where all these shutoff valves were, but I didn't originally— and so when we designed HomeZada, like, I, I have certain chores that I think are boy chores and certain chores that I think are girl chores. I do, even though I didn't grow up like that. Chores are chores. But when there's a dead critter somewhere, I'm not dealing with it. That's a boy chore. But in this case, I was like, I wanted to make sure John knew. Well, he knew where everything was. However, what if John were out of town or something were to happen? I need to know where this is. And he's trying to explain to me on the phone or what have you, that wouldn't have worked. So what I chose to do is I said, I need you to show me where the water shutoff valve is, and I'm going to record it, and I need you to talk me through on the recording how you're shutting it off and what you're doing. And so he, at first begrudgingly, but then realized how important it was, started doing the videos, and I stored all of them in HomeZelda at each section. Water, water shutoff valve. I did landscaping lights, landscaping irrigation. I did the gas shutoff. I did the electric shutoff. I mean, I did everything, and I had videos of him talking me through with his hand shutting everything off. And I now have them stored in HomeZada in each section, and it helps me feel confident if I ever need to shut them off myself because I have access To the information in a system that I can find provided he's not around. So it was important for me to do this. Not everyone needs to do this. Many people can— spouses can walk around together and learn all this. But because it's not a regular thing that I do, I wanted to make sure that I understood it and also that I didn't break something and go the opposite way. And cause more problems. So I had the videos documented and stored in HomeZada of how to shut every one of my major utilities off. It's amazing. And it gives me more confidence, which is so cool.

Yep, absolutely. And just to continue with the gas, because just, just a little bit, everything sort of operates in a similar theme, right? There's the main gas shutoff. But now I think it's important for homeowners to understand if you have gas and even if it's propane gas where you have a propane tank, it's still the concept except the big propane company fills your gas up probably 2 or 3 times a year, but it's still fed into your house and there's probably a main shutoff. But it's determining which equipment and appliances use gas versus use power versus electricity versus use both.

Yes.

Right. So in our house, for instance, we have gas hot water heaters. We have 2 of them. We also have a gas fireplace. We also have a gas stove. We also have HVAC systems. The furnace in the heating uses gas.

Yes.

So I think it's important for every homeowner to kind of go through their checklist over all the equipment and appliances in their house. especially if you have both electricity and gas, to know which one is serviced by electricity and which one is serviced by gas. Because just like the theme with the water and electricity, there's usually a gas shutoff valve next to each equipment or appliance that uses it.

Correct.

So, uh, we had a plumber come out and had to replace our plumbing lines or whatever— sorry, our hot water heaters, right? Well, You could shut the gas off at the connection to where your hot water heater is. That allows them to work safely in changing out the hot water heater, but you could still have your gas stove and you're cooking while they're still safely doing that. Um, same thing, we just cleaned out our gas fireplace.

Yeah.

There was a little gas shutoff out there where we could still be doing other things because downstream each one of those appliances or equipment has its own individual shutoff valve, and people get confused because they think, okay, well, I shut it off here. You've only shut it off for that unit that's actually using it.

Correct.

This gets back into the, you know, potential catastrophic situations of you have a wildfire and you're told to evacuate. Maybe you should proactively shut the gas off at your house Because the— if the gas line breaks, it could— your, your house may survive the actual natural wildfire, right? But if some gas line is leaking while there's a wildfire, you've essentially given the wildfire more fuel to burn your house down.

And the neighborhood.

And the neighborhood. So maybe on your way out, while you're told to evacuate, maybe you shut the gas line off at your main house. And that's again one quarter turn with a crescent wrench. And not— and knowing that versus realizing that the individual, I just need somebody to come out and service something, you could do that at that particular unit itself.

Correct. And I mean, we're trying to bring you tips that you wouldn't normally think about but are really important in a situation that may be catastrophic or maybe cause more damage to your house So how do you minimize that? And these are literally some of the biggest elements that are behind the walls, in the garages, in the attics, in the basements that you don't normally interact with. And so this is all about safety and all about minimizing any damage to both your home and any of your neighbors' homes. Because can you tell I'm on the same pitch? I'm worried about my neighbors. Um, but yes. And so we've got that, and there's other ways you can minimize damage when you're in scenarios. You know, if you have some sort of water, water damage like we've talked about before, open windows, call water remediation, they'll come in and start drying everything off. But when it comes to these major components, it's really important to know where those shutoff valves are. And if you are Not feeling confident, then record the details so that you have access to it at that time in which you need to think about it. Yep.

I have two more tips.

Okay.

Sump pumps.

Oh gosh, sump pumps.

We've talked about water shut off of water coming into your house from your from your main water line. A lot of people live in areas, especially People with basements where water from rainstorms accumulates around your house.

Right.

And that water sort of seeps and drains. And the way your house was designed is maybe it's draining in a basement area. Well, what is it? What does a sump pump do? It basically, it takes the natural rainwater that may be collecting in the low spot in your house. And if that little container starts to fill with water, The sump pump usually operates automatically. It's called a float valve, which means it detects water's there. And usually the sump pump is connected to power, so you have to have power in order for the sump pump to work. And but if the, if the power is on, the, the sump pump comes on. And what is it actually doing? It's pumping water that's collecting in a low point in your house, and it's pumping it in a pipe that goes to the outside of your house. Probably out to the street. If your sump pump stops working and you don't know it stopped working, whether there's a faulty— it's an old sump pump or your sump pump lost power and it's raining, then now all of a sudden wherever that low point is, you're accumulating more and more rainwater.

Right.

And it's not necessarily a utility, it's Mother Nature that's delivering water into your house that you're trying to get out.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

It's a terrible thing. Our friends just went through this. They had to repair it really quickly, right before a party.

Exactly.

Always something happens, right?

And then there's one more that I brought up in another podcast. I'm gonna bring it up again. I just know it's gonna mean we're gonna hire somebody to come out and do it, which is your entire house is plumbed with sewer lines.

Look, I'm writing it down on my notes.

Yes, when you flush your toilet, the water go— the water and materials go out through a sewer line. Your shower, your dishwasher, everything that has a drain, all those fixtures drain into pipes inside your house, maybe down walls into the house. Eventually there's a main sewer line that leaves your house and probably goes out to a main sewer line if you have a city or utility sewer connection. If you live in a rural area, that's going to a septic tank.

Correct.

Oftentimes as homes get older, there's also what they refer to as a main cleanout valve. What is the main cleanout valve? It's basically, it's a little, it's about usually about that big. And it's a covered area that's somewhere on the outside of your house, usually in a landscaped area, maybe over a lawn. And what it allows a plumber to do is open up that that cleanout valve and stick those mechanical snakes in there where you basically have a mechanized piece of equipment that goes through that sewer line and cleans out any backups that may be stuck inside that sewer line. Because insurance companies actually have separate coverage called sewer backup insurance.

I don't remember seeing that in my contract, but I'm gonna have to reread that.

This is learning on the fly with Be a Smarter Homeowner podcast.

That's the one I wanted to avoid. The one like I was avoiding.

Okay, the benefit, Elizabeth, is we live on a downsloping lot. Our house is higher than where our sewer is, and as we all know, you want a sewer line that has like downslopes up. But imagine if you lived in a house Yeah, imagine if you lived in a house where the street was at a higher elevation than your house. Now you have a sewer pump that has to pump the sewage from its low point up to the street.

Yeah, that's a way to get stuck.

So now you know why— now you know why I prefer to live in an upsloping house than a downsloping house.

Oh my gosh, this is so funny because if only you guys all knew how we picked lots and stuff. It was so funny. And he was adamant about certain lots. We're not having that one. Nope, that's— nope, that's out.

Wow.

And I go, do you want to explain to me why? Nope, later. Nope, nope, nope. But yeah, so you're right, these are big, big issues and you want to make sure that you're taking care of this. And know about it should something happen that could be— I don't want to say catastrophic because I think that's just so crazy, but could be detrimental to your home, the operation of your home, and could cause significant damage that could be costly.

I'll try to be vague but, but direct enough to explain what the issue is. What if you had a party with like 20 people?

Oh yeah.

And, you know, somebody came over that you didn't really know very well and they flushed something down the toilet that they shouldn't have flushed.

Yeah.

And that became the source of a sewer clog.

Correct. Correct. Yes. And so you're correct. We want to make sure that that's not done. So are there— I'm just saying, are there big items that we need to talk about as it relates to this? I think these are the biggest ones.

These are the biggest ones. Yeah.

Yeah, these are the biggest ones.

I thought this was going to be a short podcast, but it's right on the nose of our 30 when I think about all the sort dynamics over proactively knowing where these things are because you have contractors coming and they may be asking and you want to be with their safety, or you're needing to do this preventative as to just make sure that things don't progress into a bigger issue. Or if there is an issue, you're stopping the issue from becoming yet even a bigger issue. These are huge things that every, every homeowner should know about their home.

No, I agree. I think awareness is the key to minimizing damage. Awareness is the key to, um, understanding how to turn things off, even if you need to do repairs, do cleaning. For instance, the gas fireplace, the electric garage door openers that you, you brought in— just being aware of where everything is Makes you a smarter homeowner so that you can communicate to the necessary people that you're working with, whether it's yourself or contractors, and extremely helpful. So thank you for all those tips, and we appreciate it. So I believe we talked about water shut off, gas shut off, electric shut off, sump pump understanding and shut off, and operation, and then also. Sewage lines.

Sewer cleanouts.

Sewer cleanouts.

You're not really shutting it off, you just need to know where you need to preventatively clean it out.

Okay, we got it. So I understand, leave it to John to bring it all up. So those are our tips for this podcast. We want to make sure that you understand and are aware where these large utilities are so you know how to shut them off or clean them. To make sure you are in the clear. You don't have to have as much damage, or you can protect your home and others around you from incurring any more damage. So if you think this is valuable to someone else, please by all means share it with everyone else. And we want to thank you so much for joining us on Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, and we look forward to seeing you at the next one. Have a great day.

Thank you for listening to the Be a Smarter Homeowner podcast. Visit beasmarterhomeowner.com to sign up for our newsletter and find out more about software to help you save time, save money, and manage your home.