Emergency Shut-Off Locations Sheet
Make sure anyone in the household can turn off the water, gas or electricity quickly, including people who did not move in with the property.
PR-10 2 pages
Home systems · HS-24
Stop Valve Exercise Record
A free printable stop tap and isolating valve record: each valve listed with what it shuts off, then every gentle turn off and on, and how stiff it was.
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2 pages. Choose your paper size — both versions are laid out identically, so neither one gets shrunk to fit.
Print it and write on it
Fill it in type and save
The fillable versions have real form fields — open them in any PDF reader, type into them and save. Printing help.
What this sheet is for
Find out which stop tap or isolating valve has seized now, not the night a pipe bursts. Each valve is listed once, and each gentle turn off and back on is written down with how it felt.
Who it is for
Homeowners, landlords and anyone who has tried to turn off a stop tap in a hurry and found it would not move.
How to use it
- Find every stop tap and isolating valve, number it with a tag, and list what it shuts off, where it is and what you need to turn it.
- Close each valve gently, check the water has stopped at a tap beyond it, then open it again.
- Write how it turned and whether the spindle weeps, and leave it open as its type needs.
- Note any valve that is stiff, seized or will not stop the water, and book it in with a plumber.
What is on the sheet
2 pages, in this order:
Page 1
Printed under the title: Every stop tap and isolating valve listed once with what it shuts off, then each time it is gently closed and reopened: how it turned, whether the water stopped, and any weep from the spindle.
By hand, and gently. Turn each valve by hand, or with the right key or screwdriver, never by forcing it with a wrench: a valve that will not move, or does not stop the water, is a job for a plumber. Leave lever valves fully open, and ease a screw-down stop tap back slightly from fully open so it does not stick. How often you do this is up to you.
Write-on lines: Property · Exercise every · Plumber and phone
Valves — tie a tag with the same number to each valve
Table, 12 rows: No. · Shuts off · Where it is · Type · Turned with
Page 2
Exercise record — one line per valve, each time
Table, 20 rows: Date · Valve · Turned · Effort · Stopped · Weep · Left · Action · Initials
Write-on lines: Valves to replace or repair · Booked with · Date
Questions
How often should a stop tap be turned?
The sheet leaves that to you, with a box for your interval at the top. What matters is doing it often enough that a valve starting to stick is caught while it still moves, rather than discovered during a leak.
What if a valve will not turn?
Stop. Forcing a stiff valve with a wrench or a long handle can snap the spindle or crack the body and cause the leak you were preparing for. Mark it as seized, note who you have asked to look at it, and find out which valve upstream shuts the same pipe.
Why ease a screw-down stop tap back after opening it?
Plumbing bodies advise it because an old-style stop tap left hard open can stick there. Lever and quarter-turn valves are different and are left fully open, which is why the record has a column for how each valve was left.
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