How To Install A Valve

What is a Shutoff Valve?

What Every Homeowner Should Know

A Beginner's Guide to Installing a Shutoff Valve

When you have a leaking faucet, the last matter you lot want is to waste water (and drive upwardly your water bill) letting information technology baste loudly into a pan until you get around to fixing it, or calling in a plumber. Even worse is a broken washing car that can flood your dwelling house. From a applied sense, information technology'south simple logic to conclude that you won't be able to do repairs on pipes with water still flowing through them. And then what can you practice to stop the flow so repairs tin can be made? If you have shutoff valves installed in your home, then y'all already know the answer.

What Is a Shutoff Valve?

If yous're a new dwelling house possessor, or yous've been lucky enough to never have a plumbing issue, y'all might not be familiar with water shutoff valves. These simple valves control water flow to fixtures and appliances, like showers, toilets, sink faucets, and washing machines. They have two pipe connections: ane large inlet connectedness in the back that connects to your main water pipe, and a smaller outlet that connects to the piping leading to your fixture. Twisting the handle lets you plow off the h2o flow to your fixture, without impacting the menstruum through the rest of the house on that line.

Ideally every fixture has its own shutoff valve. That way you tin can turn off a leaky faucet for a few hours (or a few days, if needed) until information technology tin can be repaired, without losing the apply of your shower or toilet by shutting off more h2o than necessary. These are usually located close to the fixture, for instance under the sink or behind the toilet. For built in showers and tubs, they may be located behind an access console.

In some cases you lot may have a single valve for an entire room, or fifty-fifty ane for the whole house. If you simply accept one for your whole home, you may want to install a few valves more locally. When a plumbing problem arises, you'll be glad yous did.

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Before You Begin

Now that you can answer the question 'what is a shutoff valve?' you all the same need to respond a few more than questions before you can install one:

• Practice you lot know where the main shutoff valve for the dwelling is located?
• What are the water pipes made out of?
• How are the h2o pipes oriented in relation to the fixtures?
• Are you replacing an quondam shutoff valve or installing one in a new location?
• What kind of valve should you get?

Your answers to the questions above will prepare the ground for the projection. You volition accept to do preparatory work based on these different options, such as purchasing the right pipes and equipment, or exposing pipes in your walls or flooring. These assistance determine the telescopic of your abode improvement project going frontwards.

Turn off Your H2o

Before you lot practice any piece of work on your plumbing, make sure you lot know where the primary shutoff valve for your abode's water supply is located. One time you plow off the main water supply, turn on a faucet on the lowest level of your home to drain the pipes.

The next matter to do is unscrew the h2o supply line from the quondam valve, if you're replacing information technology, or the master water piping if you're installing a shutoff valve in a new location. At present yous're ready to work.

Removing Onetime Valves

If you're replacing an old, leaky valve on copper pipes, you'll demand to effigy out what type of connection it has so y'all can remove it. If the quondam valve is soldered on, you'll need to cut the valve off by cutting through the pipe with a pipe cutter. Be sure to get out yourself enough piping remaining between the wall and the end of the pipe to install the new valve. (Every bit with all home improvement projects, these kinds of tasks require cognition and skill that tin can seem risky without prior practice; if cut the pipe seems similar something a little more permanent than you're prepared to experiment with on your own home, don't hesitate to call a professional.)

If information technology'due south a compression valve, hold the valve with a pipe wrench while you lot use a wrench to unscrew the nut. In one case it'south unscrewed, the erstwhile valve will slide off. The nut and ferrule that held it in place tin be reused with a new compression valve, just that runs the risk of whatsoever existing leaks continuing with the new valve.

The easiest way to remove the ferrule and nut from the pipe is with a tool chosen a sleeve puller, which screws onto the pipe exactly equally the valve would, and then pulls the ring and nut off the pipe with a few turns of a wrench. Y'all can besides remove the onetime ferrule with a pair of wrenches by prying it off the pipe, which is but equally effective, but may have a bit more work. Either way, yous are left with a length of pipe ready for a new valve.

Selecting a New Shutoff Valve

Once yous reply the question, 'what is a shutoff valve?' the 2d question is 'what kind of valve do I need?' The best types are quarter-turn shutoff valves, as these shut off with a single quarter turn. That way, if you're having a plumbing emergency (such every bit flooding) y'all can cut the water supply quickly and easily. Besides being a quarter-plow valve, it must fit the type of pipes you have and connect hands to the supply line by having an outflow connection in the correct orientation. If yous're replacing an old valve, you may simply want to replace the kind you have.

If y'all take copper pipes you can use a compression valve, which will connect to your pipage with a brass ferrule and a nut. It can be installed with some pliers and a wrench, so information technology's usually an easier option than a sweat valve, which needs to exist soldered to your copper pipe with special soldering tools. Fe pipes are frequently threaded, so you'll desire to get a screw on valve. PEX and PVC pipes require valves designed specifically for them.

The push-fit valve tin be slightly more expensive simply also easier to piece of work with. These fit every type of piping and require no tools for installation. As the name implies, a push-fit valve pushes on to the end of the pipe and a congenital-in gasket fits snug around the pipe to concord it in identify. They are only slightly more complicated to remove than to install, and require a little extra space between the valve and the wall than a compression valve might, but are easy to work with and a solid option for most plumbing jobs.

The arrangement of your water pipes and your fixture volition make up one's mind whether you demand a valve with the inlet and outlet connection in a straight line or at a xc degree angle to each other. If you lot're installing i for your kitchen sink, you may want a iii-way valve, which has outlets to your kitchen sink and your dishwasher. Be sure to consider where you're installing the piping and programme ahead for the different fittings that might exist needed.

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Installation

Your main water valve has been shut off, your pipes tuckered, and you lot've picked upward a new valve and so y'all're ready to begin. Make sure y'all have all the tools you'll need handy. Depending on whether you're removing and installing or just installing, and the type of connection you're installing, yous may need: a pipage wrench, wrench, pliers, pipe cutter, and/or a ferrule puller.

Once you accept removed the erstwhile valve, installing the new one will seem like a familiar process. Attach the new valve to the pipe and (depending on the type of valve you chose, of course) apply the wrench to be certain information technology is seated correctly and deeply.

Once the valve is in place, reattach the supply line. Check that the fittings are snug with the help of a wrench, and then plow your main h2o valve back on. Plough on a faucet to get air out of the pipes and become water flowing normally again. Bank check your newly installed valve to make sure it works and test it for any leaks. Finally, once everything is in working society, congratulate yourself for a job well done.

Installing a new shutoff valve tin can seem like a daunting projection, particularly if you're asking yourself 'what is a shutoff valve?' Just fifty-fifty a complete beginner tin can get this job washed with a piffling planning and forethought.

Source: https://www.build.com/what-is-a-shutoff-valve/a18479

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