Shutoff Valve Installation

A shutoff valve at the termination point on a water line allows the flow of water to be stopped to a single fixture, like a sink or toilet, without interrupting the water supply for the entire home. Over time, a shutoff valve can fail and begin to leak. You should regularly check the shutoff valves present in your home to catch minor leaks before they turn into damaging floods. The easiest and best replacement for a shutoff is a compression valve. This type of shutoff requires no soldering and most have a quarter turn ball stop instead of the old-style gate valve that must be turned several revolutions to turn it off or on.

Tools Of The Trade
Slip-joint pliers
Adjustable wrench
Keyhole hacksaw
Quarter turn compression valve


Step 1:
Turn off the main water shutoff for the home. Open the faucet or flush the toilet where the shutoff being replaced is located to remove residual water from the line.

Step 2:
Disconnect the water supply hose from the shutoff valve by turning the fitting at the end counterclockwise with an adjustable wrench.

Step 3:
Grasp the shutoff valve securely with a pair of slip-joint pliers and turn the nut that secures it counterclockwise with an adjustable wrench. Loosen the nut with the wrench until you can remove it completely by hand. Remove the shutoff and pull off the small brass compression ring at the end of the pipe using the pliers to wriggle it free. Remove the nut once the ring has been removed. If the old shutoff valve is soldered, cut it off the end of the pipe using a keyhole hacksaw. Cut as close to the valve as you can and at a 90-degree angle.

Step 4:
Place the nut from the new shutoff onto the end of the pipe with the threads pointing toward the end. Fit the brass compression ring that was provided with the new shutoff onto the end of the pipe leaving about a half an inch of pipe sticking past the ring.

Step 5:
Insert the new shutoff valve onto the end of the of the pipe and bring the nut forward and thread it onto the shutoff valve's threads. Ensure that the nut doesn't cross-thread. Tighten the nut using the adjustable wrench. Reattach the water supply hose to the new shutoff and restore the water supply. If you notice drips of water from the shutoff, tighten the nut an eighth of a turn at a time until the drip stops.