Walk your meters — water and gas
One-time · any month works
Why it matters
Your find-the-shutoff card covered the inside of the house. This walk covers the street side — the meters, the curb stop, and the gas valve — plus the single best diagnostic freebie in homeownership: the water meter's leak indicator.
With every fixture off, that small triangle or star dial should be dead still. If it's creeping, water is leaving the system somewhere — a running toilet, a dripping irrigation valve, or the expensive one, a supply-line leak between meter and house (that stretch is usually YOUR pipe, not the city's).
While you're at the meter box: in your climate, a meter box stuffed with insulation (or a foam pad on the meter) is common practice — if the sellers' insulation is there, leave it; if not, it's a $10 winter upgrade.
What skipping it costs
$200–$15,000
The street-side story is the same as the inside one: a leak between the meter and the house, or an inside valve that fails when you need it, means the water keeps coming until someone reaches the curb stop. And the meter's little leak dial, read once on day one, is the cheapest leak detector ever made — homeowners have found sellers' hidden leaks in the first week just by watching it spin with everything off.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Flashlight, Your phone camera, A meter key or large flathead screwdriver for the meter box lid.
- Find the water meter: at the street in a ground box, or on the house in mild climates. Open the lid (careful — black widows and wasps love meter boxes; this is what the flashlight is for).
- Read it, photograph it, and watch the leak dial for a full minute with everything in the house off. Still = healthy. Creeping = start with toilets and irrigation, then call a plumber if nothing surfaces.
- Find the curb stop — the city's valve, usually in the same box or its own smaller one. You generally need a meter key (a $15 hardware-store tool worth owning) to turn it. Know where it is; use it only if your house-side valve fails.
- Gas: find the meter and the shutoff. Photograph it. Practice the motion of putting a wrench on it without turning it.
- Add every photo to your house file, and note the utility emergency numbers (gas smell: leave first, call from outside).
Hire it out
$75–$150National fair range — local labor moves this number.
Fold it into any plumber visit — $75–$150 as a standalone trip is why you don't book one just for this. The utility itself is the free option: most water departments will send someone to check the meter and curb stop on request, and the gas company would genuinely rather visit than have you guess.
Ask the tech
- Show me the curb stop and confirm it turns — and is my meter box lid supposed to be this hard to open?
- Where's the gas shutoff, and what's your honest advice on when a homeowner should and shouldn't touch it?
Red flags you're being upsold
- Anyone selling you a 'meter accuracy test' — utilities test their own meters free on request.
- Pressure to install a 'smart shutoff system' on day one. They're legitimate products, but a $30 meter key and knowledge come first.
The call
DIY the walk and the leak-dial read. The one thing you don't do: never turn a gas valve back ON yourself — that's the utility's job, every time.