Where are the water shutoffs in an apartment building?

The main is usually near where the line enters the building, with possible shutoffs per unit or floor. Find and label them before an emergency.

Should tenants know where the shutoffs are?

Tell them where unit shutoffs are, and who to call if they cannot reach you. Keep access to main controls to staff.

How often should I update the binder?

At least once a year and whenever a vendor, tenant or piece of equipment changes.

Apartment Building Emergency Binder Checklist

Keep one place, on paper and on your phone, that holds where every shutoff is, who to call, who lives in each unit, and what to do in the first hour of a fire, flood, gas smell or outage. Make it before you need it, test it once a year, and share it with the people who would act in your place.

Why have one

In an emergency the person who knows where the water main is has minutes to act, and it is rarely the one who is away. Ready.gov, the federal preparedness site, tells businesses to create a preparedness plan and points to its emergency plan guidance (Ready Business, read 2026-10-31). A building is a small business with residents, so the same idea applies: decide now who does what.

What goes in it

Shutoff map: main water, gas, electrical panel, sprinkler or fire alarm panel, and each unit's shutoff if separate. Add a photo of each, with a label.
Contacts: fire, police, utility emergency lines, your insurer's claim line and policy number, a plumber, an electrician, a restoration company and a locksmith.
Tenant list: unit, names and phone, kept private and shared only with those who need it.
Building facts: address, year built, construction type, number of units, roof access and where the keys and codes are kept.
Owner and backup: two people with authority to approve spending, and their numbers.
Insurance: a copy of the policy declarations and the agent's number.

The first hour, step by step

Life safety first: get people out and call emergency services. Do not go back in.
Shut off the source if it is safe to do so: water for a leak, gas only per the utility's instructions, power for an electrical fault.
Call your vendor from the list and describe what you see.
Photograph everything before cleanup, for the insurer.
Tell affected tenants what happened and what comes next, in writing.
Call your insurer's claim line the same day. See filing a claim for tenant damage.

For gas, follow the utility's published instructions for your area before you touch a valve.

Keep it current

Review the binder every January and whenever a tenant moves in or out, a vendor changes or you replace equipment. Walk through the shutoffs with whoever covers for you, and ask them to find each one without help.

Example a made-up 12-unit building with a burst supply line at 2 a.m. An owner who knows the shutoff stops the water in 10 minutes and the damage covers one unit. If it takes 90 minutes to find the valve, water reaches the units below. The binder costs an hour to build.

Tell tenants what to do

The best binder cannot help if residents do not know the basics. Give every tenant a one-page sheet at move-in: where the exits are, who to call for an emergency and for a maintenance emergency, what to do if they smell gas, and where to meet outside. Update it yearly.

Post the same sheet in the hallway or laundry room. Ask tenants who are away for long periods to tell you who to call. Keep personal details private and share only what a responder needs.

Practice once a year

Pick a quiet day and run a short drill with whoever covers for you. Ask them to find the water main, the gas meter and the electrical panel using only the binder, and to call each vendor number to check it still works. Fix whatever fails, and note the date on the cover so you know when it was last tested.

How DoorKeeping handles it

Store the binder as documents on the property, keep vendors on a list, and email every tenant in the building at once with a notice such as a water shutoff. Work orders go to a vendor by link. DoorKeeping costs $2 per unit per month with every feature included and is not an emergency service: call 911 first.

Sources

Ready.gov: Ready Business emergency plans, read Oct 31, 2026

Questions

Where are the water shutoffs in an apartment building?: The main is usually near where the line enters the building, with possible shutoffs per unit or floor. Find and label them before an emergency.
Should tenants know where the shutoffs are?: Tell them where unit shutoffs are, and who to call if they cannot reach you. Keep access to main controls to staff.
How often should I update the binder?: At least once a year and whenever a vendor, tenant or piece of equipment changes.