You can feel or hear itCommon

Why is there no water in my house?

A house with no water at all narrows fast, and the first two questions cost nothing. Is anyone else on your street affected, and are your own valves fully open? Between them, those two answers cover most of the ways a house goes dry, and neither needs a plumber to find out.

Also covers no water in house suddenly · no water in house with well · no water coming out of taps · lost all water suddenly · water stopped working

First free check: Ask a neighbor
Second free check: Both shutoff valves fully open
Most often left closed: The valve at the meter, after utility work
A lever valve is open only when: It lines up with the pipe
In freezing weather: Treat a dry tap as a frozen pipe

Narrow it down

Which of these is your situation?

Two free questions do most of the work here. Start with whether anyone else is affected.

Likely reasons

What else it could be

Ranked for the common case. Answer the question above and we re-rank for yours.

A valve isn’t fully open
Most common
Water reaches your house through a series of valves: the utility's curb stop at the property line, the valve at your meter, and your main shutoff inside. Any of them partly closed throttles the whole house, and they get left that way after repairs, meter work, or utility visits.
Common misdiagnosis
A lever valve at 45 degrees looks roughly open and reads as "on" to most people. It isn't. In line with the pipe, or it's restricting you.
What it costs you, and how to fix it
If you leave it
No damage, but you may spend money diagnosing a problem that a quarter-turn fixes.
What to expect
Check your main shutoff first: a gate valve (round handle) should turn fully counter-clockwise until it stops; a ball valve (lever handle) is open only when the lever is in line with the pipe, not at an angle.
Then check the valve at the meter, which is the one most often left partly closed after utility work.
The curb stop at the property line belongs to the utility; call them rather than turning it yourself.
It’s the utility, not your house
Sometimes nothing in your home is wrong. Main breaks, scheduled maintenance, hydrant flushing, and peak demand periods all reduce pressure across a whole area.
Common misdiagnosis
The reverse error is more expensive: assuming it's municipal when it isn't, and living with low pressure for months. Ask a neighbour before you assume.
What it costs you, and how to fix it
If you leave it
Nothing to ignore. This resolves when the utility resolves it. Discoloured water afterwards is common as disturbed sediment settles; running a cold tap for a few minutes usually clears it.
What to expect
Check your water utility's alerts or outage page, and call their service line if there's no notice posted. Worth doing rather than waiting: they may not know yet, and reports help them locate breaks.
If your neighbours recover and you don't, come back; at that point the problem has become yours, and we'll pick it up from there.
Leak somewhere in the system
Water escaping before it reaches your taps costs you both pressure and volume, and a leak inside a wall, under a slab, or in the buried service line can run a long time unnoticed while doing real damage.
Common misdiagnosis
Weak pressure gets blamed on the city or a regulator while a leak runs unchecked. The meter test costs nothing and rules it in or out.
What it costs you, and how to fix it
If you leave it
Unlike most causes here, this one damages your house while you decide. Structural damage, mold, and a climbing water bill all compound.
What to expect
A plumber locates the leak (acoustic and pressure-testing equipment for hidden ones) and repairs it. Main water line repairs commonly run $400–$1,500 depending on location and access. Bring your meter-test result; knowing a leak is confirmed saves diagnostic time you'd otherwise pay for.
Control box or capacitor failure
Three-wire submersible pumps use an above-ground control box holding capacitors and a relay that give the motor its starting punch. When a capacitor fails, the motor can't start properly, it may hum without turning, trip the breaker, or start and cut out.
Common misdiagnosis
"Won't start" is often assumed to mean a dead pump and a four-figure job. Frequently it's a part costing tens of dollars. Ask for the control box to be tested before agreeing to pull the pump.
What it costs you, and how to fix it
If you leave it
Repeatedly resetting a tripping breaker risks damaging the motor. Turn the breaker off and leave it off until someone qualified looks at it.
What to expect
A contractor tests the box and usually replaces a capacitor or relay rather than the whole assembly; capacitors often fail first and lightning strikes are a known trigger. This is among the cheaper well repairs; electrical fixes commonly run $150–$500.
If your pump is 2-wire, the starting components are inside the motor underwater, so the same symptoms point toward pump service instead.
⚠️ Hard stop: do not open the control box. Capacitors hold an electrical charge even with power off. This one is not a do-it-yourself check.
Regulator failing or drifting
A regulator works with a spring and a rubber diaphragm. Both wear. As they do, the valve stops holding a steady setting, pressure drifts down over months, swings unpredictably, or in some failures climbs instead.
Common misdiagnosis
Slow decline over months gets blamed on "the city." A gauge test at an outside tap settles it in five minutes, and if the reading is low with no municipal issue, the regulator is the first suspect.
What it costs you, and how to fix it
If you leave it
A drifting regulator can fail toward high pressure as well as low, which brings the damage described above. It also masks other problems by making everything mildly wrong.
What to expect
A plumber can sometimes adjust a regulator that's merely out of adjustment, which costs less than replacement. Most genuinely failing units need replacing: roughly $300–$650 installed. Ask for a before-and-after gauge reading so you can see what you paid for.

Freezing weather, and a tap gives a trickle or nothing? Stop and start with the safety check. Frozen pipes most often rupture as they thaw, and the wrong thawing method is the leading cause of house fires from this. Water escaping from a burst pipe? Shut off the main valve now, then call a licensed plumber.

What this means

What this means for you

Changes with your answer above. Then two ways to know for sure.

Two free checks come first: the shut-off valves, and whether neighbors have water. If your neighbors are dry too, the problem is most likely outside your house and the answer is your utility’s alerts page. If it is only you, the next thing to check is your own valves, because a valve left closed after meter work or a repair can leave a house dry with nothing broken.

Only after both of those is it worth paying anyone.

Most of what’s on this page comes down to two things you can check yourself, today, for almost nothing:

Start hereFree

Rule out the two cheapest answers

Ask a neighbor
If the whole neighborhood has lost pressure too, the problem is most likely outside your house.
Watch the meter
Shut every tap and monitor the meter. A meter that still creeps means water is escaping, and a hidden leak is the only cause here that gets worse while you decide.

If both come back clear, the problem sits on your side of the meter. That is the point to call a plumber.

Ground truth

Measure your pressure twice, day and night

Screw a gauge onto an outside tap and take one reading in the daytime, one late at night. City pressure often rises overnight as demand falls, so a much higher night reading can point to a missing or failing regulator.

A pressure gauge is an inexpensive hardware-store part.

What your reading meansUnder 50Below the range to aim for50 to 60The range to aim forOver 80Above the code ceilingThe 80 PSI ceiling is code, not opinion: the plumbing code caps static pressure there and requires a regulator above it.

Pressure Fix

Find out where my water went

This page lists what usually causes no water in house. The tool asks a few questions about your own system and ranks them for what you actually have, cheapest checks first. It starts with a safety screen, every time.

Whole house
One well, one house
No water
No water

Your answers come with you.No account, no email. Skip any question you cannot answer.

Start Pressure Fix →

Quick questions

The questions people ask next

How do I check whether my main valve is open?

A gate valve, the kind with a round handle, is open when it turns counter-clockwise until it stops. A ball valve, the kind with a lever, is open only when the lever lines up with the pipe. A lever sitting at 45 degrees looks roughly open to most people and is not.

There is a valve at the street. Should I turn that one?

No. The curb stop at the property line belongs to the utility. Call them rather than operating it yourself.

No water and it is freezing outside. What should I do first?

Treat it as a frozen pipe. Keep the affected tap open so meltwater can escape, apply gentle heat only, and never use an open flame. Pipes most often rupture as they thaw, so check for leaks afterwards even if nothing has burst yet.

My neighbors have water and I do not. What does that mean?

It means the problem is on your side of the meter. Check your own valves first, then the meter test for a leak. If both are clear, the service line between the main and your house is the next candidate and that is a plumber’s call.

Could an unpaid bill do this?

It can, and utilities do shut off service. If your valves are open and the street is fine, it is worth ruling out with a phone call before paying anyone to investigate.

Pages that often come up alongside this one.

These are likely causes based on what people commonly describe, a place to start, not a diagnosis, and not medical advice. For anything health-related, a certified lab test and your local health authority are the ones to trust.

Why is there no water in my house?

Which of these is your situation?

What else it could be

A valve isn’t fully open

It’s the utility, not your house

Leak somewhere in the system

Control box or capacitor failure

Regulator failing or drifting