Main water valve hidden in wall - I assume?

[Andrew S.]

I have a 1935 house that has the water pipes coming out of a common center wall to the kitchen on one side and bathroom on the other side of the wall. I assume the main water valve is behind the wall on both sides, before it tees off to the kitchen, bathroom, and water heater. I'm doing a minor renovation of the house now, is it worth busting open the wall behind the water heater to locate the main water shutoff valve? The water heater, kitchen sink, and bathroom all have their own valves so I don't think I need to worry about it. But I currently have no way to replace a valve if I wanted to. This probably falls under the category of if it's not broke, don't fix it. Thanks.

[Jim K.]

@Andrew S.

No, this problem falls under the category of getting this straighted out RTFN. You did the right thing by posting, Andrew.

Find that valve. If this property is in an urban environment, then you're going to have a buried water main outside in the street usually in the front of the house but sometimes in the back. The water will come in to a street shut-off valve. Then the water line will come in to a meter situated inside the property. Right after that valve will be the main shutoff valve. That's the most common setup.

If this is not an urban environment and you have water coming in from a well, then your setup doesn't include the same arrangement. It could be somewhere else, but this is not my wheelhouse and I know what I don't know. I'm pretty sure you would have seen a water meter if one was in your property, but you didn't mention one.

If you're buying houses from this era, you should already have a working relationship with a local experienced plumber. If you don't, starting to build that relationship should be another RTFN objective. Start calling other investors and asking them for recommendations for smaller plumbing service providers in your area. What you do not want is the residential call service where they send out a "plumbing tech" who shows up in a van and has to get on his phone back to an actual plumber sitting in an office somewhere to ask the time of day, let alone anything about plumbing. You also don't want the local giant who advertises $99 clog removals aggressively on every bus, billboard, and park bench to build a residential empire with a customer list full of homeowners and no landlords.