i cant find any water shut off valves in my old home?

John the insulation professional

my mom wants me to install new pipes under her kitchen sink, i cant find a water shut off valve under any of the sinks???? where could they be located?

Wild Bill

See "where are my valves??" on this site.... many homes did not have service valves installed when they were built. Try a good plumbing supply house (not one of the dreaded boxes) and get a couple of compression style ball valves and a tubing cutter. You should be ok with a minimal of splish-splash. Good luck

Matt Undy

That's assuming its copper. If there are no shutoffs, even underneath the floor then it is very likely steel or even worse brass. What "pipes" need repalcement and why? Find the hardware store in the area that has the good plumbing section, every area seems to have one. Post a picture of what you have both what your replacing and what it connects to and we can give you more info about what to do under there. See the other post about how to shut off the water.

Matt

Ken_8

This is not at all uncommon!

Until the advent of ball valves, most copper stops, gate valves, globe valves, etc. all leaked within 10 or 20 years and were rendered useless anyhow. So not having a service valve on any riser is no big deal.

No big deal - unless of course the big valve for the entire house is also blown. In that case, a new ball valve needs to be put in so over time - any service work will allow a new service ball valve to be installed so this doesn't happen again.

Unless you have your own well, a curb stop exists in your front lawn between the street and house. Usually, a call to the water department of your town will get someone out to turn the water off at the curb - allow you to replace the main incoming line valve, and then you are back in the driver's seat of being able to add service valves as needed.

Hope this helps.

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