My house has no apparent main water line shut off valve. Usually one would find a shut off valve right near where the water main entered the house structure. At my current house I have never been able to determine where the water main entry point is located.
I have a house that has a lower level that is on a slab level with my garage. The other 2/3 or the house is built over a crawl space. I have checked the crawl space and found no water line entry points there. It is not possible to see where the water lines are routed in my house because they are all embedded in walls and ceilings that are covered over with drywall. Even my garage area, furnace area, water heater area and laundry room are all finished over with drywall. Thus I have no idea where the source point for my water lines is located.
It is possible the water main comes up through the slab of the lower level of the house and immediately goes up into a wall where it is hidden away from view. It is equally possible that the line enters below ground level at the periphery of the house and not findable unless I decided to dig a deep moat all around my house.
Currently if I want to shut off all the water in my house I have to use a T-bar handle to shut it off by the street near the water meter. This would be a less than ideal situation in the case of a water leak emergency. It is just not feasible to expect family members to be able to find the T-bar handle and run out to the street to turn off the water. For this reason I want to find the water main entry point and install a proper shut-off valve.
I am looking for suggestions about how to go about finding the water main entry point to the house. And hopefully there is a suitable method that works without having to rip down tons of drywall.
* Some Added Comments *
The water meter is out by the street under a concrete cover about six inches from the curb.
The water meter is at the extreme corner of the lot to the side of the driveway away from the house.
The water company's input ends about about six inches over the edge of the curb!!
The house was built in ~1987.
* UPDATE * I have found the water main entry point!! This was located a few weeks ago when I replaced some iron pipe risers out of the top of the water heater that had corroded so bad that a small leak had started. The gas fired water heater sits in the back corner of an alcove off the side of the garage. (The forced air furnace is also in this alcove). As you can imagine it is a rather tight fit in this alcove. I found that the water main is a 3/4" copper pipe that comes up through the concrete slab floor under the rear part of the water heater. It has an immediate 90 degree elbow that aims the water line toward an inside wall where it pokes into the wall through drywall.
Here is a rough diagram of the layout.
I will be working at opening the wall behind the water heater and installing a shut off valve there. Unfortunately it has to wait till a day when I can stay home from work and have the city utility folks come out and shut off the water main. I tried to shut off the water main with my T-bar handle but something is clearly wrong with the valve because it does not turn the water off when rotated either direction. I was able to move the valve through 90 degrees of rotation but no luck stopping the flow of the water.