Mystery Water Oozing

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bashbish

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There is water slowly oozing out of the grout seam where the front outside wall of my house meets my front outside entryway slab.
That slab is actually 3 inches below the slab that the interior of my house sits on. This maybe why none of that water is getting inside.

My first inclination was plumbing leak. So I called an "expert" in leak detection. He broke the wall where the main feed comes into the house to see if the leak was there (that location is 2’ away from where the water is coming from.) No sign of leak.

He said it is under the slab somewhere. A leaky pipe he said. He explained how with his equipment he will find out which pipe and bypass it, running a new pipe through the attic. Big $$

This made sense until he left. I did my own research of how to read our water meter (my leak expert never looked at it). I have been monitoring the water meter. Once at bedtime and once in the morning. Each reading 10-12 hours apart. Every reading for the past week has shown that the meter has not moved even 1/10 gal in that 10 to 12 hour time span.

It rained only 1 day in the past 10 and that was 4 days ago. Yet the water is oozing again, since at least this morning.

Has anyone a clue where the water is coming from ?
 

Doherty Plumbing

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There is water slowly oozing out of the grout seam where the front outside wall of my house meets my front outside entryway slab.
That slab is actually 3 inches below the slab that the interior of my house sits on. This maybe why none of that water is getting inside.

My first inclination was plumbing leak. So I called an "expert" in leak detection. He broke the wall where the main feed comes into the house to see if the leak was there (that location is 2’ away from where the water is coming from.) No sign of leak.

He said it is under the slab somewhere. A leaky pipe he said. He explained how with his equipment he will find out which pipe and bypass it, running a new pipe through the attic. Big $$

This made sense until he left. I did my own research of how to read our water meter (my leak expert never looked at it). I have been monitoring the water meter. Once at bedtime and once in the morning. Each reading 10-12 hours apart. Every reading for the past week has shown that the meter has not moved even 1/10 gal in that 10 to 12 hour time span.

It rained only 1 day in the past 10 and that was 4 days ago. Yet the water is oozing again, since at least this morning.

Has anyone a clue where the water is coming from ?

Sounds like your water main is leaking. This ofcourse won't register on the meter.

When water leaks underground it always goes to the path of least resistance. So maybe the leak is 15' back from your house and the water has an easier path over to the grout line in your foundation wall then it does to the hole where the main enter the house.

What you need to do is shut off your water main (inside your house) and then go around and shut off ALL of your cr-valves at your fixtures.

Watch the meter again and make sure it's not moving. Then listen to the city side of your water main (upstream of the valve) and see if you can hear water running. You can use a screw driver to your ear to get a better listen on the piping...
 

bashbish

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Thank you so much for your advise.

Help me understand please.

I turned off the main valve to my house . No meter movement before or after I turned it off.
Why do I need to turn off the valves at all the sinks/toilets etc if the main feed to the house is turned off ?

FYI- the water meter is about 20 feet away from my house slightly down hill from my main house valve. The meter is about 1 foot underground in what appears to be a four walled enclosure with a removable top. There is no water in or around that enclosure.
 

bashbish

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Their meter is dead stopped also. No movement. I spent a good part of this afternon discussing it with them. They looked all around to see if there is any water anywhere around there house or the meters, to no avail.
 

Jadnashua

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It could be ground water. If it's from the water main, if it is leaking before the meter, the meter won't show. Is there any water in the pit where the meter is?
 

Jimbo

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Did he have some visual or other indication that the water is coming from INSIDE somewhere? If so, it could be a drain, or something like the shower head where it only leaks when the shower is turned on.
 

bashbish

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Showers are all on opposite side of the house.

The strange thing is that we had not used any water for about 10 hours. I went outside a noticed the water oozing out of the grout line outside where the wall meets the slab. It continued to ooz out even though we had not or were not using any water.

The only pipes in the vicinity of the leak is the main feed that feeds 2 pipes that go down into the slab.

Everthing points to a leak in a pipe under the slab with the great exception that the meter is not moving.
 

bashbish

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I think I found the immeadiate area of the leak . It appears to be coming up the sleeve of one the pipes that go down into the slab.

The only thing that baffles me is that the water meter never moves unless I actually turn on water source in the house. It should be moving,at least slowly all the time if a pipe in the slab is leaking. Shouldn't it ?
 

Doherty Plumbing

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You need to reread my post or maybe I didn't explain it clearly.

You want to shut off the main inside your house so that when you listen to the city side of the main (right where it enters your house basically) and you hear water running you know it's not running inside your house.

With your house 100% isolated (this why I say shut off the cr valves to be 100% sure) you shouldn't hear any water running when you listen to the main.

I said to check the meter with your house off to make sure you weren't getting any leakage into the house that could ruin the point of listening to the piping.

If you shut the house down 100% and you can hear water running when you listen to your water main you can be sure your main has sprung a leak.
 
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