Redland1
New Member
Hello.I Had the City stop By while I was on a business trip and told my wife that the house has a leak at 1.5 gallons a minute.What would be the process of me figuring out where the leak is? Thanks in advance.
Water meter is showing a leak
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Had the the problem 2 thanksgivings ago.
That is a pretty decent amount of loss per hour so if it was in your house hidden somewhere, you for sure would have seen it by now. However, the simple things are to check if any toilets are running. If not, I'd imagine it will be somewhere between your meter and ingress to your home.
This can be somewhat easy to find or kinda hard. First try to determine the most likely path between the meter and your house based on where it enters your home. Walk that line and press down with your foot about a foot on each side of where you think the line may be running.
Look for obvious signs of ponding water or very soft areas. If you are lucky you will see something and you have an idea.
If you don't see anything, here is what I do. Get an aluminum arrow (as in bow and arrow) with a standard slightly blunt tip on it. They are really cheap. Walk down the line and about every foot or so, press the arrow down at least 18 inches if you can. If you locate an area where there is a leak, you will feel it will be much easier to push the arrow in the ground, the arrow will be wet and it's possible water will start coming up pit of the hole.
Good luck. Hopefully you don't have a long supply line.
That is a pretty decent amount of loss per hour so if it was in your house hidden somewhere, you for sure would have seen it by now. However, the simple things are to check if any toilets are running. If not, I'd imagine it will be somewhere between your meter and ingress to your home.
This can be somewhat easy to find or kinda hard. First try to determine the most likely path between the meter and your house based on where it enters your home. Walk that line and press down with your foot about a foot on each side of where you think the line may be running.
Look for obvious signs of ponding water or very soft areas. If you are lucky you will see something and you have an idea.
If you don't see anything, here is what I do. Get an aluminum arrow (as in bow and arrow) with a standard slightly blunt tip on it. They are really cheap. Walk down the line and about every foot or so, press the arrow down at least 18 inches if you can. If you locate an area where there is a leak, you will feel it will be much easier to push the arrow in the ground, the arrow will be wet and it's possible water will start coming up pit of the hole.
Good luck. Hopefully you don't have a long supply line.
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here are some ideas:
- Learn to identify the flow by looking at the water meter.
- Turn off the main valve in the house. Does the leak stop? If no, leak is probably underground between the meter and the house.
- If yes, turn off other valves. Check again.
- Turn stuff off. Listen. Bring in some young ears, and get them to listen.
Redland1
New Member
Thanks for everyone’s suggestions.Found it.Looks like it’s leaking where the pipe enters the foundation.At least that’s where I saw some pinhole leaks,don’t know if there are more further in.Talked to a plumber and he said the would abandon that line and run a new one to the water heater.Can someone give me some advice on how I could do it myself? Thanks.
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Themp
Active Member
It is more complicated than connecting to the water heater. Do you have a whole house shut off valve in the house? If you do, then you have to now backtrack that line to the hole you dug. That backtrack could be under the garage floor. Since you are in Texas maybe it is in that outside wall of the garage, but I doubt it. You have an expansion tank(blue) above the water heater. You might have a pressure reducing valve nearby which also is part of the backtrack. The key here is that the supply line from your hole near the driveway has to go to the water heater and the rest of the house for cold water. Once you figure out these paths you then know what to replace. Hopefully the supply line comes out near the water heater and then has two branches. One to the cold and the other to the water heater. Running a new line is good, but the key is not to have it ever freeze.
Redland1
New Member
There is not a shutoff valve.
Since you are making changes, add one.
To add to others' suggestions. As far as installing a new supply..absolutely call Miss Utility first (or whatever call before you dig service you have). Once they mark, Best best is to rent a walk behind trencher (one with tracks is always better IMO), trench down now frost depth, make the connections. Its not something that is difficult really, but can be a bit of hard work. Not sure what is allowed in your area, but I used 1" PEX for my supply and it was cold and raining. Probably the hardest part was getting the PEX to remotely uncurl and do what I wanted it to do!
Redland1
New Member
Anyone know about where the water line would come out through the slab?
Redland1
New Member
I don't know about the frost situation is. I also don't know if you should have a sheath for the pipe to pass through. I would think good practices would have a sheath.
If you want to keep the pipe outside buried, you could drill a hole in the slab. Dig under the slab a bit from outside. So I am thinking of trenching to the left side of the house, and not use what is under the slab already. Is that what you were thinking? I wonder what caused the existing pipe to leak.
If you want to keep the pipe outside buried, you could drill a hole in the slab. Dig under the slab a bit from outside. So I am thinking of trenching to the left side of the house, and not use what is under the slab already. Is that what you were thinking? I wonder what caused the existing pipe to leak.
Redland1
New Member
I temporarily hooked it up this way until I can get some quotes or figure out a permanent solution that I can do myself.
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Redland1
New Member
Good idea.
Did the piece you cut out show the source of the leak?
That was nice of the city to alert you.
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