Ok so this last month we have had a crazy high water bill. So today we call a plumber out of the blue.. Pete's Plumbing to come to the house and see if they could find the leak. After spending about 10mins in the house checking different faucets and toilets they just shut off the main valve on the side of the house. Even with the main valve off the the meter was still moving. At this point Pete's Plumbing said they didn't have the equipment to find the leak out side of the house and gave me a number to call for people that did and charged me 50 bucks and left. So I call up the other company that can find this type of water leak they say its $325 for the first two hours and $150 each additional hour afterwards.. Does this seem excessive? Anyone know of a good company or work for one that could find a water leak on the main going to the house?
WOuldn't your local water company be responsible for this? We were doing leak detection tests for DeKalb county and they were responsible for it from the main to the meter. Unless you are saying it was somewhere between the meter and your house? We were charging the county a ton of me to the water leak detection. I will ask the PM for the project if he knows anyone that can do the work.
If the leak is before the meter it is the county. After the meter (and therefore high bills) it is the homeowner. Do you see a wetspot in your yard? If you can isolate it and if you can dig yourself, I am guessing patching the line would be cheap. The other option is to replace the whole line. Don't know how much that would be though.
No water or wet spots anywhere... anybody have a metal detector? I might try and follow the water line and feel the ground for damp spots.
find the meter and check your side of it, they replaced mine it leaked they tried to get out of picking up the tab but in the end they did.
I know you love your phone ... I think there's a metal detector app available for it. Not sure it's 100% accurate, but I bet your neighbors would get a kick out of you crawling around your yard looking for metal w/ your phone. lol
I would think the plumber who came out would notice if it was leaking around the meter. Second place to check is where the line comes into the house, the water will most likely run down the foundation drain. If you're all uppity and have an irrigation system check around the valve boxes
The line running from the meter will either be gray, black or blue poly, or white PVC so a metal detector would be pointless
if it is a leak before the meter then how would the meter move? They have special detectors for plastic water pipes. I had to replace some blue poly pipe from the street to my house a few years back.
+1. if it's upstream of the meter and nothing is using water in the house the meter won't move (what kind of flowmeter are those anyway?)
i am actually a plumber..lol.. and it sounds to me like its a faulty meter..if the main shut off valve was shut off the meter WILL NOT spin..sounds like something is wrong with the meter to me..no other real explanation,even if you had a leak in the front yard before the house the meter should not spin with it cut off..we've ran into a lot of meters like that and sometimes we've ran into meters that the shut off valve has failed on and will not cut off even if you turn them off,so that may be the case but even if that were the problem then you would have a leak in your front yard or home