Finding pipe leaks in your home can be very hard, says 33 Management Services. Sometimes, because of unreasonably high water bills, you may suspect that your water pipes are leaking, but how exactly do you find the leaking pipe? Hidden water leaks in your home can be difficult to find for the following reasons:
- The leak is hidden behind the structures of your house: walls, flooring, or insulation.
- The leak is underground, so the discharged water is quickly absorbed into the ground.
- The leak is happening in rarely-visited parts of your home, like the attic or basement.
- The sound of running water from the pipe is masked by ambient noise around your home.
- The leak is so small that the impact on your water bill and building does not register at once.
- It’s an internal leak, happening inside one of your plumbing fixtures, such as a toilet.
But is there a way to tell if your water pipes are leaking and also pinpoint the exact location of the leak?
How to find and fix hidden water leaks in your home
Hidden pipe leaks in your home don’t leave behind the usual signs of water leaks in a house: wet spots or puddles on floors, watermarks on walls or ceilings, flaking or bubbling wallpaper, etc. But even when they do, they may still be hard to. Here are the best strategies for finding these types of leaks.
Look for running toilets and dripping faucets/showerheads
Running toilets and dripping faucets/showerheads may not feel like much, but they waste tons of water. According to the EPA, one dripping faucet in your home can waste up to 3,000 gallons of water a year, even if it is dripping at the rate of just one drop per second.
Dripping faucets are caused by worn-out internal components like washers, O-rings, or cartridges. Showerhead drips are mostly due to worn-out washers. A running toilet happens when there are problems with the flapper, chain, or fill valve.
If you think your toilet is leaking but you are not sure, put a few drops of food coloring inside the water tank and wait ten minutes. If the coloring finds its way into the toilet bowl from the tank, you have a leaking toilet.
These problems are easily DIYed.
Check the water softener
Water softeners are a common location for hidden water leaks in the home. To check if your water softener is silently wasting gallons of water, do these steps. Inspect the top, bottom, and drain line of the softener for visible signs of a water leak.
But if the leak is from a damaged seal/valve, you won’t see any visible signs of leaks around the appliance. That is because all the leaked water goes directly into the drains. To check if a seal/valve is leaking, put the water softener in bypass mode and do the water meter test.
The water meter test
This test is not only for finding leaks in your water softener. It can help you detect hidden leaks in your home, whether you have a water softener or not. This test will also tell you if the leak is inside or outside your house. How do you do the water meter test?
Turn off all plumbing fixtures and water-using appliances in your home or put your water softener in bypass mode. Locate your water meter in the yard, and note the reading on the device. Also, check to see if the small wheel/snowflake dial on the face of the water meter is moving. Wait for ten minutes.
If the reading on your water meter changes, even while all the fixtures and appliances are turned off or your water softener is in bypass mode, you have a leak in your home. For water softener leaks, please contact the appliance manufacturer or a professional plumber to troubleshoot the system.
If you do not have a water softener, do these steps to find the leak in your home. Turn off your main water shutoff valve and check the water meter reading. If, after ten minutes, the water meter reading has changed, while the shutoff valve is closed, you may have a leak in your main water supply line.
But if the water meter dial stops moving after you close the main water shutoff valve, the leak is inside your house. The next step is to find the location of the leaking pipe inside your house. Given the size and complexity of the pipe network in your home, this is a job you want to let an expert handle.
Hidden water leaks are the most destructive kind of water leak that can happen in your home. If you suspect a hidden leak in your home, don’t ignore it. That leak could be doing more harm than simply blowing up your water bill. It could cause serious structural damage to your home.
