How to Detect a Water Leak

By Complete Contents
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With all the water running through homes, there are many opportunities for undetected water leaks. Small, or even tiny, water leaks can cause a lot of damage and cost a lot to eventually repair as they can go for long periods of time before being detected. Here are some tips to help you spot a potential hidden water leak that needs to be repaired:

Your Water Bill:

Most people know how much their water bill normally is and will notice a sudden increase, though you may not notice a slight increase that occurs over time for seemingly no reason. Compare several months of water bills to the water bills from the same months of the previous year. If there is an unexplained increase, you may have a water leak.

Check Your Water Meter:

Completely turn off the water in your home. Use chalk or a marker to mark where the indicator on your meter is. Wait a while (at least 15-20 minutes), then come back and check the meter again. The indicator should not have moved. If it did, you may have a water leak somewhere in your home.

When would you know to check for a water leak?

A few things could tip you off that you have a water leak. Have you noticed a damp, musty smell somewhere in your house? Have you found any discolored or sagging walls, ceilings or floors? Have you found mold in your home? Have you simply noticed your water bill going up? Any of these are very good reasons to start looking for a water leak.

What should you do if you have a water leak?

If you’ve found a water leak in your home, or know there is one from doing the tests above, call a plumber. They should be able to locate and fix the leak(s). If you have water damage to your home (mold, mildew, sagging walls, etc.) you will need to hire a water damage restoration company to repair the damage.

75 COMMENTS

Luke Smith
December 13, 2016, 11:57 pm REPLY

Thanks for pointing out that a water leak would be accompanied by a damp or musty smell. I would imagine that if you hit the point where you can detect a leak by smell, however, the situation is probably already pretty bad. I would imagine that installing some sort of leak detection system to find them before they hit that point could be very profitable.
ServiceMaster by Wright
January 20, 2017, 2:17 am REPLY

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Yilliang Peng
March 30, 2017, 3:45 am REPLY

Thanks for the advice on how to detect whether or not there is a leak in the pipes. The last thing that I want is to detect a leak way too late and for it to have lasting impacts on our home. With that being said, I will do a better job of smelling around my home to see if there is any mold. Thanks again!
suxixysiha
July 18, 2017, 9:25 am REPLY

Water leaks can be defined as water leaking from

The network of water pipes, located within the apartment or home whether clean water lines or

Sewage lines, and then accumulate leaking water on the private walls

With kitchens or toilets, the reason for those water leaks is having problems in the lines
Water
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Kourtney Jensen
September 22, 2017, 8:28 pm REPLY

My water bill has recently skyrocketed and I’m not sure what has happened. My neighbor had a leak in their mainline once and their water bill did the same thing, so I think we may need to check our pipes for any leaks. I’m hoping it’s an easy fix and not too expensive but I would rather fix this than have any more damage!