If you believe you may have a water leak in your home, it’s important that you deal with it right away. If you don’t, it will not only get worse, but it will cause damage to your home. That is why this article is on water leak detection. Keep reading to learn exactly how you can find the water leak and what you should do about it.
Some of the negatives that revolve around a water leak are:
- Drive up your monthly water bill
- Wasting water
- Damage plumbing system
- Damage home around the leak.
If you believe you may have a leak but are unsure, the easiest way is to read the water meter before using the water in the morning. You can then read the meter again after and find out how much water was used.
You also can use your bill at the end of the month to calculate how much water you used and see if that’s accurate. If more water is being used than simply what you are using, you probably have a leak. Also, if your bill is suddenly a lot higher than usual and you have not done anything differently, you also may have a leak.
It’s important to check things that would be easy to find first. Go around your home and check the toilets. Make sure that they are not leaking. You can put a couple of drops of food coloring in the back of your tank. In about an hour look into the bowl and see if it came through. This is an easy way to see if there are any cracks that need to be replaced.
Once you have done this and don’t find anything, try checking for leaks in each faucet. This is another common area to have a water leak.
If you are looking to see if you have a slow leak (normally these are a lot harder to find), stop using water for at least 20 minutes. Check your meter before and after the 20 minutes is up. Once you do, go and mark the meter and what it reads. This will help you to know if water was being used during these 20 minutes. If you didn’t turn anything on, then there’s a good chance you have a slow leak. If you believe you may have an even slower leak, make sure you do the same thing but leave everything off for one or two hours. When we say everything, we mean every little thing. Don’t do any laundry, don’t flush a toilet, don’t take a shower, and don’t do the dishes. Make sure everything stays off.
If you have a basement, it’s a great idea to look down there for a water pipe that is leaking. Go down and listen for any water in the pipes. Stand in the basement for a couple of minutes and listen for any water running in the home. This will help you to know the source of the water.
If you don’t have a basement, go through your home slowly and listen for the leak. You can enter each room in your home, especially where the pipes are located.
The next thing to do is to look around your home. Many times a leak will cause some damage to your home and you can see it. This means you should walk around your house and look for signs. Look for anything that was not there before. Many times these are sinking areas in your home, wet spots under sinks, damage to the carpet or wood floors.
Soft or muddy spots can take a while to find because many times they are underground, however, if you are able to spot some muddy areas in your lawn, this is a sign that you have a leak. If you notice an underground issue, you won’t be able to fix this yourself. In fact, underground issues can end up being the most expensive and hard to diagnose since you cannot look directly at them. If you believe you are experiencing this at all, all your trustworthy local plumber right away.
Your hot water heater is also a place that needs to be closely examined to see if there is any water dripping from it. If you do notice any, it’s important to ask an expert for help instead of trying to repair it yourself. This is because the hot water heater can end up being a lot more dangerous than you may think and can result in injury.
If you notice a faucet is leaking, it’s a good idea to fix it right away. This is something you can easily do yourself. When you don’t fix your leaking faucet it can lead to more issues as well as losing water that doesn’t need to be lost. Make sure to fix your faucet yourself or call in an expert as soon as you see an issue arise.
As you can see, a water leak can end up being a big headache and hard to diagnose. Try going around your home and figuring out exactly what is wrong. By doing this you can end up learning you can quickly fix the issue yourself. You also may learn that it’s a bigger issue than you may have realized right away and it needs an expert to come to your home as quickly as possible.
If you have any questions about a water leak or you have one and need an expert option, contact us today. We will be happy to answer any of your questions. We look forward to hearing from you.
