The average household leak wastes 10,000 gallons of water a year and adds $50–$100 to your bill. Worse, slow leaks behind walls and under floors do invisible damage — rotted subfloor, mold, ruined drywall — long before you notice a stain. Your water meter is the cheapest leak detector you'll ever own.
The meter test
- Stop using all water. No dishwasher, no washing machine, no toilet flushes, no ice maker. Tell everyone in the house.
- Locate your water meter. Usually a metal cover in the parkway near the curb, or in a basement utility closet. Lift the lid carefully — sometimes there's a frog or a spider.
- Look for the leak indicator. Most meters have a small triangle or star-shaped dial that spins on any flow. If it's moving with everything off, you have a leak.
- If there's no leak indicator, note the exact reading, wait 30 minutes with no water use, and read it again. Any change means a leak.
Now find it
Once you confirm a leak, isolate where it is.
Step 1 — Inside or outside the house?
Close the main shutoff valve at the house. If the leak indicator stops, the leak is inside. If it keeps moving, the leak is between the meter and the house — usually the service line buried in your yard.
Step 2 — If inside, narrow it down
- Toilets: the most common silent leak. Drop food coloring in the tank, wait 15 minutes, don't flush. If color shows up in the bowl, the flapper is leaking. A $10 part fixes it.
- Water heater: check around the base, the TPR valve discharge tube, and the drain valve. Wet means leaking.
- Visible plumbing: run your hand along supply lines under sinks, behind the washer, around the dishwasher. Look for green corrosion on copper or white crust on shutoff valves.
- Irrigation: leak indicator stops when you shut the irrigation valve? It's the irrigation system.
Step 3 — Hidden leaks (in walls, under floors, slab)
Watch for these:
- Stains on ceilings or walls — especially the ceiling below an upstairs bathroom.
- Warped wood floors or buckled vinyl in one area.
- Musty smell in a closet or specific room.
- Hot spot on a tile or concrete floor — usually a hot-water slab leak.
- Unexplained bump in the water bill.
- Sound of running water when nothing is on.
Slab leaks and in-wall leaks are pro territory. We use acoustic listening equipment and thermal imaging to pinpoint within an inch — no exploratory demolition.
Quick checks worth running monthly
- Look at your bill. A $20 jump with no behavior change = a leak.
- Run the meter test once a quarter.
- Check under every sink. Most leaks start small and announce themselves with a damp cabinet floor.
- Look behind the washer and toilet. Supply hoses and angle stops are the highest-failure parts in the house.
If you confirm a leak you can't find
Don't tear into walls. Our leak detection uses acoustic and thermal tools to pinpoint hidden leaks without demolition — usually under an hour.