A leak but where?

[bananaskin123]

I'll try and make this brief. Our water suppliers informed us that we must have a leak because when they read our meter it was extremely high. We have a paddock at the back of our house and about a year ago some spurs were added so we could have some horse troughs. Water suppliers Manager came last week, turned our stopcock off walked down the field and said the meter was still moving. He did not turn the stop cock off outside or the one leading to the garage. He informed us we did not have a leak in the house which I was mightily relieved about but the leak must be coming from the field. Company came back, excavated and said it was as dry as a bone so the leak must be either in the house or garage.

Long story short: can find nothing to indicate its in the house, we do have a plumber coming later in the week to check. If its under the patio it will mean the patio will need to be dug up to repair. I hope this would be covered under the house insurance. Also the pipe which comes up from the field is galvanised and must be very very old and we have been encouraged to have a new pipe laid. I know that will not be cheap but it would give us a better water supply to the kitchen taps than we have now which is not much more than a trickle so probably would be an investment.

Don't know what I'm asking really. I'm so so worried that the worst scenariou is that it could be under the house. Anyone had anything remotely similar please and how did it get sorted in the end. I really am losing sleep worrying over this! We have to wait another 10 days for the water suppliers to come again.

New pipe would be the easiest, if there's a leak in an inaccessible pipe there's often no point repairing as with a new pipe you can route it a more sensible way. The old pipe can be abandoned. It's something the pros do every day so it's not worth worrying about, they can even use a machine to dig a mini tunnel to avoid disturbing your driveway etc.

leak specialists can locate them with special equipment, I think they are sound probes driven into the ground.

If you have old lead or steel pipes it may be a burst or rust hole. Corrosion of steel pipes is more common at an elbow, where the abrupt change in direction causes cavitation. Plastic pipe is unlike to leak unless punctured, e.g. by machinery, or sometimes at an incorrectly made joint.

Consider the possibility of laying new plastic pipe and abandoning the old. The trench for a new pipe does not have to follow the old route.

This fellow named Ian works in the trade and has written some interesting posts about it.

Thank you both for replying. I'm feeling a bit more optimistic that things will be OK. Very interesting article PigletJohn. Obviously its all new to me but things have certainly progressed over the years. I remember the last time, years ago, we had a leak under the patio and finding the old pipe, mending the leak and reinstating the patio was a long job.

We had a major leak in our property a few years ago, it started with a noise similar to what you get just after the toilet has been flush when the cistern fills up with water.

We got plumbers out and they checked everything but couldn’t understand where the noise was coming from as it was going constantly, they then thought it may be from the pump in the ceiling taking the water across to our extension and that maybe the pump needed replacing.

A few weeks later we noticed paint starting to peel off the bottom part of the wall in the lounge and the paint was bubbling in other areas so we thought as it was on the chimney breast wall that maybe the flashing had gone, so we got our builder who did the extension to check the chimney but he said it ok, he then said have you pulled the carpet back to check the floor as all the pipe work to our property runs under the concrete floor apart from the extension, we said no we didn’t think to check so he pulled it back and there was a Huge damp patch.

To cut a long story short insurance company came out and we finally discovered that a tile on the threshold of the kitchen which the grouting always seemed darker than the rest of the grouting was lifted up and the floor dug up to reveal a leaking pipe which was so bad it was like having your finger over a hose.

We had to move out for four months so that the property could be dried out which took six weeks, all floor tiles were dug up, bathrooms and ensuite fittings removed and the lower part of the wall the plaster was removed.

Like you our water company said our bill was astronomical towards the end but luckily they wrote it off as it was a leak, it’s an experience I wouldn’t want to go through again the stress was unbelievable but our insurance company were amazing thank goodness.

Water companies can be quite reasonable and can be your friend in all this. Give them a call for advice. They may be able to help and can certainly write off amounts.

We had a leak under the house. We could hear a hissing noise at first and when we lifted the floor boards we found a puddle of water in the void below. The house is 1930s and the supply was made of lead. We took the decision to replace the supply from the stop tap in the pavement up to the one in the cupboard under the stairs. We did most of the work ourselves, hiring a minidigger to excavate a trench to 2ft 6 in deep and lined it with sand. We purchased the replacement pipe from a local builders merchants, gotherwise a plumber friend to connect inside the house and the water company to connect outside (the whole street had to be turned off as they wanted to re-site the external stop tap but it was reasonably quick ).
I'm struggling to understand if your supply branches off or if you have stop taps in a linear arrangement. You should be able to identify the stretch of pipe with the leak by isolating each stop tap in turn.
Another possibility is that you share a water supply with a neighbour (quite common in older houses ).
Outside look for visual clues like verdant or boggy patches of garden or puddles that don't disappear in dry weather.
Finally you need to check cistern overflows, garden taps, dishwasher and wash machine connections and dripping taps as they'll all contribute to higher bills if they're leaking.
Finally once you get it sorted then request a leakage allowance from your water company.