A High Water Bill With No Visible Leak: How We Find It

Reviewed by Tom Dickerson · 365 Solutions HVAC & Plumbing · Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1432730

A water bill that jumps with no change in habits almost always means water is leaving the system somewhere you cannot see. Here is how to narrow it down before you call, and what we do when you do.

Do the meter test first (10 minutes)

Turn off every fixture and appliance that uses water. Find your meter at the street — in St. Johns County and JEA territory it is in a box near the sidewalk. Note the reading or watch the small leak indicator (a triangle or star on most meters). Wait ten minutes without using water. If the number moved, water is flowing somewhere.

Then find out which side

Close the main shutoff valve at the house (usually near the front hose bib or in the garage). Repeat the meter test. If the meter still moves, the leak is between the street and the house — the service line, which is our water line repair job. If it stops, the leak is inside.

The usual inside suspects

Toilets first. A worn flapper lets water trickle from the tank to the bowl silently; put a few drops of food coloring in the tank, wait 15 minutes, and see if the bowl changes color. A running toilet can waste 200 gallons a day. Then the water heater relief valve (a damp drain line or pan), irrigation valves that stick open, and a softener that regenerates too often.

Slab leaks

Almost every home in Nocatee, Ponte Vedra, St. Johns and Jacksonville sits on a concrete slab with the water lines running through or under it. A pinhole in a copper line under the slab shows up as a warm spot on the floor, a hissing sound when everything is off, damp baseboards, or a bill that doubles. We locate these electronically — acoustic listening, pressure testing and, where needed, thermal imaging — so we open one small spot in the floor instead of chasing the pipe. If the home has had more than one slab leak, a whole-house repipe is usually cheaper than the third repair.

What we charge

We give you a written price for the leak detection before we start and a written price for the repair before we do it. Most detection visits are done in under two hours.