Water leak detection and pipe locating

Some leaks announce themselves. Others just quietly add a few hundred dollars to the water bill and rot a wall from the inside.

What it usually is

• A water bill that has jumped and nothing in the house has changed. The meter is ticking over while every tap is off.
• A damp patch on a wall, ceiling or floor that will not dry out. Often a pipe in the wall or under the slab.
• A soft, green or squelchy patch in the lawn or driveway. The water service between the meter and the house has sprung a leak.
• Low pressure that has crept in over months.
• No water at all. Usually a burst service pipe, a failed stop tap, or a main break in the street. If your neighbours have water and you do not, it is on your side.
• The hot water system running constantly. A leak on the hot side, which costs you energy as well as water.

Plenty of older houses across the Illawarra still have galvanised or copper pipes that are fifty years old and more. They do not last forever. Concrete slabs, tree roots and ground movement all take their toll.

Check it yourself first

Turn off every tap inside and out. Find the water meter, usually near the front boundary. Look at the small dial or the last digits. If they are moving with everything off, water is going somewhere it should not. That is worth a phone call.

What Brad does

The wrong way to find a leak is to start digging where you think it might be. The right way is to find it, mark it, then dig one hole.

Brad uses leak detection and pipe locating equipment to trace where the pipes actually run and where the water is escaping. On a service line that means pinpointing the leak in the ground, so the repair is one small hole in the lawn rather than a trench across it. Inside, it means finding the pipe in the wall or slab before anyone picks up a hammer.

Once it is found, he repairs it. If the pipe is old enough that it is going to keep failing, he will tell you straight, and give you a price to replace the run rather than chase leaks in it every six months.

If you have no water, he finds out why and gets it back on. If the break turns out to be on the water authority's side of the meter, he will tell you that too, and you can ring them instead of paying him.

Pipe locating

Not every job is a leak. Sometimes you just need to know where the pipes are: before a renovation, before you dig a pool, before someone puts a fence post through the sewer. Brad locates water, sewer and stormwater lines and marks them out on the ground so you can plan around them.