CrAzY Water Bill - Leak Found & Eliminated!

[BNA/LION]

Our water bill spiked to $607.55 for service from 11/10/17 to 1/11/18! There must be a leak. Checked everywhere and sure enough on the side of the house the ground was swamped.

Started digging and remembered several years ago when we had a new fences put up the guy hit a sprinkler pipe when digging to put a post in. Fortunately I took pictures for future reference. I found them and they were a tremendous help. [I recommend you take pictures of all the projects you do on your house.]

Once I expose the sprinkler pipe it appeared the fencing contractor poured the cement into a hole right above the repaired line and it must have settled and cracked the repair. After a few trips to the hardware store... Bingo! No more leak. It will be interesting to see how much our water bill goes down.

[cop414]

Wow a Larry, that’s crazy. I always take pictures when we have contradoing anything especially when things are opened up. Good job.

[Laszlo]

Nice job finding the leak!! That’s a huge water bill!

[AzPaul]

At least you knew where to look. Hope that's the end of it.

[swatty]

Good job Larry, great advice

[RichM]

Nice work Larry. Are you on the hook for the bill?

[GradyPhilpott]

[HorologyK]

Call the water company and ask for a re rate. They should comply.

[BNA/LION]

Thanks All! * This should be the end of it, I Hope!

Originally Posted by Rich Mickol

Nice work Larry. Are you on the hook for the bill?

Yup! The sprinkler lines are the home owners responsibility to maintain.

Originally Posted by HorologyK

Call the water company and ask for a re rate. They should comply.

I'll give it a try...

[Kostas]

Glad you found it :) , hate bill shock ! :)

[G8RDPM]

Water is expensive in Cali! Good job, my friend!

[swils8610]

Had a co-worker with a similar situation. It was a fresh water back up on his sump pump.


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[superdog]

Holy cow. Glad you caught it.

That’s a big spike.

[Canefan1]

Larry,any bill tha is way out of the usual and is due to a leak for whatever reason, the dept will just average your past bills and throw away the big bill. My ex has an xtra insurance to cover from the meter by the street to the actual house for such instances. Anything from the home exterior inward is on State Farm. I hope Everthing works out.

[GB-man]

That’s insane!

[1st amg]

Nice work Larry, that was two Everest straps worth.

[Rock]

Leaking water pipes can be quite insidious as it is not always clear where the leak is located. They will often have been leaking for some time before you realise there is a problem.
I had one of these some years ago and my wife and I kept saying to each other "Wouldn't you think the neighbour would get that fixed".
Our water bill dropped quite considerably once it was attended to.

[carwash66]

Been there with the Schedule 40 (white) PVC.
For the past many years only Scedule 80 (PVC) or copper pipe for underground pressure lines.
Will only use Schedule 40 for sprinkler and only from valve to sprinkler head.
Glad you got it taken care of.

[bayerische]

Smiliar thing happened to us.

We have a house built in 1935 on ground that used to be seabed. (We have a rising ground in Finland due to the ice age) ground is all clay, and water leaks into our small basement room that actually used to be the washroom of our house way back in the thirties. This has been going on for a very long time, and experts say it will not hurt the house. It’s one of the first houses built in the area with a concrete foundation.

Anyway. Our district heating system developed a leak, one of the circulation pumps imploded, and water began seeping out. We only realized this months (if not years) later when some electronics (control module) of the heating system broke down due to water damage from the leak.

We got the electronics and pumps etc on our home insurance, but I failed to realize 1000 cubic meters of water! Yes that’s 35 thousand cubic feet of water had sipped trough. I was left with the water bill.

[RW16610]

I'm glad you caught that when you did, Larry!

[RichM]

[QUOTE=BNALION;8214251]Thanks All! * This should be the end of it, I Hope!



Yup! The sprinkler lines are the home owners responsibility to maintain.



Damn. Thank goodness it's fixed. Thanks for the update.

[Abdullah71601]

If your water bill includes sewerage, they will usually remove those charges when you inform them of the leak. Pictures and the repair bill should suffice.

[Langnam]

I used to be on our water and sewer board. Frequently, a customer would want to negotiate a bill down due to a leak, or many other reasons.

No luck in our town. If the water went through your meter, you bought it. Both water and sewer if hooked up to sewer.

Good luck with the meeting!


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[Cryten]

I had a similar problem recently. It was a plastic "T'" joint. The kind of thing you buy in bulk to make it worth paying for.

The water bill and paying a guy to dig into the cement with a rotary hammer were extra. Luckily I was able to identify the location of the leak within a few feet.