Just got our recent bill. We get one 3 times/year, and this is the time of year when the water usage is at its lowest. It seems that we used more water than during the summer drought, more that ever before.
I’ve checked for leaks around the house. None.
Outside taps are all shut off for the winter.
There is no evidence of a leak in the pipe between the meter (near the road) and the house, but I suppose this is possible.
Just checked the meter, and apparently we’ve used a 4 month supply of water in the 6 days since the meter was read.
This would seem to imply not a leak, but a gusher. Yet the ground between the meter and the house is dry.
Any thoughts? I’m going to contact the utility in the morning, but I get the feeling that they won’t be that helpful I calculate our next water bill will be in the vicinity of $4000.00
Is the meter still running? If it is, I would shut off the water on the city side of the meter (if you can do that easily) and see if it continues to run. If it does, it’s probably broken (assuming it’s digital). At least shut the water off where it enters your house and see if it continues to run. At the very least that’ll rule out a leak inside your house (or someone stealing water). With the water off inside your house, I would check to see if you can hear water running out by the meter.
Calling them is probably going to be your best bet. I’m guessing if they can track down the problem, they’ll adjust the bill.
When my bill went up by 6x everybody said it had to be a slow leak in a toilet. I tried the food coloring trick (use a few drops in the tank and check the bowl in several minutes) and found a slow leak. I shut off the water to that toilet and the bill was normal the next time.I would never have known-the toilet wasn’t “running” or anything. Please ignore if you’ve already done this but apparently this is by far the most common leak.
On the meter there should be a dial or two which rotate as water is being used. Do you notice anything rotating? To make sure, turn on some water in the house while you check, and then turn that water off. If you see the dial rotating while you have everything turned off, then you have a leak somewhere.
Not a meter reading error - that’s why I went out to check - and found out that it was even higher, 6 days after it had been read!
Can’t shut off the water on the city side - I guess they can do that. But good idea to shut the water off as it enters the house, and then check the meter again. This would eliminate leaks in the house. The meter is not digital - it looks to be a mechanical type with physical moving numbers.
No slow toilet leaks that I can see. This could not account for using a 4 months supply in 6 days though.
No chance of anyone stealing water. This is a pretty quiet residential neighborhood.
Given what you just said, I would check to see if the meter is moving, shut off the water right as it enters the house, then check it again. If it’s still moving you almost certainly have a break underground between the meter and house. Unfortunately, that’s likely going to mean tearing up the front lawn. If you’re really lucky, the city will pay for it.
ETA, if you had “4 months” in the last few days and it was 6 times higher over the last 4 months, it probably just happened in the last two weeks.
Also, if you do try shutting off your water and checking the meter and it is still running, you might want to see if your municipality has a 24 hour number. Get showered and do all your morning stuff now, and they might come out and fix it even in the middle of the night.
Of course, it’s been like this for weeks, so why wake up the neighborhood in the middle of the night with heavy equipment on the front lawn breaking up the sidewalk. OTOH you really don’t want an open pipe underground.
If it were me, I’d probably wait until morning. Besides, they might just shut off your water (so as not to contaminate the rest of the system) and come back in the morning anyways.
Thanks - going to wait until morning. I think it could only be a broken pipe between house and meter, or a really screwy meter. I’m hoping for the latter, but predicting the former.
I don’t know much about mechanical water meters, but I’d be really surprised if there was a way for them to advance without water flowing through them.
Anyways, I believe most (many? some? all?) jurisdictions will adjust your water bill back to what it should be if you can prove that you had a leak that you fixed. For example, if your bill is normally $150 every 4 months and one time it was $400 and you bring them a receipt for a new flapper valve, they’ll adjust it for you. Of course, I wonder how many people fill their 6000 gallon pool and then buy a flapper valve and tell the city they fixed their toilet and ask for a refund.
You’re talking about the part of the bill related to the meter movement and not the extra sewer fees, right? The majority of our bill goes to other things besides water usage.
I spent months monitoring my water usage and later my neighbor’s. You need to look at the city’s meter right where it taps into your line. Turn off all water and write down the meter reading. Check back in an hour or more. You might be able to hear the flow, even if its very little. I had a leak at the connection right after the meter and could only see it by moving debris out from under so the dripping was visible. Those connections need checking every time a valve gets turned in there.
My neighbor had an underground breakage that i didn’t believe until i saw the plumber dig a hole to find the problem. It wasn’t that wet on top, so the flow must have found its own path. I thought it was a leaking sprinkler head but that needed to be dug out to confirm. The meter movement seemed to suggest there was something more besides just the sprinkler tho. You should do the meter monitoring before calling, so you can know if theres movement to tell them about - or not.
Years back my family had a similar situation, which indeed turned out to be a broken line running from the street to our house. They tore up the yard, fixed the pipe, and adjusted our bill so that we did not have to pay for the excess usage (nor the repair).
I was a kid at the time, but got the impression that we would have had to pay if the break had occurred at a certain point, but we got lucky.
My friend discovered that they had a leak in one of the underground pipes that leads from the street cutoff to their house. They went through thousands of gallons of water, and it soon began seeping up through the cracks in their driveway. They had previously received flyers in their water bill about buying insurance to cover any problems like that in the pipes that are buried on their property, but had never done anything about it. They have since, though.
If you have municipal sewer service, it’s possible it is tied to the water bill – it is in Los Angeles. On the theory that most of what you receive ends up in the sewer system, they bill a percentage of your water bill for sewer service.
If so, and you can find the leak, and it’s in the yard, you might be able to get a rebate, since this water usage doesn’t go thru the sewer system.
I don’t know how common this method of billing is, but knowledge of it saved me a few hundred dollars once.
Did the meter monitoring this morning - definite movement with no water running inside. I can imagine that the leak can be significant and yet not show moisture on top - the flow can go underground.
Almost time to make the call - Then I’m pretty sure a plumber/contractor call is next.
Did you shut off the water main to the house to isolate the problem as outside the house? Depending on the soil and terrain you could easily have thousands of gallons pouring out underground without an obvious flood on the surface. Sorry, depending on where you live this is typically a very shitty time of year to have to work on a big muddy plumbing repair.
