Water Bill Through The Roof? Check For An Outdoor Leak In Your Plumbing

If you have spotted a huge increase in your monthly water bill

, there's a reasonable chance that you could have a water leak somewhere in your plumbing system. Now there are naturally several potential causes for a high water bill. Things like runny toilets or leaky taps are all common perpetrators as well. However, in this piece, we are going to discuss the case where the rise in water use is due to an outside leak.

There are a variety of things that could cause an outdoor leak at a home and while this is not particularly difficult to repair, it is one of the most intimidating problems for the average home-owner to solve on their own. Here are a few tips to help you diagnose and repair a problem like this in the event that you are faced with this problem.

1. Trace the key waterline from the meter to your house. If you walk along the trail that your most important water line travels as it makes its way from your water meter at the street to the inside of your house, you will very probably encounter some of the ground that's much wetter and softer than the remainder of the yard. Now clearly you are going to need to wait to try this test if you've had up to date rain but generally this is a smart way to find a potential leak. Once you find the leak you are going to need to dig up the ground at and around the centre of the wet area.

2. Find the leak. When you have found the leak after digging up the earth round the pipe you may then begin the mend process.

3. Turn the water off at the main shutoff valve at the street. You should be able to take a pair of pliers(or your bare hands) and turn the valve at the water meter to shut off the water to your home. Once you have shut off the water you can cut the pipe around the leak and make the repair.

4. Use a compression coupling to replace the damaged part of the water line. Now for the purposed of this article I have assumed that you have PVC/CPVC pipes carrying water into your home. While this is certainly not the case for everyone this will be true for the majority of homes built in the last 20 years. A compression coupling can be purchased at any local hardware store and is very easy to attach to the the water line.

5. Turn the water back on and test the repair . After you complete the installation of the compression coupling you'll want to turn the water on and let it run for a day or so. Come back and ensure that there aren't any leaks after twenty-four hours and then re-bury the water line.

If you follow these simple steps you should be able to successfully fix an outdoor plumbing leak.

Visit Plumbing Central for more pluming tips or DIY Online for general DIY info.

by: Casey Longhorn

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