Foundation leak with no movement in meter??

1,216 Views | 7 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by mAgnoliAg
Scotts Tot
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AG
First-time poster in this forum. I would really appreciate some feedback from anyone who might have an idea for what could be going on.

We had a huge spike in our last water bill, indicating a surge in usage, so the city told me there had to be a leak on our side of the meter. First thing I did was watch the meter. It didn't budge for about an hour, not even the tiniest bit. So I had a plumber come out who ran a pressure test. He isolated the system between our main shut-off and the sinks/toilets/water heater, and detected a rapid loss in pressure, indicating a leak in the foundation. I asked him about the meter showing a rock-solid reading and he basically said "yea I noticed that too...don't know why that is but the pressure test confirms the leak, regardless of what the meter shows."

Does anyone have a rational explanation for how I could have an apparent leak in the slab but see absolutely zero flow through the meter?
Whitetail
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AG
Step 1 fix the leak
Step 2 stop asking questions.
Step 3 have the greenest lawn in your neighborhood.



Free water!
mAgnoliAg
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AG
Whitetail said:

Step 1 fix the leak
Step 2 stop asking questions.
Step 3 have the greenest lawn in your neighborhood.



Free water!

Except he had a huge spike in the water bill so that's not the case.
mAgnoliAg
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AG
Meter malfunction? Is it a "leak detector" spinner type or a new digital?
jasonw
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something is not right....you can't have water flowing without the meter reading it.

if the plumber found a huge leak, there would be evidence of it unless it was under the slab and the ground was able to absorb the water...(not likely in a large leak that went on for a while).

I would watch the meter daily and record the usage and I would not trust that plumber.
jt2hunt
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AG
Austin Texas

We owned two apartment complexes next to each that were one before a divorce. Split down the middle, 42 units each. 2 meters.

We see a spike in bill after city did some work on water lines.
We think we have a leak and start searching and conduct low flow reductions property wide. No change n usage.
We finally bypass the meter and measure and do the same through the meter. Discover it reads wrong. We already asked the city to check and they said all is fine.

City finally comes and changes the meter.

Immediately goes back to normal usage, similar to identical property.

We have about 5k extra in charges over the several months it took to find the problem(city meter reading wrong). City refused to give us a credit.
End up in mediation with the city, they of course, hire the mediator.

City says impossible for meter to read in error,
Gives us a very small credit.

Scotts Tot
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AG
It's the analog styler with a spinner.
Scotts Tot
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AG
I agree that there very well could be something else going on.

Having said that, I watched him do the test myself. When he shut off the supply to house, his gauge showed an immediate pressure drop. That's what I'm trying to figure out...is there something he didn't do properly to isolate the system, or could the pressure drop be due to something else.
mAgnoliAg
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AG
As long as he connected it after House shutoff and had everything shutoff in the House and then shut off the house shutoff, then he did it correctly. However I've done these before and generally even fairly small leaks will lose quite a bit of pressure pretty quickly.
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