Plumbers – can't locate leak

I had a water meter installed last summer and have just had my first bill – it’s about double what I think it should be. So someone from the water company came around and could see the meter showing water constantly flowing through. He then wanted to turn off the stop cock in the house to see if that would stop the flow so as to determine if the leak was inside or outside. Unfortunately the stop cock has seized so that didn’t happen. However there is the sound of flowing water there so seems there is a leak inside my house.

I checked the loos but they all looked fine. I looked at the cold water tank in the loft and couldn’t see any flow there. No water flowing to the overflow pipes that I can see outside. So I’m stuck now. Reckon I need to get a plumber in but any suggestions on where the leak might be?

Get a pipe freezing kit from a plumbers merchant and freeze the pipe on the inside of the stop tap, then put a screwdriver on the stop tap and your ear to the screwdriver handle and see if you can hear anty water noises, if you can then leak is there side of pipe.

Expect to get the fob off the water comapny though, they never like admitting to leaks near peoples property.

if you can’t see it in any of the tanks and there’s no damp walls or floors then between the road and the stop cock is probably a likely location.

I’d try and get it sorted.

This bloke got a £33,000 water bill from a similar situation;

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10191837.Man_s_shock_at___33_000_water_bill/%5B/url%5D

OH and check that your neighblour isnt on the same supply from your meter.Depends if your meter is away from the house though.

I had this happen to me – you’ll be pleased to know you’ll almost certainly be getting a leter in the post asking you to fix it in 14 days or the water co. will send their guys in to fix it and charge you at their rate.

Either get a freeze kit to isolate it to inside/outside…. or get the plumber in anyway to fix the stop tap, and while he’s there/when he’s done it let him have a look.

That’s quite a leak!

So even though I can hear water at the stop cock the leak could actually be outside my house?

I was wondering if it could be anything to do with the central heating system as I don’t know much about how they work – is there an outflow pipe water could be flowing into?

I’m annoyed they’ve taken so long to read my meter as could have been discovered earlier – I’m told it can’t have been leaking when the meter was installed as they’d have noticed but I’m skeptical.

central heating boler wil have an outflow to the outside – from the boiler

They are not tapped into your mains directly [ there is a tap [service mans valve] to fill it so unlikely to be the cause on the heating side.
I guess the hot water supply could leak but you should be able to isolate this near the boiler with tap/servicemans

http://www.plumbworld.co.ukC/straight-service-valve-15mm-331-3950

Central heating boilers are usually fed by a silver beny pipe, like a showe hose, with atap on it.

Irrelevent of the usage, get the seized stop-cock fixed ASAP, you never know when you’ll need it.

Turn off water supply outside. Replace stop tap in side or if unacessable, fit a secondary, as long as its before anything branches off it, might have to fit two.
I fitted out an utility and the existing pipework sprung a leak a few weeks later. Was a pita to find but it was filling the floor void and seeping through the bricks. I’m sure it would be showing somewhere.

New toilet overflows go back into the pan so it could be worth checking the float in the cistern is set okay/ not leaking.

Yep checked the cisterns and they look fine. Plumber booked for next week and will get stop cock sorted.

Bit of an update on this.

Had a plumber out today who managed to turn off the stopcock and we saw that the water meter is still showing water flow. It seems that the water comes into the house where the outside tap is which still works with the stopcock turned off and the sound of water was quite clear there so must be close. No sign of any water damage though.

Chap from water company is coming back on Thursday to verify this and I rang my insurance company to see where I stand with them – I have £5k ‘Tracing and accessing leaks’ cover and they would send someone out to investigate if I wanted to claim. Claims person kept telling my it’s hard to prove when the leak occurred so they might not want to pay out. I was with them 12 months to end Oct and then again from mid-Dec in between which I was with another company who I left when they put my premium up a lot after I made a claim against the insurers I went back to.

The plumber thought it would be hard to track the leak and suggested best thing is to get builders to dig a trench and put a new pipe in from the water meter to the house – bit of a pain as have a block-work drive in the way. But if the leak is close to where the mains enters the house then might not be too traumatic to locate and fix? If it’s under the floor of the house then that would be a problem I’m sure as have concrete floors and the floor there is a foot or more above the outside.

Any useful experiences on how this might play out?

Any useful experiences on how this might play out?

My mum and dad came back from a 3 week holiday in Cyprus to a large water bill, turned out the pipe from the meter into the house had sprung a leak under the front lawn. The chap from South West Water told them he had discretion to wave the excess on one occasion. So its worth asking.

the block drive .. is the likely culprit. disruption of the ground and vibration to settle. classic scenario.

Water pipes from stop cock in the road to stop cock in house on our estate are very prone to leaks, I’ve had 2. Our water board will fix 3 (I think) for free. Had them out recently they were able to pin point leak to within a foot or so with leak detection equipment or just a listening probe.

I had a leak & got a plumber to reroute the main feed pipe into the house, so in future I can follow the pipe.

He also put an extra stop tap on side of house.

Insurance only offer fix costs, not water loss. So I got it fixed privately.

As long as there are no other services close to or crossing the block-paved area see if you can get a thrust boring service to run your new main.
When we had a problem with a mains leak, Anglian Water that customer service paragon said it would be 6 weeks before someone would look at the leak! I asked who their local contractor was and rang them. 2 Hours later we had the assessment done and the repair was the day after that. Cost £400 with me supplying the mains pipe and fitting as I had another job to do alongside it. They managed to bruise the electricity supply cable as well so we had to wait for EDF to fix that before the job could be completed, otherwise it would have been about 3 hours to do.

I rang my insurance company … I was with them 12 months to end Oct and then again from mid-Dec in between which I was with another company who I left when they put my premium up a lot after I made a claim against the insurers I went back to.

You moved Insurance Companies, then claimed with the new one and they increased your premium straight away?

No the claim was with the previous company, unfortunate timing.

Some useful comments here thanks, will see what the water company guy says when he comes.

Check the water companies website, most offer a free repair for external leaks, if it is on a spur then they may not.

I might be able to help with the bill, where are you?

I might be able to help with the bill, where are you?

That’s very generous.

Can you help with my bill from the Dentist too ? 😉

Can you help with my bill from the Dentist too ?

no, only for certain oddities in water charging 😉