Selling a Home?
Monitor Your Water Usage for Leaks
A neighbor sent a letter with this tip a year or so ago. It’s a great tip for finding water leaks before they cause costly damage to your home’s foundation – in addition to paying for wasted water!
This neighbor noticed his water bills in Apex, NC had risen but didn’t think too much about it. A few months later, he noticed water seeping over the curb in his downward-sloping front yard – even though the weather had been dry. He called the city and their inspector found no problems with the city-maintained piping from the meter to the street. They recommended he hire an inspector to check the street-to-house portion of the pipes (which the homeowner is responsible for maintaining).
He started to dig up the yard at the meter box to locate the leak. The Good News is that our red-clay soil was easier to dig because it was wet – the Bad News is that all that moisture was from leaking water he was paying the city for!
He dug down 4 feet but the installed pipe was “still heading south”. The City Inspector for Apex, NC told him that the pipe was most likely run in a two foot-deep trench when the house was being built. After the house is completed, builders typically bring in top soil and lay sod to get a nice green lawn quickly – further burying the pipes from the meter to the house. Because the pipes are buried so deep, leaks frequently run for months and months before they are discovered.
Further, our subdivision was built in the 1980s so polybutylene was used in the pipes, he said. While polybutylene pipes are OK, the connectors used at that time are prone to failure leading to – you guessed it! – leaks.
To check for these underground leaks, once or twice a year you can turn off the main water value in your house (usually located in a first floor closet or in the pantry). Then take a look at your outside water meter. If the little red dial is moving at all, there is a leak outside of your home. Get a qualified plumber in right away to determine the source of the leak and the best way to fix it. By the way, my neighbor found it was cheaper to run new pipes than to dig up the old ones to find the leak – that’s a good option to keep in mind, too!
We’d love to hear your tips and techniques, too, for homes in Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay Varina and Raleigh, NC. Just email them to realestatemimi@yahoo.com!