I just got my water bill from Sarasota and it is substantially higher than usual, can you tell me how to find out what is wrong?

If you have a dramatically higher water bill and don’t notice water leaking anywhere in the house, this is almost definitely a slab leak in your foundation. The amount of water necessary to generate a high water bill would be noticeable if it was happening anywhere within the livable space of the house. Slab leaks are especially prevalent in the Tampa Bay and surrounding areas since our homes are built with a slab foundation instead of a basement. It is vitally important to find a slab leak as soon as possible and get it fixed because high water bills won’t be the only problems if it is left unrepaired. Sometimes you will feel a hot or wet spot in your flooring as you walk around and that can help you locate the leak.

Most likely, a plumber will have to come to perform electronic leak detection. What we do is figure out where the pipes are going, charge up the pipe with CO2, and listen to where the leak is. Any turbulent gas will emit an ultrasonic wave when it bubbles through even the smallest leak. We can listen through the floor with a sensor that converts the ultrasonic wave into an audible sound wave so we can pinpoint the location. Once we know where the leak is, we can assess the extent of work that will go into getting to it, fixing it, and repairing the floor where we worked.

Other common symptoms of a slab leak are low water pressure in the lines or a sudden foundation shift or cracks in the foundation. They are usually caused by bad water chemistry, too much water pressure, a shifting in the foundation, or poor workmanship of some sort during construction. Eventually the pipes just wear out on older Florida homes and start breaking down into leaks. Call us if you need a Sarasota plumber.

Tags: Leak Detection, Plumber, Water Leak

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 7:48 am and is filed under Sarasota. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.