Practical Guide for Water Leak Detection

It seems like when you own a home, there’s always something you need to keep an eye on in terms of maintenance.

Whether it’s wondering if you need to upgrade your insulation, or finally get rid of those window units and install central AC, there are a lot of things on the list.

A water leak, unfortunately, tends to fall pretty far down, but we’ve got three questions you should ask yourself before you decide to de-prioritize this issue.

Why Do Leaks Matter?

A leak starts out as a small issue, but in truth, it’s an early warning. Your plumbing is giving you the heads up that you have a problem.

For right now, the fix can be small, contained, and relatively inexpensive. The longer you wait, the more expensive the fix becomes, and could eventually require tearing out walls and fixtures to get at the problem plumbing.

Even at the start, a leak is already costing you money. A leak may drip out between 2,000 and 20,000 gallons in a single year.

That’s water that you’re still paying for every month on your bill, even if you never got to use it.

How Can I Locate A Leak?

Leaks can be seen, and they can be heard.

If you’re lucky, you’ll see your leak right on a faucet and be able to fix it with a few turns of the wrench.

If you can’t see it, but you can hear it, you’ll need to do some investigating.

Check other fixtures like toilets, water heaters, and crawl spaces where plumbing may be located.

You should also keep an eye out for water penetration or even early signs of water damage.

If you have plumbing that runs through walls and ceilings to reach faucets and other water fixtures on upper floors, the leak will eventually start to affect these areas.

Tracking down a leak now can often save a lot of time and trouble.

How Can You Prevent Costly Repairs?

The nightmare scenario is being told that a leak has turned into a full blown break in a pipe, and that pipe is so inaccessible that fixing it may require tearing out floors, or even counters and fixtures to gain access.

This means that you’ll be paying for not just a repair, but a remodeling afterward.

If you don’t want it to get to this stage, the simplest way to avoid this is not to let a situation degenerate this far. Inspect your pipes once or twice a year to see if you can catch leaks early.

You can also help your plumbing to better stand up to these issues by being kinder to them.

Many homeowners don’t realize that high water pressure means applying a higher, constant rate of force to your pipes, which can shorten their lifespan.

If you’re willing to turn the pressure down, you can add years of reliable usage to your pipes.