Finding and fixing leaks in Smyrna homes

Shut off every faucet, the ice maker and the washing machine. Walk out to the water meter and look at it. Most meters have a small dial or triangle that spins when any water is moving. If it is moving and you are sure nothing is running, water is leaving the house somewhere. Take a photo of the meter and send it when you call.

If the meter is still, but your bill is high, the leak may be intermittent. A toilet that fills briefly every few minutes is the usual suspect. Drop a few drops of food coloring in the tank and check the bowl in fifteen minutes without flushing. If color shows up, the flapper is leaking.

Water heater connections and relief valve lines top the list, followed by supply lines under sinks and behind toilets. In houses with crawlspaces, a joint that has been weeping onto the dirt can go unnoticed for a year. On slab homes, a line under the floor can leak into the gravel and be invisible until it shows up as a warm spot or a spike in the bill.

Outdoor leaks matter too. A spigot that has cracked from a hard freeze, or an irrigation line, can add gallons per day to your bill.

A lot of homes in Smyrna sit on concrete slabs, and when a supply line leaks under one, you usually find out through the bill, a warm spot on the floor, or the sound of water at night. These repairs have two common paths. We can locate the leak and break the slab to repair the line directly, or we can abandon that run and route new pipe through the attic or walls. Which one is better depends on where the pipe goes and what the floor is made of, and we lay out both before anything is cut.

Neither is a happy phone call. Both are manageable.