Water Main Repairs and Pipe Leaks | High Water Bill?

Have you just received a A LARGE WATER BILL?

If you’ve just received a large water bill, you probably have a water main leak… Actually you obviously do have a leak, or an issue of some kind, but where is the leak?, you’ll need to check.

Do not panic, we can help you if you’re stuck, otherwise Here’s a few tips to help you take the first steps to finding the leak, and confirming you have a leak.

If you can find the leak, we can come and repair it for you, for a much more economical cost to you. If you can’t find the leak, then we can assist, no problem at all, but it could be a bit more challenging to find.

Here’s how you can check for your leak:

• Firstly do a 10 minute water meter test. Start by turning everything off, all the taps in the house, then go and check your water meter. Either write down the number, or take a photo of it. Now, leave it for 10 minutes using no water. It should not move, or turn over at all. Then re-check, or take another photo. If the meter has turned over – you absolutely have a leak. You just need to now find it. If the water meter is spinning flat out, you don’t even need to do the test – You have a bad leak!
• Secondly while you are waiting for the test result, have a wander around your property and visually look for any plumbing issues, or leaks. You might just spot the water leak. If you cannot find the leak, then it is probably underground. Look for unusual wet spots.

From this point, if you found the leak you identified, you can either fix the leak yourself if it is simple, or call us in to help, but believe me, sometimes we are called out to leaks and someone has just left an old hose tap on under the house, or something random like that. It’s worth a quick check around.

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So you have a leaking water main? What to do now!

If you believe you have a leaking water main at your property, after you have completed the “10 minute test above” the next thing you should do if you can manage to, is to shut off the water supply at the water meter to prevent further wastage of water, or damage to your property.

You’ll find a water toby (or shut valve) near the water meter. Once you’ve turned off the water at the toby, call Regency Plumbing to come and locate the leak and repair it.

If there is a water leak beyond the boundary of your property, then notify the council to come fix the leak. (so this is on the road side of the meter, or the side opposite your property)

Some water main leaks are obvious and easily fixed, while others require specialist location and detection equipment. If the water is just coming up through the garden, under the house, or even out of the grass, then we can generally make the repair a lot more easily and at much less expense.

Prior to turning off the water if you can spot where the leak is, this will be helpful before calling Regency Plumbing, however if you cant, then do not worry… that’s what we do all day, every day. We are only a phone call away.

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If this is the case for you, it’s often cheaper and more effective to replace the watermain rather than attempting to repair it.

Regency Plumbing can either arrange to cut out concrete allowing us to repair the existing water mains or lay a new service pipe, and then arrange to repair or replace the concrete. Alternatively in some cases we can get a thruster to bore underground and replace the watermain without even having to dig up the entire length of the water main pipe.

Before you do anything apart from the basic wander round your property to spot the leak, call in an expert, call Regency Plumbing. We will take all the hassle and worry away for you, quickly and efficiently!

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Is it a good idea to just repair a water main pipe underground?

Water main leaks are never ending once they start. Once the pipe is perished the pipe will continue to split and leak periodically. Yes you can repair it, and it may last months if not years longer… if you are lucky! however we can give you many examples of customers homes where we have been back and fixed the watermain 2 or 3 times in a one year period and then they finally decide to replace the water main. At this time they may have spent in excess of $1000 which they could have put towards a new water main. 

As a general rule in plumbing, especially in Auckland NZ, if the watermain pipe to your property isn’t blue, then I would suggest if it leaks you replace it.

For over 25 years now we have been installing blue water main pipe, so it’s fair to say yours is probably older than that.

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Is it true that many older homes have undersized water main pipes from the meter to the house?

The answer is “YES”.

As time passes. years go by, we expect a lot more from our plumbing than we used to. We seem to all want brilliant showers, we want to be able to run multiple things at once, some maybe want to run a big irrigation system in the back yard, and others want to be able to full swimming pools. Whatever, in most cases we want more volume of water than in the old days.

So we run larger sized water main pipes, well at least the reputable plumbing companies do.

For the elderly still amongst us, they were generally just happy to have fresh running water and a toilet that flushed, but gone are those days.

There is no substitute for a good volume of water coming out of your shower, or hose tap.

Also, it’s worth noting that many old water mains were run in old galvanized steel which are completely rusted out now, so past their used by date.

Other older watermain pipes were run in an old black plastic pipe which was never intended for the pressure of water which comes through the water mains now.

And some were run in skinny little 1/2 inch copper which may have even been dented or damaged over the years, massively restricting the flow of water to the house.

And all of the above were no bigger that 15mm. So what we would class as inadequate in todays world of expectations. Now we use the blue water main pipe which is generally 25 (20)mm which means 25mm outside diameter, and 20mm inside diameter. Allowing almost 3 times the volume of your old water main in most situations.

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Why does my water pressure fade away when I’m running the kitchen tap?

Unless it is a fault with the actual kitchen tap itself, the reason for this is most likely because you have a blockage in your water main or restriction somewhere. It can be the pipe itself, or a valve of some sort in the line.

Generally you will find when you open the tap at first it will start with a surge, but then quickly fade to a restricted volume of flow.

The valve pictured was a faulty inlet control valve which had rusted out internally, and it meant you could barely full the bath. It effected all the taps, however it was most noticeable in their new bathroom at the bath tap.

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