4 Effective Tips to Find a Waterline Leak in Your Boston Home

 

Guidelines on How to Find Water Leaks in Your Home

Water leakage is very common and there are a lot of reasons why it occurs. Leak detection is the most important step in fixing this common problem. One cannot move from this step to another unless the location of the leak is detected.

Broken and leaking pipes will cause severe water damage to your property. Sometimes a burst pipe is easy to locate while other times it takes investigating and looking for signs to determine where the leak is originating.

Finding the source is vital. Sometimes the leak will be easy to find. A pipe leaking under the sink is much easier to spot than one hidden behind the wall. If you suspect a leak in your pipes, but cannot identify a source of moisture, then turn off all fixtures, faucets, and appliances in your home that need water and mark where your water needle is pointing.

Avoid using anything that needs water for eight hours and read the sub meter again. If the needle has moved, then you must have a leak.

First Signs

The first sign that usually shows up is a small leak that typically looks like a brown stain. This can be spotted on the ceilings or sheetrock.

If the leak is in a severe condition and the flow of water is really fast, the brown stains usually will go unnoticeable. However, the sheet rock will get burned up or sagged. The same goes with the ceilings – it will first show signs of sagging before the leak actually appears.

Camera Locators

However, there are ways to detect this kind of leaks and good equipment can sometimes come in handy. Professional plumbers in Boston use several methods, and one of those is the see snake. It is a little fiber optic camera inserted less invasively by drilling a small hole. It helps examine the area if the leakage is indeed coming from that spot and so on.

The technician will hook a device to your water meter and he will trace the water line up to its length. Once the plumber reaches the spot where the leak is located, he can pinpoint now with good accuracy as to where the exact spot of the leak is. Instead of digging up the entire front, he can just dig a hole small enough to repair the leak. Simple, isn’t it?

Prevention

As for the prevention of these leaks, it is best to consult a professional technician who is capable of providing the best advice on how to do this. It is important that they possess experience on the equipment and the entire procedure itself so you can ensure that the problem is addressed to immediately and no rework is required in the coming months or years.

You can also do something yourself to prevent such leaks. It is important to let the whole family know where the main shutoff is. You wouldn’t want a huge pool of water in your home when the water line ruptures, right?

If the leak is just small then sticking a bucket of water underneath could do the trick. However, you must take action right away and call the professionals to fix the leak for you. Any further delay could cause serious damage on your home and expensive repairs.

Again, early detection of leakage is very important so you can have it fixed immediately. Just a simple check-up won’t hurt your pocket that much. Lastly, make sure that your plumbers know what the problems are so they could address it properly.

Best Tips to Detecting a Leak in Your Home

Start with Kitchen and Bathroom

These two rooms are the most frequently used when it comes to water usage. In the kitchen open cabinet doors underneath your sink and use a flashlight to look for any wet spots and moisture at the joints and the bottom of the P-Trap. Another sign of leaking is corrosion on supply line valves and fittings.

When looking under the sink, remove everything from the cabinet and check for any water stains, mold peeling wood/material, and dampness.

If you see any of these signs, try tightening the fittings and wiping away moisture before turning on the water to see if that has corrected the leak. If the leak is in the supply valve or line, you will need to have it replaced.

Common leaks include:

• Leaking Faucets
• Leaking Toilets
• Flapper Valve Leaks
• Appliances such as dishwasher and refrigerator

If a leaky faucet is your culprit, the cause is most likely a worn rubber washer. These are located right under the handle and are easy to replace if you have the right tools on hand.

Leaking toilets are sneaky because they are often silent. These silent leaks add up to a large quantity of water and money. If you cannot hear any sound of a leak, remove the lid and add food coloring drops to the back of the tank.

After 30 minutes no use, check the toilet bowl the presence of any food coloring. If food coloring has made its way into the bowl than you have identified a leak. This type of leak is corrected by repairing the toilet flapper and filling mechanism.

The flapper is a rubber valve at the bottom of the tank that lifts up when you flush the toilet. If it is worn or cracked, it doesn’t form a proper seal and leads to a continuous flow of water from the tank into the bowl.

Ceilings, Walls, and Floors

Ceilings, walls, and floors also give signs of water damage. Check the ceiling and walls for stains, ballooning/peeling paint and wallpaper.

These spots may indicate a leak in the pipes at this location. Keep in mind, however, that water travels down, so a water stain may not be the precise location of the leak, but rather provides a general area.

 

Outdoor Leaks

Leaks caused by underground plumbing can provide visual clues on your property.

If you see or feel spots on the lawn and property that are perpetually wet, show evidence of water flow, muddy areas, and greener grass in one spot.

 

What Types of Leaks Are Most Common?

There are different types of leaks that occur in a normal household. Learning about them is your first step to solving this problem. There are tell-tale signs of these leaks that you can easily observe. This should help you control the leaking problem before it becomes unmanageable.

• Water line leaks

These are leaks that occur inside your home, and are typically characterized by excessive water bills. Fortunately, these types of leaks do not destroy your yard, but it can damage your flooring, ceiling, basement and other parts inside your house where the leaks occur.

• Yard line leaks

These occur in your yard and are usually characterized by flooding. Oftentimes, the flood of water is far from the actual leak itself requiring leak detection services of professional Plumbers. Because of the leaks, you will also experience higher water bills.

• Gas leaks

This is the most dangerous since it involves combustible substances that may cause fire and injury to persons. You can also be exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning if it is left undetected early on.

The problem is: these often go unnoticed until the problem becomes unmanageable. But the moment you smell gas, call the plumbing technician so that the leak will be traced and stopped right away. This is a problem that you should not ignore and forget.

• Slab leaks

These leaks can cause major damage to your house’s foundation. If it comes from the upper floors, it can cause damage to the whole building structure. You will know if you have these leaks if you see traces of liquid on the concrete slabs.

Perhaps a water pipe embedded in the concrete developed holes and allows water to seep out. Finding underground water leaks is a difficult task and is definitely a problem that is hard to trace. So only a professional water system technician can successfully do the job.

Why Pipes Develop Leaking Problems

There are many reasons why pipes develop problems that results in leaks. This is mostly true with water pipes but also occurs in gas pipes. Here are some of the reasons why there are pipe leaks.

• Corrosion –Ordinary pipes are made of metal and even those made of low grade stainless steel are subject to this kind of degradation. And since they always convey water, such pipes will always be eaten up by rust.

When rust develops, it results in pipe pitting, or the development of very small holes where water could leak out.

• Water pressure that is too high – Water pipes are made of certain specifications and they are chosen depending on the volume of water they can convey and the water pressure they can withstand. When the pressure and volume of the water supply exceeds the specific capacities of the pipe, it will burst in some sections and leaking will result.
• Old age – Normal wear and tear plus old age exact their toll on water and gas pipes. So, if you are experiencing leaks in your house, perhaps your piping system is way too old. Only a professional plumbing technician will be able to determine whether you need to have your piping system replaced or repaired.
• Man-made damage – When your neighbor is having his house repaired by a contractor, the workers might be careless in doing their job and damage your main pipes. You may never know it because you’re not aware of what they are doing. The sad thing is: you are the recipient of their costly mistake.
• Drastic changes in the weather – Water inside the pipes can freeze if the weather drops below zero degree. When that happens, the pipe will burst, and you will have a leak when spring time rolls in.

Save Your Home from Disaster, Call Our Boston Plumbers to Detect Leak ASAP!

If you are a homeowner, you know best the value of properly maintaining and caring for your home’s plumbing system. Conducting a regular maintenance will ensure that the pipes, fixtures, and other plumbing components in your house are in good working condition for a much longer time.

It will also help in sustaining better water pressure, which will make it more convenient for your household. Not to mention, you will save much since you wont be needing a leak repair service anytime soon.

A significant component of proper maintenance of your plumbing system is leak detection. This process is extremely crucial considering that it can help you avert home disasters and untimely expenses.

What Can Happen If You Fail to Rely on Our Boston Plumbing Service?

While the many do-it-yourself advocates are continuously urging everyone that you can do everything on your own, your own sense of reason will insist that there are many undertakings that should be left to professionals such as leak detection.

If you insist on doing the checking of your water pipes yourself and fail (which is almost certain), you have to endure the following awful effects of leaking pipes:

• Indoor flooding – if you fail to accurately detect leaking pipes, it can eventually burst and cause indoor flooding. Imagine how much money you need to spend not only on fixing the pipes but in repairing your furniture, flooring, and other appliances damaged by the flood, not to mention the cost of cleaning service.

All these unplanned expenses would have been prevented if you only relied on our plumbing services at the onset.

• Molding – this is one of the worst effects of a water leak. Molds can grow and continue growing in moist areas and failure to precisely pinpoint the location of the leak can make your family sick. Unfortunately, small leaks will remain undetected if you will insist on doing it yourself.
• Weakening of structures – it is a common knowledge that constant exposure to water can damage the different structures of your home. For instance, the presence of water leak inside your wall spacing can result in deformation, particularly if the water has been left stagnant for some time.
• Corrosion and damage of pipes – rusting water pipes can lead to plenty of issues and financial burden since you need to replace them immediately as it can no longer be salvaged by mere repairs.
• Water contamination – leak can significantly affect water pressure. Lowering of water pressure can make the water contaminated and therefore dangerous to your family’s health.

The items above are just some of the terrible things that can happen if you fail to call a leak specialist to perform a water leak inspection service. Note that all these things should have been avoided if you only acknowledge the fact that you do not have the expertise to do the work yourself.

Why Should You Depend on Our Plumbers in Boston?

Apart from saving your home and your family from disasters, there are more reasons why you should let our professional contractors at Plumbers 911 handle your leak detection. These reasons include the following:

• Leaks are not always noticeable

Your home plumbing system is extensive and complicated. This means that water leaks can occur in the most unnoticeable areas, like behind the walls or under the floorings – places that you cannot really see. You can only notice that there is a leaking problem when the effects are already obvious such as the presence of molds and mildew, flooding, and high water bill.

Unfortunately, by the time you experience all these bad effects, the damage is already massive. This is the reason you should have called our team of technicians to conduct regular leak detection even if you have yet to see signs of a leak.

• We have the right tools

While the many serious effects of a water leak can tell you the presence of the problem, they cannot tell you where the problem is exactly. The most you can do is guess where the leak is coming from.

If you call us, however, you can be sure that we will be able to not only find the source of the leak but solve the problem immediately as well. This is possible because we have the most advanced tools to do the job. Tools that are not available to you or to unreliable technicians.

• We have the skills and expertise

Our team of professional plumbers knows what they are doing and have been exposed to such work for years. This means that they have gained more than enough technical knowledge to best help you.

They will be able to detect leak without causing damage to your property or home structure, they can readily identify the cause of the problem and fix it accordingly, and they will be in the best position to advise you on the options that would be most beneficial in your case.

When you let professionals handle your plumbing work, nothing is left to guesswork. Everything is handled using the highest standards and quality.

• We offer convenience and peace of mind

If you insist on carrying out the leak detection yourself you have to take some time off work, purchase or rent tools and needed equipment, and spend precious time learning more about the problem.

The worst thing about it, however, is even if you do these things, you are still not certain if you are doing a correct job. You will still be anxious as to whether or not you have done a good job. Fortunately, you can avoid all the nuisances if you will just make the wise decision of relying on our plumbing services.

Leak detection is something that should be left to the care of professionals like our team of specialists at Plumbers 911. We are insured, bonded, and licensed to ensure your satisfaction. Call us today to know more about our leak detection and other plumbing services.

Why Leak Inspection Requires the Professional Services of Plumbers 911 Boston

It is easy to observe the signs of a leaking pipe, but it takes a professional to trace the source of the leak.

We are blessed with modern in-house plumbing that our ancestors were not able to enjoy. But you can only continue enjoying this convenience if your water system is well-maintained. Ignore its regular and preventive maintenance and you will reap the results – one of which is leaking pipes.

Our Licensed Plumbing Experts in Boston Suggest Regular Maintenance

It is not just the leaks that you should be worried about. If the leaks are not detected and left unchecked, you would incur structural damages that may result in very expensive repairs in your piping system as well as your household fixtures.

The first thing you need to do is to accurately trace where the leak is coming from. And when it comes to leak detection and repair, here is where our professional are of real help.

Our Licensed Boston Plumbers Can Detect Your Leaks Accurately

One of the hardest tasks of a service plumber is to trace pipe leaks because most of these pipes are buried underground or embedded in concrete. Only a person with the proper knowledge, training and experience will have the skill to accurately detect where the leak is coming from.  Our professional leak experts from Boston MA can do the job for you. 

We, at Plumbers 911, are used to seeing the damaging results of do-it-yourself leak detection whenever we are called to rectify the situation. It is unfortunate that the problem should have been far less if only they called our technicians immediately.

So, what are you waiting for? Call Plumbers 911 Boston today! Flush down your plumbing worries down the the drain and leave it all to us! Remember that Plumbers 911 is just a phone call away!