High water bill
Hidden Water Leak Detection Services in Texas
Last reviewed
You open the bill and it’s far higher than last month, with no guests, no new pool and no change in routine. Water is going somewhere. Sometimes it’s a toilet. Sometimes it’s under the slab. Call and we’ll connect you with a local Texas crew for hidden water leak detection.
Have the last two or three bills handy if you can.
Reading the bill first
Before assuming a leak, compare the latest bill with the same month last year and with the last few months. Look at the usage figure, usually in gallons or thousands of gallons, rather than the dollar total, since rates change.
- A sudden jump that stays up suggests something started leaking and hasn't stopped.
- A gradual climb over several months can mean a small leak that's getting worse.
- A one-off spike may reflect a filled pool, a broken irrigation head that's since been fixed, or a billing estimate.
- A rise during summer is often irrigation, which is normal, but if it continues into cooler months, look further.
If usage is up and nothing about the household explains it, the next step is the meter.
The meter check
- Turn off every tap, shower and hose. Make sure toilets have finished filling and the dishwasher, washing machine, ice maker, softener and irrigation are off.
- Find the meter in its box near the street or sidewalk and lift the lid.
- Note the position of the leak indicator, often a small triangle or star, and the main sweep hand.
- Wait five minutes without using any water.
- Look again. Any movement means water is leaving the system.
If you want to go a step further, note the meter reading before bed and again first thing in the morning before anyone uses water. Overnight movement confirms a constant leak.
A moving dial with everything off is worth a visit.
The usual suspects, in order
A moving meter means a leak somewhere on the property. These are the common places, roughly from easiest to hardest to find:
Toilets
A worn flapper or fill valve can let water trickle into the bowl constantly. Listen for refilling when no one has flushed, or put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and see if colour appears in the bowl without flushing.
Irrigation systems
A stuck valve or broken line can leak continuously. Look for soggy patches, unusually green grass or water in a valve box.
Outdoor faucets and pool fill lines
Drips at spigots or a pool auto-fill that keeps running can add up.
The yard line
The underground pipe from the meter to the house can leak under the lawn. Sometimes it shows as soft ground; often it doesn't.
The water heater
A relief valve or fitting can leak into a drain line where you won't see it.
Lines under the slab
If all of the above check out, a leak beneath the concrete becomes the leading explanation. Hot-side slab leaks often come with a warm floor; cold-side ones often don't show at all.
Describe the bill and ask what usually causes a jump like that.
Why slab leaks show up on Texas bills
Across Dallas-Fort Worth and much of Central Texas, homes sit on expansive clay that swells after rain and shrinks in dry spells. The slab and soil move with that cycle, and lines under the slab move with them. Many homes built from the 1960s through the 1990s have copper water lines beneath the concrete, and decades of rubbing against concrete and gravel wear pinholes through the pipe wall.
A pinhole leak can be very small at first, which is why the bill is often the first sign. It may lose a little water each hour, day and night, and only show up as a monthly total. Left alone, small leaks often grow.
What not to do
How a technician finds the leak
The technician starts where you did, at the meter, and works through the above-ground suspects quickly. Then they isolate sections of the system. Shutting off the house side tells whether the yard line is leaking. Shutting off the water heater supply tells whether the loss is on the hot or cold side. Each step narrows the search.
The suspect line is pressure tested; a steady drop confirms the leak is on that line. Then acoustic listening and, for hot-side leaks, thermal imaging narrow the location along the line's path under the floor. Tracer gas is used in some cases. The technician should tell you how confident they are in the location before anyone discusses opening the floor.
Local crews know the common culprits in homes near you.
Once the leak is found
If the leak is under the slab, the repair options are a spot repair through the floor, rerouting the line above the slab, pipe lining where the line suits it, or partial or whole-home repiping if there have been repeated leaks. The technician will explain which fit your house before work begins.
After the repair, the line is tested to confirm it holds. Your next bill or two should show usage dropping back toward normal; keep an eye on it and do another meter check after a few weeks. If water reached floors or walls, restoration companies handle drying and flooring contractors handle replacement.
Ask how the leak will be found first.
Keep a record
Write down the dates of the high bills, what the meter did, what the technician found and what was repaired. If another leak ever appears, that history helps decide whether another spot repair makes sense or whether rerouting or repiping is the better conversation. It's also useful if you sell the house later.
Same-day visits available in many Texas cities.
High water bill questions
It depends on the size of the leak and how long it has been running. Small pinhole leaks may add a modest amount each month; larger ones can make a big difference. The usage figure on the bill, rather than the dollar total, is the best guide to how much water is being lost.
Yes. The leak indicator is designed to show even small flows. A slow but steady movement with everything off means water is leaving the system. Small leaks are often the easiest to repair before they grow.
It can. A toilet that runs constantly can waste a lot of water, which is why toilets are one of the first things to check. If the toilets are quiet and the meter still moves, look further.
Irrigation is the usual explanation for summer increases. If usage rises in cooler months with the sprinklers off, a hidden leak becomes more likely. Do the meter check with irrigation definitely off.
You often can’t tell from the surface. A technician can isolate the yard line from the house to see which side is losing water. Soggy ground between the meter and the house points toward the yard line.
Many Dallas-Fort Worth homes from that era have copper under the slab and have been through decades of clay movement, so slab leaks are common. That doesn’t mean your house has one. The meter check and a technician’s testing will tell you.
If the leak was the cause, usage should drop back toward normal on the next full billing cycle. If it doesn’t, there may be a second leak or another cause, and it’s worth another meter check.
A moisture meter may show damp flooring if water has reached the surface, but most slab leaks don’t show that way, especially on the cold side. Professional detection relies on isolation, pressure testing and acoustic and thermal equipment.
If the meter moves with everything off, there’s a leak now. Waiting means paying for another month of lost water and giving the leak time to grow. A call doesn’t commit you to anything.
Bill up and no idea why?
Call and we’ll connect you with a local technician who can trace where the water is going.
One call connects you with a technician who can trace it.