Help with possible foundation water leak...

[boilerhorn 1,371]

The new CoA Utilities digital/wifi meters have been useful - they found that I am constantly consuming around 4 gallons per hour of water.

I have 3 shutoffs: (1) main at street (2) irrigation system and (3) home interior inside my garage.  Shutting (2) had no effect.  Shutting (3) - and having now water in house - stopped the meter.

Tried turning on/off every fixture in house to no avail.  There are no signs of water anywhere in the house.  Nothing bubbling up under ground level floors.  Nothing coming through walls.  Nothing coming through ceilings.  I manually refill my pool, so that is not the culprit.

My conclusion is that I have a foundation leak and that the water is being "consumed" under the house.

Questions:
1 - any recommendations on who I should call?
2 - am I forgetting to check anything?
3 - what would you do?

Edited October 10 by boilerhorn

[Gil Bang 25,907]

is there a shutoff to your water heater?  If so, that will tell you whether your leak is hot or cold water.  If it's hot, it will be easier to located with thermal imaging. 

[boilerhorn 1,371]

@Gil Bang - checked that a couple of hours ago.  Looks like water flow continued after I shut off the hot water before the heater.  Sigh.  Thanks!

[RPM 26,315]

4 GPH sounds like a lot, but actually more like a slow leak. Check your toilets. Cut off the water, if one goes dry that's your culprit.

[boilerhorn 1,371]

1 hour ago, RPM said:

4 GPH sounds like a lot, but actually more like a slow leak. Check your toilets. Cut off the water, if one goes dry that's your culprit.

I will try this.  I checked all toilets by cutting off the water at the wall, however I could have a faulty valve.

[EE2B 1,565]

There are places that specialize in finding leaks under a house/in the foundation. We had a leak in the slab and ended up using American Leak Detectors out of Shreveport. They basically turn all the water off in the house and listen for the sounds of a leak in the slab. 

[boilerhorn 1,371]

Thank you, @EE2B ...  I will call American Leak Detectors.  They have been recommended by several plumbers and sites.

[Updawg 2,266]

Is the meter still running when you shutoff the irrigation valve and garage main house valve?

[thunderlounge 7,813]

1 hour ago, Updawg said:

Is the meter still running when you shutoff the irrigation valve and garage main house valve?

Try again: 

 

On 10/6/2024 at 2:04 PM, boilerhorn said:

I have 3 shutoffs: (1) main at street (2) irrigation system and (3) home interior inside my garage.  Shutting (2) had no effect.  Shutting (3) - and having no water in house - stopped the meter.

 

[Updawg 2,266]

Ah, missed that one

[Gil Bang 25,907]

Having reviewed this thread again, I don't think your foundation is leaking.  I think it's a water leak.   

[boilerhorn 1,371]

23 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

Having reviewed this thread again, I don't think your foundation is leaking.  I think it's a water leak.   

Agree it is a water leak.  I suspect it is a water leak into the foundation.  I need to adjust the title

[boilerhorn 1,371]

American Leak Detectors for the win.  

Turns out it is a leak just outside the house, which explains why there is no internal sign.  I guess I *could* have found it myself (I had guessed "close") and dug and fixed it, but that would have required TONS of labor and getting lucky on my guesswork.  The key is knowing exactly where it is of course...  

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,869]

2 hours ago, boilerhorn said:

The key is knowing exactly where it is of course...  

That's true about all of the important things in life

[Updawg 2,266]

What caused the leak?

Roots or something?

[boilerhorn 1,371]

35 minutes ago, Updawg said:

What caused the leak?

Roots or something?

Not sure.  Today was "find the leak."  Tomorrow is "fix the leak" and I will ask for details.

Around the time the house was built (10 years before I bought it), the main line into the house was modified to support a water softener.  The leak detection guy theorized that settling, shifts, etc. could have weakened a copper pipe joint. I will find out tomorrow

[Gil Bang 25,907]

South Austin's mom weakened my joint last weekend. 

[boilerhorn 1,371]

Quick update.  

A leak was found and fixed.  1" PVC heading into house did indeed have a hole.  After fixing that piece of PVC, water was turned back on and...  ~3 GPH of running water.  Yippee.  A leak of some sort persists.

I suspect the leak detection process found a weak area and accelerated its failure, which is fine.  However, a leak - somewhere - remains.  Leak detectors coming back again on Tues for yet another test.  

Silver lining is that I have not seen a problem inside the house and - so far - the costs have not bankrupted me.

[Updawg 2,266]

so far - the costs have not bankrupted me



Glad to hear

[boilerhorn 1,371]

As of yesterday, I believe the problem is solved.

First leak detection test isolated a leak near where a pipe was entering the garage.  When the house was built (decade before I bought), the builder installed a water softener in the garage.  Instead of running from the utility source directly to the household plumbing, the builder redirected the main line to the garage and then cut back in toward the main plumbing access to the house.  The test process found a leak in a PVC coupling as the water entered the garage.  The fix was trivial and hardly worth what I spent - it was not very deep.  It was something that anyone with a small background in PVC work could have done.  And there's a reason I mention this.

As noted, water flow persisted.  Leak detectors detected another leak - this one near where the line entered the house - around 40 feet away.  Given my experience from the initial leak, I decided to DIY.  After about 1 hour of digging, I declared, "screw this," and called a pro.  Turns out a coupling from PVC to copper had failed.  Plumber put a PVC -> PEX -> copper repair.  No more leak.  

Both repairs involved something like the picture below - involving 4 90-degree angle couplings.  There seems to be no material impact to pressure or water flow.  Hoping I do not have to deal with this again for a while.

My guess is that leak #1 was not the original leak, but that the testing accelerated a future failure.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10,226]

7 hours ago, boilerhorn said:

As of yesterday, I believe the problem is solved.

First leak detection test isolated a leak near where a pipe was entering the garage.  When the house was built (decade before I bought), the builder installed a water softener in the garage.  Instead of running from the utility source directly to the household plumbing, the builder redirected the main line to the garage and then cut back in toward the main plumbing access to the house.  The test process found a leak in a PVC coupling as the water entered the garage.  The fix was trivial and hardly worth what I spent - it was not very deep.  It was something that anyone with a small background in PVC work could have done.  And there's a reason I mention this.

As noted, water flow persisted.  Leak detectors detected another leak - this one near where the line entered the house - around 40 feet away.  Given my experience from the initial leak, I decided to DIY.  After about 1 hour of digging, I declared, "screw this," and called a pro.  Turns out a coupling from PVC to copper had failed.  Plumber put a PVC -> PEX -> copper repair.  No more leak.  

Both repairs involved something like the picture below - involving 4 90-degree angle couplings.  There seems to be no material impact to pressure or water flow.  Hoping I do not have to deal with this again for a while.

My guess is that leak #1 was not the original leak, but that the testing accelerated a future failure.

Glad it is found/fixed.  So there wasn't any visible indication of a leak outside?  Like standing water or wet ground or such?  Just wondering where the water went

[boilerhorn 1,371]

2 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Glad it is found/fixed.  So there wasn't any visible indication of a leak outside?  Like standing water or wet ground or such?  Just wondering where the water went

Thanks.  There was no visible indication outside.  In fact, the 2nd leak required ~12" of digging in the correct space before there was softer ground.  Without the new CoA meters, we might not have seen the extra consumption until Nov/Dec.  An extra 2500 gals/month in the summer is easy to miss.