Six Ways To Find Hidden Water Leaks in Your Roanoke, Texas Home

Maybe your most recent water bill is suspiciously high, or you hear an odd dripping noise coming from somewhere behind your walls. If you suspect that you have a hidden water leak, it’s important to fix it fast before it causes serious damage to your home.

Below, learn how to spot hidden water leaks, then call us for plumbing services in Roanoke, TX.

Spotting Hidden Water Leaks in Your Roanoke Home: Signs of Water Leaks and Leak Detection Methods

Some water leaks are fairly obvious and easy to detect. For example, if there’s a big puddle of water around the base of your toilet, it’s a safe bet that you have a leak in your plumbing system.

Other leaks are more subtle and much harder to recognize. Here’s how to tell if you have a sneaky water leak in your Roanoke home.

1. Take a Look at Your Recent Water Bills

Have your water bills recently increased for no apparent reason? If you haven’t been using more water than normal, there’s a good chance that you’ve got a hidden water leak.

On average, a family of four uses about 12,000 gallons of water per month, except when watering the lawn in the summer. If your water usage is much higher than that for no reason, suspect a leak as the culprit.

2. Perform a Water Meter Check

Performing a water meter check is one of the most reliable ways to tell whether you have hidden water leaks. Here’s how to do it.

1. Locate your water meter. Here in Roanoke, most water meters are located near the back or sides of homes near the main water supply line.
2. Turn off every water tap in your home.
3. Check the water meter and write down the number you see. Check again in an hour. If the numbers have changed, you have a leak somewhere.
4. To determine whether the leak is located indoors or outdoors, turn off the main water supply. Check the water meter again later. If the numbers have changed, the leak is somewhere in the line that leads to your house. If the numbers remain the same, the leak is somewhere inside your home.

3. Listen for Unusual Sounds Throughout Your Home

If you’ve got a hidden leak, you may not notice any physical signs. However, you can often detect sneaky leaks simply by listening closely.

Walk around your home and listen for the telltale sound of water dripping. By following the noise, you may be able to pinpoint the leak’s location. Leaks caused by pipe corrosion can sound like rushing water, similar to the sound you hear after flushing the toilet.

4. Try the Sniff Test for Finding Hidden Water Leaks

Because water is odorless, you probably won’t be able to smell anything if the leak is recent. However, if the leak has been left unchecked for weeks or months, you might smell a musty odor.

That odor you’re smelling is mildew, which thrives in damp, dark environments such as beneath your sink and behind walls. Follow your nose to track the leak to its source. Once you’ve found it, get it fixed as soon as possible before your mold and mildew problem worsens.

5. Look for Damage to Your Walls

If the leak has been ongoing for some time, you might eventually notice water damage to your walls. A leak behind the walls can cause wallpaper to peel and paint to flake off. You might also notice yellow or black stains on the wall where the leak is.

Any sign of water damage necessitates an immediate call to a plumber. If you ignore the leak, the damage will get even worse.

6. Watch Out for Greener Grass

Here in Roanoke, scorching summer days turn our lawns into a brown, crispy mess unless they receive supplemental water. If you’re not watering your lawn, but it’s nice and green, there may be hidden water leaks lurking somewhere underground in your yard.

Take a tour of your yard and look for areas where the grass looks taller and lusher. Feel the soil around the grass. If it’s damp, but the rest of your soil feels bone-dry, you may have discovered the location of the leak.