How to detect leaks in your home

How to detect leaks in your home

The first step in checking for leaks in your home is to inspect your water meter. Your water meter has a leak indicator which will move if there is a leak on your property, this indicator will be either triangular or a small silver wheel. Another way to check if you have a leak is to take a meter reading, wait two hours, and take another meter reading. If the reading has changed, you have a leak.

After determining that you have a leak, find your home’s water mains and shut them off at the valve. Make sure you recheck the water meter at this point to ascertain where on your property the water leak is. If the leak indicator stops moving or there is no discernable change in the reading, this means the leak is inside of your home. However, if the leak indicator continues to move, or there is a change in between readings, the leak is outside your home in between the water meter and your house.

One of the most common sources of leakage in the home in faucets. A worn rubber washer is usually to blame if your faucet is leaking. Leaking toilets should be fixed as soon as possible because of the high volume of water wastage this kind of leak can cause. They are difficult to detect because they are often silent. One clever way to find out if your toilet is leaking is to open the cistern lid, drop some food colouring in the water, and wait about half an hour. If your toilet is leaking, colour will have seeped into the toilet bowl. Make sure you do not flush the toilet during this ‘experiment’.   

One of the most common causes of a leaking toilet is a faulty flapper. The flapper is situated at the bottom of the tank and is a rubber valve that lifts when the toilet is flushed.