Finding A Plumbing Leak Between House and Street

In this episode of Turning Leak Detections Into Repair Work, we’re in Northridge, CA using the Plumbers Leak Detection Kit by LeakTronics.

The homeowner noted an increase in water usage. When we arrived at the house, we turned off all water use on the property and watched the meter. It was spinning. Then we shut the main valve to the house and noted the water meter was still spinning. This told us that there was a leak between the meter and the shut-off at the house.

After setting up the Pressure Rig and injecting air and water into the line, we used the Soil Probe for listening in the grassy areas and the Soil Probe with the Listening Disc for listening at the small concrete areas. For larger solid surfaces, we would use the deck plate in the Plumbers Kit.

The house had an area of concrete where previous repair work had been performed. In that area, we heard the distinct boiling sound that we make using the Pressure Rig. This told us where the leak was; we marked the area and wrote up our findings report.