Chasing Water Leaks and Other Joys of Homeownership

Our neighborhood "Water Czar" stopped by our house today to let us know that there was a "water alarm" on our meter, this past month.

That's not as serious and dramatic as it might sound, it merely means that the meter detected water usage during all 24 hours of a day, during the previous metering period. Stu is actually a good guy, so we talked water usage, leaks and other such things one might have with the neighborhood water supervisor.

In our case, the culprit is an outdoor faucet with a sketchy valve... we hadn't paid that much attention to it because the garden hose had been attached and water leaking slowly into a vegetable bed isn't easily spotted.

This particular faucet was evidently put there to service a sprinkler system that was never installed, so we used it for our garden watering.

Part of the "problem," is that the water line was run as a separate feed from our main pipe to the street, and thus is separate from the water cut-off we use to shut off the water inside the house.

So, in order to start a fix - most likely replacing the faucet on the side of the house - we would have to shut off the water at the street. Which presents a whole new issue, as I discovered when i took the cover off the water meter access...

...and found just a large pile of soil with two wires coming out of it. We have evidently had new electronic water meters installed since last time I looked under there!

"Oh, I see the moles have been in your meter space!" Stu declared.

So, the fix of our water leak will begin with digging out our water meter from the mess the moles have made!

I asked Stu if I should call a plumber, but he thought it would not be necessary... for which we are very grateful since a $200 service call bill is the last thing we need right now. Besides, the plumbers in our area are evidently backed up for several weeks at the moment.

It's good to have a neighborhood friend who has been doing the same job for 20 years.. and probably knows more about plumbing than most plumbers.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!

How about you? Do you have to do your own home repairs? Are you good at it? Or do you usually call service professionals? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2023.08.08 01:20 PDT
x609