
Water Leak Repair
Shut the main and call if the meter keeps counting with every fixture off, because a pressurised leak doesn't pause overnight and doesn't stop while you're at work.
When this becomes an emergency
- The low-flow indicator on the meter turning with the house shut down.
- A stain on a ceiling that grows a little after every shower.
- A damp streak down a basement wall near where the supply enters.
- Bare ground or an early green patch in the yard in the middle of winter.
What a pro does
The plumber's first move is to find out which side of the wall the water's escaping on. Closing the house valve and watching the meter splits an interior leak from one on the buried service line, and those lead to completely different days of work. A leak on a service line in New York is a cold-weather job in the worst sense, because the pipe is buried below a frost line that runs deep here, and reaching it in February means getting through frozen ground before any repair starts. That's why an unexplained bare or green patch in a snow-covered yard is such a useful sign, since escaping water warms the ground above it. Inside, the hunt is systematic. Branches get isolated one at a time and the meter watched after each, then listening gear narrows it down, and old junctions get particular attention. Houses here are full of places where copper was tied into galvanised steel decades ago without anything between the two metals, and those connections corrode from the inside until they weep. Repairs get made in matching material, and the pipe either side gets assessed rather than ignored.
Frequently asked questions
Keep going
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