(888) 706-0205

Home › Two Hours, No Equipment, a Definite Answer

Two Hours, No Equipment, a Definite Answer

Before anybody listens to your floor with a microphone, there is a test that settles whether there is a leak at all.

In one paragraph

EPA publishes a free test. Turn off every fixture, read the water meter, wait two hours with nothing running, and read it again. If the meter has moved, water is leaving the system. It needs no equipment and settles whether there is a leak at all.

Source: US EPA WaterSense, Fix a Leak Week.

UnderSlab is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands, and work that opens a structural slab is normally permitted — ask to see the permit. We carry out no work and no leak detection, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

The test

EPA WaterSense publishes it in one sentence: “Check your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter changes at all, you probably have a leak.”

That is the whole method. Read the meter, use nothing — no taps, no washing machine, no ice maker, no irrigation timer due to run — and read it again.

Source: US EPA WaterSense, Fix a Leak Week.

Why it matters here

A slab leak is under concrete. You cannot see it, and for months you may not hear it. What you can do is prove that water is leaving the system when nothing in the house is asking for any.

That single fact changes the conversation with a contractor from “something feels wrong” to “my meter moves with everything off”, and it is the difference between a diagnostic visit and a guess.

The winter version

12,000 gallons a monthEPA’s threshold: a family of four exceeding this in a winter month may have a serious leak. Winter matters because irrigation and outdoor use are not masking the figure.

If your bill carries usage history, this costs nothing to check and it covers a period you have already lived through.

Ruling out the fixtures first

A moving meter proves a leak, not a slab leak. The commonest culprit is a toilet, and EPA gives that its own test: put food coloring in the tank, wait ten minutes, and if color appears in the bowl the flapper is passing water.

Do that on every toilet before anything else. It is free, and it is the answer often enough to be worth ten minutes.

Read next

If the meter moved with everything off, you have a leak.That is the finding worth leading with, because it saves an hour of diagnosis. We connect you with a contractor who covers your area, and your ZIP code is what decides who that is. You are never charged. It does not have to be a slab leak either — every kind of plumbing request is routed.

Call (888) 706-0205
Call (888) 706-0205