There are many water leaks that can occur in your home, including the slow water leak stemming from an untimely faucet repair. It’s important to be aware of water leaks since water is one of the most expensive utilities to maintain. Here are some helpful tips for detecting a water leak in your home:

• Turn off all water valves leading into and out of your home so you can more easily find any leaks inside the house itself. This will reduce water pressure throughout the entire system.

• Find each water meter on each floor or section of your home. You should have at least one water meter per floor or area that you’re trying to fix if not two meters on average. Test both meters using water from a water pitcher.

• Fill the water pitcher and place it on one water meter, marking this water meter as “full”. Then fill the water pitcher again and place it on the other water meter, marking that water meter as “full.” Observe which water meter is higher or lower than when you started. This will give you an idea of where your water leak is located. If there is no difference in water levels, then go to step 2.

• On this higher end of the system (the side with the highest water level), find each faucet and turn them all off. You might want to get help at this point because some homes have many faucets throughout their entire plumbing system. Continue to test water levels after you finish shutting off all water valves leading out of the water meter point.

• If water levels are higher or lower than before, then there might be a water leak somewhere on the system that you’re currently investigating. Try testing each faucet one by one until you can narrow down which one is responsible for your water loss. One way to do this is to shut off all water valves up to one particular faucet and then turn it on while observing water levels on your water meters. Do this with all of your water valves leading up to an individual faucet before turning them back on again.

Alternatively, if you have multiple people around who are able to help, have them each go to different water valves leading up to the water meter’s water sub-meter. If water levels are lower after turning on a water valve, then you have located your water leak site. If there is no water loss, make sure that everyone working together shuts off their water valves before they turn them back on again. 

Sometimes leaks can be difficult to find, causing homeowners to spend money unnecessarily after hiring contractors who don’t really know where the problem might be based on previous work done by other contractors during an earlier attempt at repairing the problem water leak. Therefore, water system leaks are not always easy to find without the proper equipment and knowledge of where water lines go throughout your water system.