Why they stay hidden here
Perth sits on sand, and sand is very good at making a leak disappear.
In heavier ground, water that escapes a pipe has nowhere to go but up. You get a soft patch, a bog, a puddle, and a phone call within a fortnight. In Bull Creek the water simply goes down. It can run at a steady rate for months and leave nothing on the surface to look at.
The suburb's housing makes it worse rather than better. Bull Creek filled in through the 1970s, quickly once the Kwinana Freeway reached the area in 1976, so the buried pipework is in the range of forty-five to fifty-five years old. And with roughly 79% of occupied dwellings being detached houses, the private run between the meter at the front boundary and the building is long, buried and entirely the owner's responsibility.
Old pipe, long runs, and ground that swallows the evidence. That is the whole problem in one sentence.
What people usually notice first
Not a puddle. Almost never a puddle. What gets reported to us is one of these.
The bill
Usage has climbed with nothing in the household changing. This is the most common first sign in the suburb by a wide margin. When the bill is the first clue
The meter will not sit still
Everything in the house is off and the dial keeps creeping. That is the clearest single piece of evidence there is that water is going somewhere.
A patch of lawn that stays green
A stripe or a circle that holds on through February while the rest of the lawn gives up.
A warm or damp patch of floor
Usually a hot line under the slab. Skirting damp at the bottom and dry above it, or tiles that sound hollow. Slab leaks
Pressure that has dropped off
Gradually rather than suddenly, so it takes a while to register.
A sound of running water when nothing is running
Often at night, when the house is quiet.
Any one of those is worth a phone call. None of them is worth trying to chase down yourself — there is nothing on the surface to find, which is the entire point of a hidden leak.
How we find it
It is a process, done in an order, and no single instrument does it.
Confirm the loss at the meter
With the property shut down, a meter that keeps moving proves water is escaping and gives a rough idea of the size of it. That is our first check on arrival.
Split the property into sections
Service line, cold internal, hot internal, garden taps, retic, anything out the back. Each gets isolated in turn. On plenty of jobs this step alone answers it — one valve closed and the meter stops.
Pressure test the section that is losing
Bring it up to pressure and watch. A line that holds is eliminated. A line that bleeds down is where the rest of the work goes. This is also what separates a real buried leak from a running toilet or a dripping mixer, which are common and much cheaper answers.
Listen along the run
Water escaping a pressurised pipe makes a noise, and acoustic equipment picks it up through soil, slab and paving. Moving along the line and comparing what comes back narrows it toward the loudest point.
Mark the spot
The leak is marked on the ground as a point before anything is cut, lifted or dug. Then you get a written price for the repair.
That last step is the one worth paying for. A leak marked to a point is a small excavation. A leak "somewhere along that side of the house" is a trench, and the trench usually costs more than the detection did. More on the method
What it costs to find out
The call-out is $0. The quote is free and in writing. The repair price is given to you once the leak is located, not estimated against a guess, and you are under no obligation to go ahead. Transparent pricing, no hidden costs.
Who does the work
Plumbing licence 8396 and gas licence 13098, both held by Tim, who attends and does the work. HouseWorks Plumbing & Gas is based in Leeming, the next suburb along. Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:00pm.
If the pipe has already let go and water is out and running, that is a different call — shut it off at the meter at the front boundary if you safely can, and ring. Emergency plumbing
Get it located
Tell us what you have noticed and we will call you back to arrange a time.