A Spinning Meter, a Shock Bill, and an Invisible Leaking Pipe in Klipkop
Michelle got the kind of municipal bill that makes your stomach drop. Nothing had changed in the house, nobody was using more water than usual, and yet the account had jumped. When she went outside and opened the meter box, the meter was turning. Continuously. With everything in the house switched off.
She had already done the sensible thing before she called me: she checked the readings and confirmed the meter was accurate. So she knew the meter was not the problem. The water was real, it was going somewhere, and she could not see a drop of it anywhere on the property.
That is a textbook hidden leak, and it is one of the most common jobs I do.
What I found
There was no wet patch. No soft ground, no damp wall, nothing on the surface to point at. That is normal for these, and it is exactly why they are so hard for a homeowner to deal with. The water was going straight down.
I worked through my full series of tests: a pressure test to confirm the system was losing water, then trace gas, an acoustic microphone, and thermal imaging to narrow down where. Several methods, each ruling out or confirming a part of the property, until they pointed to the same place. That cross-confirmation is exactly what I want before I tell anyone where to dig.
The leak was on the cold water line feeding the basin in the guest bathroom. A 15mm pipe, burst under the floor, with no visible indication of it anywhere. While I was there I also picked up a separate existing leak on the PVC drainage line and trap, which I flagged for Michelle to have checked.
Leak traced to cold water pipe in the bathroom
Leak in bathroom confirmed
Why the bill was so high
This is the part that catches people out. A burst on your cold water supply runs 24 hours a day, and because it pushes your total consumption up into the City's highest charging step, every one of those litres is billed at the top rate.
Michelle's numbers tell the story. Her normal use is about 12 kilolitres a month. During the leak her meter recorded 35 kilolitres, with roughly 23 kilolitres of that lost to the burst pipe alone. On the City's current tariffs that took her bill from around R730 to roughly R3,160 a month, an extra R2,400 disappearing under her floor. Her meter was not spinning for nothing. It was money, leaving continuously.
The outcome
Michelle got a written report with photographs showing exactly where the burst was, so her plumber could go straight to it and open one spot in the floor instead of guessing. She could also apply for the City of Cape Town water leak rebate.
If your meter is spinning and you cannot see why
This is not rare and it is not your imagination. If your meter turns with everything off, water is moving somewhere, and if you cannot see it, it is going underground or under your floor, exactly like Michelle's.
Fill in our online form with details of what your bill has been doing, and I will tell you whether you have a problem worth coming out for.
"He found the problem and that was the main thing for me. He is cost effective and I would definitely suggest him to friends and family." - Michelle, Klipkop
