Underground Water Line Leak Detection in New Holland

This is the only check worth doing yourself, and it takes very little. It will not tell you where a leak is, but it tells you quickly whether you have one.

1. Turn off every tap and appliance that uses water, including the dishwasher, washing machine and ice maker, and make sure nobody flushes a toilet during the test.
2. Find the meter and take a photo of the dial, making sure the small leak indicator and the numbers are readable.
3. Wait 30 minutes with no water used anywhere in the house.
4. Photograph the dial again from the same angle.
5. Compare the two photos.

If the numbers and the indicator have not changed, the meter says no water is passing through, and the problem may be something else, such as a pressure issue. If the dial has moved, water is going somewhere. The meter cannot say whether it escapes underground or inside the house, so stop there and tell the dispatcher what the photos show.

A buried leak sometimes announces itself, and the signs are worth noting for the dispatcher. Walk the route between the street and the house, and look without disturbing anything.

• A strip of lawn that stays wet or soft while the rest dries out, or one that is greener and thicker than the grass around it
• Water pooling near the curb box or standing in the meter pit
• A faint hissing or rushing sound near the point where the line enters the house, easiest to hear on a quiet night
• A dip or sunken patch in the ground, or paving that has begun to settle
• In winter, a spot where snow melts first or ice keeps forming

Keep people and vehicles off any soft or sunken area, because the soil underneath may be hollow. Note exactly where it is. Just as important, remember that none of these clues proves the buried line is at fault. Runoff, a dripping outdoor tap or a leak in something else can look the same from above.

Technicians usually combine a few general approaches, and which ones they use depends on the line and the site.

Acoustic listening. Escaping water makes a sound as it moves through a pipe and out of a hole. Sensitive listening gear is placed on the meter, the shut-off or the ground above the line, and the technician listens for where the sound is strongest.

Line tracing. Before anything can be located, the technician needs to know where the line actually runs. A tracing tool follows the buried pipe so that listening happens in the right place and so no one digs into some other utility by mistake.

Pressure testing. The line is isolated and checked to see whether it holds pressure. A line that will not hold points to a leak somewhere along that stretch, and testing shorter sections can narrow it further.

Water going missing does not always mean the buried line has failed. The meter test cannot tell the difference, and neither can a wet spot. A slow drip inside a wall, a fixture that keeps running or a leak at the point where the pipe enters the house can all make the dial move.

Part of the technician’s job is to sort this out. The usual approach is to isolate the line from the house and see which side the water is escaping from. If the line holds and the loss is inside, the technician will say so, and that is a useful answer even though it is not the one you hoped for. In that case the buried line may not need replacing at all.

If the water is indeed escaping outdoors, the next question is how the line is holding up in general. A leak on an old line can be a sign of more to come, and the technician may explain whether a patch or a larger job makes sense. The page on main water line repair describes how targeted fixes work, and old service line replacement covers lines that were laid long ago.

Locating the leak is the start, not the finish. The technician explains what was found, where it sits and what the options are, along with the price, before any work begins. Pricing is discussed up front, and anything that could change it is raised before the work starts.

Often the choice is between repairing the damaged section and replacing a longer stretch. That depends on the pipe material, how many weak points show up, the depth and what sits above the line. Pressure that fell throughout the house may point somewhere else entirely, and low pressure from the main line goes through that situation in its own right.

Because other utilities may be buried near the line, the spot is confirmed before any digging, and the opening is kept as small as the repair allows.

Where a leak hides depends a lot on how the house sits. The older blocks at the heart of the borough, built in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, stand on tight lots with basements, and the line usually comes in through the foundation wall at the front. More on that in the New Holland Borough guide.

The 1980s and 1990s houses that surround the borough tend to have younger lines, though joints and fittings still age, and a driveway or walkway may cover part of the route. Subdivisions and farmland homes in Earl Township often have a longer stretch between the road and the house, so tracing the line first beats guessing and digging.

Older village homes in Martindale and Hinkletown may still rely on the original line, sometimes with a patched section or two. Everything here assumes a home on public water.

Cold weather is when many leaks surface. Deep frost moves the ground, and a weak point can open up in the coldest weeks. That is a general tendency, not a forecast, but a sudden pressure drop or a damp patch in January deserves a call rather than a wait for spring.