There is a lot of discussion online from Atlanta’s homeowners who are experiencing high water bills. And, over the years as a Master plumber in Atlanta I’ve helped many homeowners through diagnosing these issues, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Here are the immediate steps to take if you see an increase in your water bill.

Check your past bills. Look over your last 6-12 months of bills to see if the increase in your water bill is continually getting worse over the months. Some leaks start out gradually and become larger. An example of this would be a toilet flapper slowly deteriorating, letting more and more water into the bowl over several months at a faster rate as the seal is weakened. However, there can also be abrupt leaks, such as a sudden break on a pipe underground. This could be reflected immediately in your bill, sometimes spiking an individual bill into the thousands of dollars in a single family residence.
Check with your water provider. Sometimes they make errors in billing. You should be able to call your provider or log into their website and ask them to check your meter data for anomalies. They’ll go over your account for billing errors and they may be able to check your meter in real time for continuous flow – in other words, your water is running 24/7 which is a strong indicator of a leak.
Next steps: If the water provider confirms continuous flow or otherwise indicates that there is not a billing error on their side, it’s possible that you have a hidden leak.

The reality is that most leaks require a plumber to thoroughly diagnose and repair, but if you’re not ready to hire one just yet, you can continue with the following steps to find out if your system does indeed have a leak:

1. Check your meter. The first and simplest thing you can do is to walk out to your water meter in your yard near the street and take the lid off (usually with a pair of pliers). You will see your water meter inside. Making sure that no fixtures are on in the house, check to see if the meter is reading a flow rate. Usually after 3 minutes or so if the meter hasn’t moved, you know there is not a constant leak. However, some leaks (like running toilets) are intermittent. So you still would not know if you have a running toilet, or another leak that only runs from time to time.
2. Check your toilets. Second, you can check your toilets to see if any of them have a leak from the tank. You will need 5 drops of green or blue food coloring, or toilet dye tabs. Once you take the lid off of the toilet, add the dye of choice and gently stir the water with a spoon to make sure the coloring circulates evenly throughout the tank. Use a strong flashlight to watch the water in the bowl to see if a thin string of dye begins to show anywhere in the water. This can take up to 10 minutes and can be very subtle. If, after about 20 minutes you do not see any color it is safe to say there isn’t a leak from the tank going into the bowl. Repeat for each toilet.
3. Check your water heater. Another common leak that can drive up a water bill is the releasing of your temperature and pressure regulator valve (T&P) on your water heater. This small brass valve activates when the pressure or temperature gets too high (>150 PSI or >150 degrees fahrenheit). Although it is a wonderful safety mechanism that protects your family from flooding or scalding, it can cause a large water loss. Usually the T&P activates from high pressure. (insert picture of T&P). According to the plumbing code, the discharge pipe from the T&P must run to a safe area into a drain or outside of the home. Once located, follow the discharge pipe to the area where it terminates and see if it is wet or dripping. If it is dry, it’s not a problem.

Hire a professional. From here, doing a static pressure test of each individual system of potable water piping is necessary. If a pressure drop is detected, we can then isolate the water service line going from the water meter to your home and test it. If it is leak free, we would repeat the test on various sections of your home until we find the leak. After that, if the leak is still evading us, we can do a leak detection test using sonic equipment. These techniques are mostly used for pinpointing underground leaks, especially if your home is built on a concrete slab.

If you have a high water bill and aren’t sure what to do about it, call or text 770-PLUMBER! We’re at your service, day or night.

I have a high water bill. What should I do?