Spent 4 hours tracking down a water leak that was right in front of me

I had a slow drip in a customer's basement last week that was driving me crazy. The water meter was spinning when nothing was running, so I knew there was a leak somewhere. I checked all the obvious spots first like toilets and outdoor spigots, nothing. Then I spent a good two hours crawling around the crawl space with a flashlight looking for wet spots. Turns out the leak was at the main shutoff valve, right where I started, but the pipe had some corrosion that made it hard to see. I felt like a complete idiot when I finally found it. Has anyone else had a leak that made you question your whole skillset?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace_gonzalez4616d ago

Do you really think three hours is no big deal when you know the meter is spinning and nothing else is running? I get what @hunt.nora is saying about toilets hiding leaks, but this is different. When you’ve already confirmed the leak is somewhere and you still can’t spot it, that first hour of checking the obvious stuff feels like it should be enough. The fact that corrosion made it hard to see doesn’t mean you should just shrug off a messy search like that. It’s frustrating when you think you’ve covered all the bases and the answer was right there the whole time. So yeah, three hours of that can make you doubt yourself for a bit, even if you know you’ll get better at spotting things next time.

hunt.nora16d ago

Three hours tops. That's not really a make or break moment for your whole career. I've had toilets running silently for weeks before I caught them. Walked past a sweaty pipe in a rental for two days straight. The water meter trick is good but sometimes things just hide. Corrosion on a shutoff valve is sneaky but it's not like you missed a waterfall.