Plumber recommendations for water leak detection
 

Anyone got any recommendations for someone who specializes in water leak detection?

Having a hard time figuring out the source of a potential water leak. Although I don't see any water leaking into the house, we've turned off all the individual shut off valves (i.e. under sink, under toilet, shower, hot water tank) and we still hear water running.

Since we've done the obvious stuff, we're looking to see if a pro can take it one step further and see where else water can be running off to in the house. Anyone have any good recommendations on people to try for something like this?

go rent a scope and check out your water lines, that's exactly what a plumber would do.

I was hoping the plumbers expertise would help us narrow down the most likely spot as being the culprit before I started drilling holes into the wall to scope.

In any case, I did order one of those cheap USB bore scopes from Amazon since I needed to find the shutoff for one of the showers that was sealed off by the previous person who owned/renovated this house. Maybe I'll do some poking around with it once I get it to see if I can see anything obvious before I call a plumber.

I had a similar problem. I could hear water running in the pipe, but everything was turned off, and there wasn't any leak either.

Turns out it was a leaking water pipe that leads to the house (from water main I guess?). Dug up the pipe, fixed it, problem was gone.

edit: sorry, you were looking for recommendations, I can PM you their number when I find their card

I had wondered that too. If I turn off the mains (where the water main comes into the house - not at the city boundary) the noise stops. I figure based on that, the leak was somewhere inside the house and not outside the house. I don't know if that's a sound assumption to make or not though. Short of digging up the yard out to the city shut off, I'm not sure what I can do to test on my end. I've read that some specialty plumbers have sonar equipment that can detect these leaks. That might be my best bet.

Sure, shoot me the number of the plumber if you can find it. Thanks!

Man, you'd think if you can actually hear water running constantly you'd see some evidence of moisture somewhere.

If you shut off the main and the noise stops, it's safe to say it's on the house side.

Are you sure the sound is coming from the supply and not a drain pipe? Is it possible that your hot water tank is just filling up? Exterior hose bib cracked open?

If you can hear water moving through a supply line via a leak, you'd find it pretty damn quick.

Yep, that's what I thought too.

I don't think its the hot water tank since I shut that off (along with every shut off valve I could find under the sink, toilet, etc) as well and the noise still persists.

I have a pretty good idea of where the pipes run so I've checked along those walls and I don't see any water damage. Totally bizarre and also a bit concerning to have water running and not being able to see where it's coming out of.

Not sure if this helps, but the house is one of the 50+ year old Vancouver style 2 level houses. (not sure if you'd call it a Vancouver special but it's the typical Vancouver house built in the 50's)

Did you check the garage for any soft spots in the ceiling or unusual brown?
If its new. You might not be able to "see" the leak but the dry wall could be moist or mushy..

My upstairs showering/tun was leaking before. The water leaked down and few feet away (wasnt directly under). I guess the water just leaked down and travelled down to the lowest point before coming through the dry wall.

Where is your furnace? is it a gas furnace?

I didnt know this till recently but a gas furnace can pump out up to 1L per hour when running, this discharge is usually drained into the hot water tank overflow or another drain..

might be worth checking

I do have a gas furnace. I never really noticed any sort of drainage tubes coming out of the furnace. I'll have to take a look later today when I get home. This is an older house (probably 50+ years old) and there isn't any drainage in the furnace/hot water tank area so I'm not sure where it would drain out to.

We're beginning to suspect it might be a leak in the city mains before it goes into the house - and the recent snow might have been what clued us in to this. Our front yard has about 5-6" of snow everywhere except for this 3'x3' spot in the center of the yard. It just happens to be right in line with where the water mains from the city comes into the house.

Once the snow melts, we'll probably dig it up and check it out to see if that's where the leak is.

Hot water tank could have a pressure relief about a foot from the top, along the side, with a tube that goes to a drain. Also a drain bib, along the side, about a foot from the bottom.

I do see the pressure relief on the hot water tank. However, I don't think these older homes had any sort of drainage in the furnace/hot water areas like new houses do. We've had our hot water tank leak before and it made a big ol mess which is how I know we don't have any drainage in that area. ;)

Weird. You'd think it'd be code (or at least common sense by the owner) to make sure there's a drain, close to that much water.

I agree with you 100% there. Seems so obvious - even to a simpleton like me. :P

Mind you, this is a house that was built in the 40's/50's. Maybe the building code was a bit more relaxed back then and builders built these houses the cheapest way possible and skipped on a little drain in the furnace/hot water tank room to save a few bucks.

In any case, I've got a water leak alarm in that room in between the furnace and hot water heater so if any water was coming out of there, it should alarm.

I'll have to brave the cold one of these days and take a picture of this dirt patch I have now where we suspect the leak is. It's actually kind of amusing to see a dirt patch right in the middle of 6" of snow.

That's only true of newer high efficiency condensing-style furnaces.
Older "medium efficiency" units don't have condensate drains.

This is true, I believe it was not building code to include a basement drain back in the day if it was considered "utility space" and unfinished.

Ah, OK. The furnace is at probably 20 years old so I doubt there's anything High Efficiency about it. :P

Yeah, it was probably an unfinished basement at the time it was built. When we bought the place, the basement was finished but by then it's too late to put a drain in. All I can do now is put in alarms to alert me and shut everything off at the first sign of water.

When you replace the furnace, you can either add a drain or they will provide a pump there the water line is just run to another drain....i did mine to my laundry drain

The pumps are not ideal if you even plan on finishing the basement as they fail fairly regularly.

If you do opt to replace it may be worth considering installing a floor drain and tieing it into some plumbing. We just had to do that with our suite

Alright, so working on fixing the leak - but I'm having some difficulty with finding a pipe repair clamp. Anyone got any leads on where I could pick one up? Looking for one of these:

https://www.acklandsgrainger.com/en/.../_/R-GGM24T946

Can't seem to find it at Rona or HD's website, and Acklands Grainger said they don't have any in stock. Anyone else have suggestions on places that would stock this? I figure these clamps would be fairly commonplace for temporary repairs. Just want to patch it up for now, and then in the summer dig up the yard and replace the entire piping coming from the city into the home.

Try Andrew Sheret out of anyone they would have it

Thanks - I'll give them a call. Their website seems to only show faucets, toilets, sinks, etc.

Something like that repair clamp is only a temporary fix. If it's leaking at one spot, it will be ready to leak at another. My girlfriends house had a copper pipe leak and had a plumber repair that leak with a new short piece. Then there was a leak next to where he repaired it so I had a look at it. I found that the copper plumbing on the cold water side had pinhole leaks all through the house. Best to replace the whole pipe than to patch.

Yep, eventually we are going to replace the whole thing, but we want to do it in the summer when it's a little warmer and we don't have to deal with the rain and snow. This is only temporary to get through the winter.