How To Find Out Where Your Water Pipes Are

How Do I Know Where My Water Pipes are?

If you employ city h2o, in that location is a chief water piping which runs underground from the street through your front yard to the house. This pipage can either leave the ground and enter the business firm most the street side wall, or information technology may enter the firm from the ground.

The depth of water pipes in the ground is not standard. It however must be cached below your area's frost line. How deeper you lot get below the frost line depends on you area's building lawmaking. Sprinkler lines don't need to be buried below the frost line.

If you use water from a well, a water piping will also run hush-hush from the well to the pressure level tank. Another pipe from the pressure tank volition supply the remainder of your house with water.

Information technology is important to locate the main water line to your house in case you doubtable y'all have an undercover leak, want to establish what type of pipe you have or when y'all want to replace the pipe.

To find the main water line to your house, commencement by locating your water meter or primary h2o shut off valve. The main water line to your business firm is connected to the city's water lines and connects to the water meter/close off valve in a directly line underneath your front g.

You should definitely find out where your water meter and close off valves are located if you desire to find an underground leak in your front end yard.

One thing you lot tin exist sure of is that the master water pipe enters the firm from the side that faces the street. If y'all have a private well, the water pipe can enter the house from any corner. The cardinal to finding it will be in located the well itself.

The pipe will be cached betwixt where the well and pressure tank are located. These pipes are easier to find than main water lines from city water.

3 Means to Find a House'due south Water Line

There are 3 ways you can utilise to detect buried main water pipes to a business firm and where they enter the firm. Hopefully ane of them volition work for you.

1. Locate your H2o Meter

This method works for h2o meters that are located outside the firm. In extremely cold areas, h2o meters are installed within the business firm close to the main close off valve.

If your h2o meter is outside the business firm, it will be located shut to the street nearly the curb or sidewalk. Expect for a metal or concrete chapeau with "Water Meter" or "Water" written at the top.

Use a long screwdriver to elevator off the lid. Be careful every bit it is not unusual to find snakes, spiders and other animals underneath the lid.

With the lid off, you lot tin at present run across the main water line that connects the city water and your business firm. The pipe runs underneath your forepart yard in a straight line to the closest wall of the house.

Depending on where you live, the pipe tin sally from ground when it reaches the wall closest to the street, where it then enters the house. This allows the installation of a close off valve and/or force per unit area reducing valve besides know as force per unit area regulator.

In cold areas, the pipe will still enter the house from the basis especially when you have a basement or crawlspace.

If you lot need to dig, get-go earthworks from the water meter towards the house in a straight line.

When you want to eliminate errors, yous can buy a device called a pipe locator. These locators are fitted with sensors that can discover metallic and plastic water pipes.

Simply walk around your thousand in a straight line from the water meter towards your business firm aiming the locator'southward sensor on the ground. Depending on the type of sensor you have, it will either beep or visually testify the pipe location on a screen.

ii. Locate your Master Water Shut off Valve

Depending on where you live again, your main water shut off valve volition be located on external wall or inside the firm.

If it is installed outside the house, it will be on the street side where the main h2o line emerges from the ground and enters the house. This valve could either be a gate valve (with a knob) or a ball valve (with a lever).

The master water line will be institute underground between the shut off valve and the water meter. If yous don't find the close off valve outside the house, it will definitely be in the house.

For water shut off valves that are located inside the house, they will exist found in the basement, crawlspace, garage or utility room. The valve could be very near to the floor or higher up your your caput where a pipage emerges from the wall.

Commonly, shut off valve are located very shut to the water meter. Follow the water meter's cold water supply pipe and you will surely find your shut off valve.

Shut off valves are non groovy to take in the house. These ways they could be walled up or subconscious in closets and may be hard to find especially in finished basements.

Luckily for you, shut off valves will always be installed on the street side of the house, helping you lot narrow downwardly your search.

Notice how the pipe enters the house. Main water lines to the firm do non have elbows. They are installed in a straight line from the close off valve to the water meter/street.

iii. Expect for an Outside Bib/Spigot

Tin you meet an outside spigot/bib on the street side of your firm? This is usually installed on the wall facing the street.

If y'all tin encounter the bib, that is where the main water line enters your house. Dig around this bib and yous volition notice the pipe beneath your area'southward frost line.

Finding the main water line to your house is easy if you accept both the h2o meter and bib/shut off valve exterior the house.

How to tell if Your Main H2o Line is Leaking

To check if your primary water line to y'all house is leaking, start by turning off your principal water close off valve. Turn information technology all the way clockwise if it is a gate valve or perpendicular to the piping if it is a brawl valve.

Head over to your h2o meter and check if the leak detector is spinning. The leak detector is the pocket-sized piece in the middle of your water meter which looks like a gear or small triangle.

If it is spinning, you lot indeed have an hush-hush leak. Finding the exact location of the leak is not like shooting fish in a barrel and you lot may need the services is a professional plumber.

Bank check out this post to learn how to read a water meter.

Finding the main water line to your firm is a besides a proficient chance to know what type of pipage y'all have.

Plastic and copper pipes are the recommended ones and are like shooting fish in a barrel to identify. What you may confuse is galvanized pipes and lead pipes.

If you take atomic number 82 pipes you lot should have them replaced equally soon every bit possible. For more information on lead main water service lines check out this post.

If you have galvanized pipes, they will most likely be corroded. They are likewise magnetic while atomic number 82 pipes are non.

And basically that is how to find the principal water line to your business firm. I hope this guide was helpful.