Water leak under concrete driveway: how to find / repair without ruining driveway

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Fred99

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#1869951 21-Sep-2017 09:09

linw:

You got donged with fresh water, me with storm water!

Yesterday a guy in a hi vis jacket and wearing headphones walked our street opening the toby cover and putting a wand down. Sound like a leakage survey?

Wonder how they tell water flow is leakage or just from a tap running in the house?

Last time we had an issue thought to be a water (mains) leak under our driveway, the guy using sonic detection methods was "fairly sure" he'd located a leak. It took quite an effort digging up the driveway, exposing and inspecting the pipe, filling, compacting, and re-sealing to be "fairly sure" he was quite wrong.

timmmay

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#1869952 21-Sep-2017 09:10

linw:

Yesterday a guy in a hi vis jacket and wearing headphones walked our street opening the toby cover and putting a wand down. Sound like a leakage survey?

Wonder how they tell water flow is leakage or just from a tap running in the house?

Yep that's a leak survey. Basically water shouldn't be running all the time. It could be a faulty toilet, washing machine running while they're there, pipe leak, etc, so they ask you to investigate.

Aredwood

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#1870577 22-Sep-2017 02:41

Definitely an advantage to having water meters - There is never any question of who's responsibility it is to fix a leak. As meter turning - homeowner responsibility. Meter not turning - council's responsibility. And the council doesn't need to threaten anybody to make people fix their leaking private pipework. As if you don't fix your leaking private pipes you get a big waterbill.

But typical in Auckland, they put the prices up massively. And they had to switch from 6 monthly meter reads and billing to monthly billing with 2 monthly reads. So far higher admin costs.

Fred99

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#1870792 22-Sep-2017 10:00

Aredwood:

Definitely an advantage to having water meters - There is never any question of who's responsibility it is to fix a leak. As meter turning - homeowner responsibility. Meter not turning - council's responsibility. And the council doesn't need to threaten anybody to make people fix their leaking private pipework. As if you don't fix your leaking private pipes you get a big waterbill.

But typical in Auckland, they put the prices up massively. And they had to switch from 6 monthly meter reads and billing to monthly billing with 2 monthly reads. So far higher admin costs.

That doesn't always apply - apparently

Council here (Chch) are responsible for maintaining pipes on public land, and valve/meter boxes on private land, but not for (shared) pipes on private land - unless there's a fire hydrant supplied by the shared pipe.

When there's a leak in the pipe marked in red above, the property owners will argue based on "common knowledge" that it's the council responsibility to fix it up to the meter box, but council will only maintain the meter boxes (marked "M") - not the pipe.

Plenty of shared pipes as above got munted in the Earthquakes. Imagine the fun trying to sort out shared cost for repair with insurers and homeowners, when some owners would have been "under cap" and claiming with EQC - not known for prompt action, others with assorted insurance companies who may each have different ideas on how much the repair should cost.

kiwi_64

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#1870848 22-Sep-2017 10:47

timmmay:

We've fixed this up now. My plumber said there was no practical way to locate a leak, that leak detectors don't work. We cut up the driveway to replace the toby and put in a new water main. It made a mess of the driveway, the nice dark patterned concrete will have a plain patch that's 2x1m at least. The lawn that the pipe is under now will recover. There was one leak between the toby and the pipe, but being so old there were probably multiple leaks.

As a bonus, the water tastes a LOT better through the new plastic pipe than through the old copper pipe. I've used a fridge water filter for years here, now I'm not sure I need to bother.

I'll update this post later when I know costs. Initial estimate was a few thousand dollars. It took a plumber and laborer two days, but it took at least one man-day to cut out the extremely hard concrete driveway section. Digging took a fair bit of time. The plumbing work was relatively quick.

All in all, annoying, costly, and unsightly, but water is fairly important.

Isn't the toby the council's responsibility? They have always been the one who maintains (and therefore pays for) mine...

timmmay

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#1870862 22-Sep-2017 11:08

kiwi_64:

Isn't the toby the council's responsibility? They have always been the one who maintains (and therefore pays for) mine...

Yes, but the problem was just after the toby. Plus we didn't know the leak was there until we dug everything up and cut through the concrete.

DarthKermit

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#1873661 27-Sep-2017 14:30

Got any pics of the completed job?

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timmmay

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#1873662 27-Sep-2017 14:34

We're waiting a week or so until the soil settles before the new concrete is laid. I have photos of before, during, and after that I could post.

DarthKermit

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#1873664 27-Sep-2017 14:38

If you don't mind. It might help the next person who encounters a similar problem.

timmmay

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#1873670 27-Sep-2017 14:49

DarthKermit:

If you don't mind. It might help the next person who encounters a similar problem.

I don't think it'd help anyone else. You'd just see a photo of patterned concrete that has a plain patch, and some grass that's been dug up and replaced. Each person facing the situation could have a different solution, which should be discussed with a plumber.

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