Leak Detection
A hidden leak bills you twice, and the second bill is often partly refundable if you move fast enough.
Free to homeowners — the contractor pays us for the introduction, you never do.
The essentials
A water meter that moves with every fixture off proves water is leaving your system. Before paying anyone to find it, establish which side of the service connection it is on, because a leak on the utility’s side is usually theirs. Most utilities also run a leak adjustment scheme.
Source: New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Leak Forgiveness Program.
- You are never chargedContractors pay us when we route them a call. There is no cost to the homeowner, ever.
- Every figure names its sourceThe numbers on this site come from public data and the page says which, so you can check them.
- We say where we coverCalls are routed by ZIP code to independent contractors.See the coverage
- We say when not to callIf the fix is a few minutes of your own time, this site tells you that instead of selling you a visit.
Everybody writing about hidden leaks writes about finding them. Almost nobody writes about the money your utility may already owe you, or about the deadline quietly running against it.
What this site is
AcousticLeak is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. We carry out no work and no leak location, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call. Nothing here is a statement about what your own utility will credit; only your utility can tell you that.Start with the bill, not the pipe
Most water utilities operate a leak adjustment scheme: fix a hidden leak, show them the evidence, and part of the inflated bill comes back. The terms differ everywhere — New York forgives half with a floor, Oregon City adjusts two months at half the distribution rate — but the shape is the same and so is the catch.
The clock runs from a bill you have already received, not from the day you found out. What these schemes actually say, and why waiting one cycle is the expensive move.
Source: New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Leak Forgiveness Program; City of Oregon City, Oregon, Water Leak Policy and Adjustment Application.
Then establish whose pipe it is
Between the main in the street and your kitchen tap, responsibility changes hands at a point your utility defines. A leak on their side is not your bill and not your excavation.
It is one telephone call to find out and it is free. Ask this before you book anybody.
What listening actually does
Water escaping a pressurized pipe makes a noise, and everything acoustic detection can do follows from that — including the things it cannot. A drain is not pressurized, so a drain leak is silent and needs a camera instead.
Where the method is strong, and where the pipe material limits it.
What we will not tell you
We publish no detection success rate, no national survey price and no average leak volume, because no source we are willing to stand behind publishes any of them. That refusal has its own page, so you can see which questions we declined rather than guessing.
What this service is
We connect homeowners with independent contractors who cover their area, and the contractors pay us when we route them a call. You are never charged. We would rather you rang your utility first and found out the leak was theirs.
The whole site
- Your billMost water utilities operate a leak adjustment scheme.
- The deadlineLeak adjustment schemes start their clock at a bill, not at the day you worked out what was wrong.
- Proving itEvery leak adjustment scheme asks for the same small set of things.
- Signs of a hidden leakWhat a concealed leak actually looks like before anybody finds it, and the checks that separate a leak from an explanation.
- Whose pipe is itA leak on one side of an invisible line is the utility problem and on the other it is yours.
- What listening findsListening works on pressurized pipe and badly on some materials.
- Before you bookSix questions that separate a leak locating service worth paying for from one that is selling a call-out.
- What we will not sayNo detection success rate, no national survey price, no average leak volume.
- CostWe are not the contractor and cannot quote.
Where we route calls
Tap your state for the towns and ZIP codes we route in, and the figures behind them.
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this site is public and attributed. You can go and check any of them.
- HousingUS Census BureauAmerican Community Survey 5-year estimates — the housing figures on every town page, and the table each one comes from is named on the page.
What happens when you call
No form, no quote tool, no waiting for an email.
- You tell us what the water is doingOne short conversation. If it turns out to be something you can fix in five minutes, we will say so.
- We route the callWe match your ZIP code to an independent contractor who already covers your area — not a call center three states away.
- They quote, you decideWe do not set prices and we never charge you. The contractor pays us for the introduction.
What to do first
Four things worth doing first. They cost nothing and they can keep a small problem small.
- Shut off the water closest to the problemUnder a sink or behind a toilet there is usually a small valve on the supply line. Turning it clockwise stops that fixture without shutting off the rest of the house.
- If you cannot find it, use the mainUsually where the supply enters the building — a basement wall, a crawl space, or a covered box near the street. Then open the lowest tap in the house, which drains the standing water out of the pipes instead of out of the leak.
- Water and electricity: stay out of the roomIf water has reached an outlet, a panel or an appliance, switch that circuit off at the breaker before going near it. If you cannot do that safely, do not go in, and say so when you call.
- Photograph it before anything is movedInsurers ask for it, and a contractor can tell more from a photograph of the leak than from a description of it.
And one case where the answer is not to call us. If the water is surfacing on the street side of your meter, that is the utility's line and not yours. Report it to your water utility — they do not charge a homeowner to repair their own main.
Check with your water utility first.If the leak is on their side it is not your bill and not your excavation, and that call is free. If it is yours, come back and we will route you to a local contractor who can find it, chosen on the ZIP code you give. We never charge you either way. Nor must it be a leak: whatever the plumbing is doing, this number reaches somebody.
Call (888) 530-1544
