Hidden leaks are almost never found early, and the reason isn't carelessness. It's that nobody has a baseline.
If you don't know what your meter normally does with everything switched off, a meter that's moving tells you nothing. If you don't know what your bill normally looks like in that season, a higher one looks like a busy month. If you've never checked your water pressure, you have no idea whether it's quietly shortening the life of every fitting in the property.
So the leak continues — into soil, into a cavity, into a drain — until it produces damage visible enough to notice. By then it has usually been running for months, and the repair cost is the smaller half of what you're paying for.
Twenty minutes, twice a year, changes that entirely. The routine is below, it costs almost nothing, and it means that next time something is wrong you'll know within weeks rather than after a ceiling stains.
Cornerstone Plumbing Services locates leaks across Orange — early where possible, precisely where necessary, and without opening the building first.
Tap to call, or run the audit below.
Do this twice a year. Write the numbers down somewhere you'll find them — the back of the panel schedule, a note on your phone, anywhere.
Step 1 — The meter still-test. (Five minutes, plus waiting.) Turn off every tap and appliance that uses water and don't flush anything. Find your meter and note the position of the leak indicator — the small triangle, star, or low-flow dial — along with the exact time. Wait at least thirty minutes without using water, then read it again.
Record: whether it moved, and if so, how much. Your baseline is "no movement." Anything else is information.
Step 2 — Dye-test every toilet. (Five minutes.) A few drops of food colouring in each tank, no flushing, then check the bowls after thirty minutes. Colour in the bowl means the flapper is passing water. This is the single most common cause of an unexplained water bill in any property, it's silent, and it's a cheap part.
Record: which toilets passed, and when you last replaced each flapper.
Step 3 — Walk the five wet spots. (Five minutes.) Under every sink. Behind the washing machine. Around the base of the water heater. Under the dishwasher. Around the base of every toilet. You're looking for: damp, staining, corrosion at connections, mineral crust at fittings, soft or discoloured flooring, and a musty smell.
Record: anything that looks different from last time. That comparison is the whole point of writing it down.
Step 4 — Check your water pressure. (Three minutes.) An inexpensive threaded gauge on an outside tap or laundry tap, read with nothing else running. Typical residential supply sits somewhere around 40 to 60 psi, and readings above roughly 80 are generally considered too high.
Record: the number. High pressure feels like good pressure, which is why it goes unexamined for decades while it shortens the life of every hose, valve, and fitting in the property.
Step 5 — Look outside. (Two minutes.) Hose bibs for drips and damage, especially after winter. The irrigation system — if it's on its own valve, shut it off and repeat step one. And a walk of the lawn looking for a patch that's unusually soft, sunken, or greener than the rest.
Record: anything unusual, and where.
That's it. Five checks, four numbers, twice a year — and the next time something changes, you'll notice it as a change rather than as a stain.
Call urgently if: the meter moves fast with everything off, there's a warm patch on a floor, damage is actively spreading, or you've shut the main at the building and the meter keeps turning.
Call soon if: the meter turns steadily, your bill has risen with no change in usage, there's damp with no obvious source, or you're hearing running water with nothing on. This is the best moment to act — the leak is large enough to find efficiently and small enough that the damage hasn't compounded.
Book at your convenience if: the movement is barely perceptible, the audit hasn't explained it, and there's no visible damage anywhere.
Don't call at all if: the meter doesn't move and the damp appears only after rain or only in humid conditions. That's roof, flashing, grading, or condensation — none of which a plumber fixes, and we'd rather tell you on the phone than after driving out.
One useful step before calling: shut the main valve at the building with the meter running. If it stops, the leak is inside. If it keeps turning, it's the service line outside — a different job entirely. That one action halves the problem in a minute.
No single tool finds everything, and which we use depends entirely on what the audit and the isolation established.
A slab leak is a supply line failing beneath or within a concrete slab. The tells: a warm patch on the floor, an unexplained bill, running water with everything off, and new cracking in flooring or slab. It doesn't stop — pressurised water under concrete erodes the material supporting it, which is why delay reliably increases the eventual cost. Repair options include opening the slab at the failure point, rerouting the line above the slab, or lining in some cases.
A service line leak is between the boundary and the building, buried and invisible. The meter test at the main valve identifies it in a minute. Repair cost depends heavily on what's above it — open lawn is manageable, a driveway or a mature tree is not — and trenchless replacement is frequently available and worth pricing against excavation.
They're different jobs with different amounts of work, and neither can be priced accurately before the other is done.
A leak at an accessible fitting takes minutes to repair once located. A slab leak may take hours to locate and then be either straightforward or substantial.
So you'll get the search price before we start, and the repair price once we know what failed and where. Anyone quoting a single number to find and fix a leak nobody has located yet is either padding it or planning to revise it.
The repair cost stays roughly stable. The damage cost doesn't. That's the honest reason not to keep an eye on it.
We locate leaks for restaurants, retail, offices, warehouses, and multi-unit residential buildings across Orange.
The audit principle applies with more force commercially, because consumption is usually metered and monitored — provided someone is actually reading it. An unexplained increase noticed in month one is a very different problem from one noticed in month nine.
Larger systems make isolation more valuable, not less. Long runs, multiple risers, and undocumented modifications mean methodical elimination frequently does more work than any instrument.
In multi-unit residential, water travels between units and the affected unit is often not the source, which makes detection a coordination exercise as much as a technical one.
Irrigation and landscape systems account for a large share of unexplained commercial water use, and they're the first thing worth isolating on any site with grounds.
The variables, so you can see where a number comes from.
Detection is quoted before we search; repair is quoted before we fix. And anything you established in the audit makes the first of those more accurate.
Cornerstone Plumbing Services proudly serves Orange, VA and the surrounding neighborhoods, locating and repairing leaks in residential and commercial properties throughout the area. Unsure whether you're in range? Call and ask.
Turn everything off, note your meter's leak indicator and the time, wait thirty minutes without using water, and read it again. Any movement means water is being lost. Dye-test your toilets at the same time.
Twice a year is enough for most properties, and it takes about twenty minutes. The value is in writing the numbers down, because next time you'll be comparing rather than guessing.
Yes, and it's common. Water escaping into soil, into a drain, or through irrigation produces no interior evidence at all. Leaks with no visible damage are frequently the larger ones.
Shut the main valve at the building. If it stops, the leak is inside; if it keeps turning, it's the service line outside. Then isolate the water heater and the irrigation. Those three steps halve the problem repeatedly.
Very possibly, especially if the increase is seasonal. Isolate it and repeat the meter test — it's the cheapest thing to rule out.
Useful information: no pressurised leak. The damp is coming from a drain, from rainwater, or from condensation, and those are three different fixes.
Typical residential supply sits somewhere around 40 to 60 psi, and above roughly 80 is generally considered too high. High pressure feels like good pressure, which is why it goes unchecked while shortening the life of every fitting.
Locating it, usually yes — isolation, acoustic, thermal, and camera methods exist for exactly that. Repair may need access, but to a known point rather than an exploratory one.
A supply line failure beneath a concrete slab. A warm floor patch, an unexplained bill, running water sounds with everything off, and new cracking are the usual signs. It doesn't stop on its own.
Then it's probably not a plumbing leak. Timing tied to weather rather than water use points at roof, flashing, windows, grading, or foundation.
Because they're different jobs and neither can be priced accurately before the other is done.
Point sensors are inexpensive and belong under the high-consequence spots. Whole-property monitors with automatic shutoff are genuinely valuable in properties that stand empty for periods.
Mostly driven by how far isolation gets us before equipment is needed, and by accessibility. You'll have the detection price before we begin.