To Replace or to Repair? What to Do With a Main Water Line Leak

Hi, friends!

Oftentimes homeowners discover they have a main water leak due to an extremely high water bill. Either they contact the water company, or the water company catches it and contacts them.

Sometimes that's accompanied by a wet spot in the yard, and sometimes it's even more obvious, like water shooting out of the ground and spreading around the property.

And often the water company will dispatch someone to the property to verify that the leak is on the customer's side of the water meter, and then often what they'll say is that you need to call a leak locator.

Homeowners typically follow the advice of what seems like the professionals, but unfortunately the water company pros don't always have professional plumbing insight.

Leak location services are often $400 or more to come out and use high tech listening equipment to find the leak underground. And then repairing it often ends up being an expensive band-aid, because the age and the material of the pipe hasn't changed, and the conditions that created the leak (like roots underground, or hard water, or temperature changes) are still there. You can continue that process over and over again, and it will always increase in frequency.

Most plumbers arrive on a job site and tell the homeowner that they have the option to repair it, but replacement might be the more permanent, predictable, and reliable solution. And a good plumber will explain that those options come with two different sets of expectations.

With a band-aid or a spot repair, there's no guarantee how long it will last… but still, it can easily cost at least half what it would take to fully replace the water line. Done properly, a full line replacement has a 25-year warranty, and honestly, is expected to last indefinitely.

If you're considering a repair vs. replacement, check out our full walk-through of the replacement process and our other resources on main water lines.

And as always, we're here if you want to talk through the options. Schedule by calling us at (503) 719-4015, texting us at (971) 247-1561, or using our contact form.