Polybutylene Pipes

[Marie]

I think that the pipes from the water meter going into my house is the PB. My home was built in 1992. My water bill is rising and I called the water company and they told me to read the meter and not use any water for 2 hours and then reread it again. After 2 hours I had used (wasted)20 gallons of water.

Can I get the class action suit to pay for the repair?

[David]

Marie, The class action suit you speak of would have no bearing on the water main coming into your home; that suit is primarily because of connection failures, and this won’t be what you have coming into your house underground.

What you need to do is locate the leak, and there’s another step to finding it; you must turn off the main shutoff valve where the water main enters your home, THEN check the meter after a time. If the reading has changed, then you have a leak in the main before it enters the house. (Also, many meters have a small red or blue triangle under the glass near the readout, which you can visibly see spinning with very little water passing by, so if you can watch this you needn’t wait 2 hours to decide there’s a leak)

If there’s no change in the reading with the main valve closed, then open the main valve and start checking for things like leaking toilet flappers. A slowly leaking toilet can use a surprising amount of water!

Good luck!

[Raymond VinZant Plumbing Prof]

You could have a leak on a pipe undergound in the house, or you could have a leak at a fixture. If your meter is in the house. Shut off the meter and listen to the pipe. If you still hear water running, then you have a leak in the main line coming from the street. If the meter is at the street, then shut off the valve inside the home, and watch the meter at the street and see if you still have water loss. If you do, then you have a leak in your main. If not, something in the home is leaking. Could be a toilet or an underground water line.

good Luck

Raymond VinZant

[kp]

Toilets are among the biggest culprits here.

Often a toilet will run silently and slowly without being detected. To find out if you have a problem, put a few drops of food coloring in the tank. Wait 10 minutes. If any of the color leaches into the bowl, you have a leaking toilet. Usually it can be fixed with a new flapper or new fill valve.

[Marie]

I already tested the toilets and they are not leaking. Will try turning off main water value coming into house from the street and see if meter is still increasing.

[Unregistered-gemo5011]

My main water pipe is gray and it is moveable. It has a small hole in it about an inch from the the wall. What can I do to fix it?

[Author]

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