Burst pipes and hidden leaks
across Leichhardt

Maybe, and around here maybe not, which is exactly why it is worth testing rather than assuming. This is a low-lying part of Sydney where stormwater drains toward a tidal outlet, so ground that stays damp can simply be ground that stays damp. The discriminator is the water meter. A plumbing leak draws water continuously from the mains and shows on the meter. Rain and groundwater do not. That single test separates two problems with completely different solutions and completely different costs.

Turn off every tap and appliance in the house, including the washing machine and anything with a fill valve, then look at the meter and watch it for fifteen minutes. If the dial or the last digits are still moving with nothing running, water is leaving the mains somewhere. If it is completely still, whatever is making that ground wet is not coming from your plumbing. It is free, it takes a quarter of an hour, and it is more reliable than any amount of looking at the wet patch.

Then it is a drainage or groundwater question rather than a leak, and we will tell you that instead of billing you to keep hunting. Depending on what you are seeing, the useful next step might be clearing and filming the private stormwater lines, checking where the downpipes actually discharge, or accepting that a low-lying yard beside a tidal system holds water sometimes. What it is not is a reason to start excavating for a pipe that is not leaking.

Do the meter test, and if it is turning, treat it as real. Water follows the fall of a slab or a joist and comes out wherever it can, which may be nowhere visible. A concealed leak can run for months with nothing on the surface, and in a suburb where damp ground is unremarkable it can hide for longer than usual. The bill is often the only symptom you ever get.

Acoustic equipment listens for escaping water through the ground and the structure, pressure testing isolates which line has lost integrity, and thermal imaging finds the temperature difference a hot water leak leaves. Between them we narrow it to a point before anything is opened, which matters on a small inner-west block where there is not much yard to open in the first place.

They are among the most common causes of serious water damage in Australian homes, and they have a service life of about five to ten years. When one goes it does not drip, it releases mains pressure continuously until somebody reaches the stop tap. If you cannot remember ever replacing the braided hoses under your sink or vanity, that is a small job now instead of a very large one later.

An emergency make-safe is $250 to $500. Leak detection is $300 to $600. Repair once located is $400 to $1,200 for most jobs, with access moving that more than the pipe does. Replacing flexible hoses is $150 to $350. If the meter test says you do not have a leak, we would rather tell you on the phone for nothing.