Is your water bill higher than you believe it should be? The reason may be a leak in one of your pipes.
Unlike many plumbing problems that can be detected on sight, a leaky pipe may be hidden from view, and even if you inspect your pipes the trouble may be small enough to avoid detection.
This is certainly the case with pinhole leaks, which are commonly found in copper pipes. Whether caused by chlorine particles in the air or soil that degrades the copper, the result is a pitted corrosion process that can open enough space to leak a couple of drops of water at a time.
That doesn’t sound like much, but if it happens every few minutes of every hour of every day, the result is going to be higher water bills and, eventually, widespread water damage.
Unfortunately such leaks routinely remain undetected until the area around the leak has already further rotted out the copper pipe.
There’s no easy answer to why such leaks happen in the first place. A few years ago the Orange County Register newspaper ran a story about an outbreak of pinhole leaks in homes throughout Orange and San Diego counties. Builders and contractors place the blame on water districts, and water districts contend that builders should opt for different types of building materials. Lawsuits were filed, and some of them are probably still being litigated.
The good news is that it’s easy to avoid potential pinhole leaks by simply having your plumbing inspected at least once a year. The professionals at SoCal Plumbers 911 can find and patch any pinhole leaks long before they have time to damage the plumbing system too heavily. That results in a potential savings in repair costs of thousands of dollars – not to mention getting your water bill back under control.
If you’d like to schedule a pipe inspection, call SoCal Plumbers 911 today.
