FAQ

The trade's published figures put most Glendale houses at an estimated $150 to $400, with slab and yard-line searches reaching an estimated $500 to $600. Method sets the figure more than hours do: a hot line glowing on a thermal camera is a shorter job than a plastic line that has to be filled with tracer gas. Nobody has verified a Glendale average, so none is printed here. Give us the build year and the valve results for a free quote by phone; the written quote follows before work starts.

Yes, provided the leak is downstream of it and nothing else is drawing water. Shut every fixture and appliance, switch the irrigation controller to off, and look at the leak indicator, the little triangle or wheel that spins at the faintest flow. Movement means water is leaving the system somewhere. Glendale is swapping its mechanical meters for electronic ones over several years; where yours has already been replaced the display reads differently, and Glendale Water Services can explain it.

Usually water running while nobody is using any: an irrigation valve that will not seat, a toilet refilling itself, a pool autofill topping up a leak, or a supply line losing water under the slab or out in the yard. The meter sorts these in minutes. With the controller and every fixture off, close the irrigation shutoff, the house valve and the heater's cold supply one at a time, and note which of the three brings the dial to rest.

By listening, by looking for heat, or by following a gas. Acoustic gear picks up water forced out of a pressurized pipe and does best on copper; a thermal camera shows the warmth of a hot-water leak through a slab; tracer gas, a harmless hydrogen and nitrogen blend, is fed into the line and sniffed for where it reaches the surface, on any pipe material. Pressure tests come first, to prove which section is losing water before any of those three is brought out.

The utility's responsibility generally ends at the meter, but confirm it for your own address. Glendale describes every service line as having both a public and a private section without naming, on its page, the point where they divide, so ask Glendale Water Services at 623-930-4100 before a repair is planned. Some Glendale addresses are served by other water companies; if yours is, the supplier on the bill is the one to ask.

Usually, when the meter shows water moving and nothing visible explains it. A located leak means one small opening for the repair instead of exploratory cuts in a floor or a yard, and the written finding goes with you to whichever plumber you hire. When the meter sits still, you do not need us, and we say so on the call.

Nobody, at first: your own meter answers that. Turn everything off and watch it for a while. If it moves, call us with the build year and the valve results; if the water is welling up inside the meter box, the call goes to Glendale Water Services. A dial that stays put across a couple of hours usually means there is nothing to find.

Often like nothing at all, which is why the meter matters more than the floor. When it does show, it is usually a warm patch of tile or concrete over a hot line, damp carpet or swelling baseboard with no spill to explain it, or the faint sound of running water when every fixture is off. A Glendale homeowner described exactly the first of those, a warm place on the slab near the water heater, and that is the kind a thermal camera confirms fastest.