Our Process
How a job runs in Glendale, step by step: free quote, written scope, written quote, sign-off - and the cheaper option named when there is one.
Sequence
Four steps, start to finish
Pipe material and hot or cold side settled first, then the spot is marked and written up.
Tell us the year and the symptom
When the house was built, what made you call, and how the meter behaves once every fixture is off. The year is the best early clue to what the pipe is, and the pipe decides the instrument.
Close three valves with us on the phone
The house shutoff, the irrigation shutoff and the cold inlet on the water heater. Each one halves the search and costs nothing, and between them they usually say whether the leak is outside, in the yard, or on the hot or cold side indoors.
We bring the instrument that suits the pipe
A ground microphone for copper, tracer gas for plastic or a very quiet leak, a thermal camera for a hot line, a pressure gauge to test one section against another. The route of the pipe is traced first, so we listen where it actually runs.
The spot marked, the method written down
The leak's position is marked where you can see it, with a short note of the instrument that found it and what fixing it will probably take. The repair is quoted separately, and any permit it needs comes from the City of Glendale.
What it costs
All of it, priced
Estimated figures for Maricopa County. Nothing here is a quote until we have seen the job.
Leak Detection - estimated $150 - $400
Priced by method and access, not the hour.
Slab Leak Detection - estimated $200 - $500
Located under the slab; the repair quoted separately.
Water Line Leak Detection - estimated $200 - $600
Traced first, then listened to along the run.
Pool Leak Detection - estimated $150 - $600
Shell, fittings and each line tested in turn.
Irrigation Leak Detection - estimated $150 - $450
Zone by zone from the controller.
Emergency Leak Detection - estimated $150 - $400 before the after-hours fee
The detection range, plus an after-hours fee.
Before anyone visits
Four readings that narrow it down, at no cost
Each one halves the search, and none of them needs a tool.
Read the meter with everything off
Faucets, appliances and the irrigation controller off, then look at the meter's leak indicator. Any movement means water is leaving the pipes somewhere. If your meter has already been changed to one of the electronic meters the city is introducing, ask Glendale Water Services how its display shows flow.
Shut the main house valve
Nothing at the meter is touched. A dial that keeps creeping means the water escapes before it reaches the house: in the yard line, or in something that tees off it.
Shut the irrigation
With the house valve open again, close the irrigation shutoff. If the dial stops, the yard system is the leak and the house can be left alone.
Shut the heater's cold supply
If the dial stops now, the leak is on the hot side, which a thermal camera can usually see through the slab. If it keeps turning, the leak is on the cold side.
How it is found
Why the pipe decides the method
The part that makes one visit quick and another slow.
Every leak detection instrument listens for, looks for or sniffs out something specific. A ground microphone hears water forced out of a pressurized line, and copper carries that sound along its length, while plastic absorbs it within a short distance. A thermal camera sees heat, so it finds hot-water leaks under a slab and does little on a cold line. Tracer gas, a hydrogen and nitrogen mix pushed into the line, rises through concrete and soil to a sniffer above, and works on any closed pipe whatever it is made of.
That is why the year of the house comes first. Glendale's homes span more than a century, and 42 percent of them went up between 1980 and 1999, across the years polybutylene supply pipe was being installed. A house from that span may have copper or gray plastic, and the lines at the water heater usually show which in a few seconds.
- Pipe material asked about before the visit
- Hot or cold side settled with one valve
- Route traced before anything is listened to
- Spot marked; the repair quoted separately
Want a number on it?
Call (623) 777-8670, say what you are seeing, and leave the call with a written quote and a time for Glendale.
Talk to us
Talk to us about leak detection in Glendale
Call now
(623) 777-8670Pipe material and hot or cold side settled first, then the spot is marked and written up.
Before you call
- Build year asked before anything else
- Hot or cold side settled at the heater
Where we work
Every area we cover