Hidden Leak Detection Portland
Portland Water Bureau bills by the unit. A hidden leak can add $50–$300 to a monthly bill before showing any visible symptoms. Here’s the diagnostic sequence.
+1 (971) 293-4200 Call Now — We Answer 24/7These four sources account for 90% of unexplained high bills in Portland homes.
A running toilet can waste 200 gallons per day silently. The flapper valve is the most common single source of an unexplained high water bill in Portland homes.
A broken irrigation head, a stuck-open zone valve, or a cracked irrigation supply line can run at full rate for days if the zone controller malfunctions or the break isn’t visible.
A supply line failing beneath the concrete foundation leaks continuously into the subgrade. Warm floor spots, high bills, and sound of running water with everything off are indicators.
The supply line from the meter to the home can develop pinhole leaks or fitting failures underground, running water into the soil with no visible surface symptom for months.
Portland Water Bureau bills in units of 100 cubic feet (CCF) or in gallons depending on meter type. One CCF = 748 gallons. A typical Portland single-family home uses four to seven CCF per month in non-irrigation months. If your bill shows 15+ CCF in a non-summer month when irrigation isn’t running, water is leaving the system somewhere. The size of the increase tells you whether you’re looking for a dripping faucet or a full running leak.
Compare your current bill to the same month in prior years — PWB displays usage history on your account. A 30–50 percent increase over the same month last year with no change in usage patterns is the clearest signal. A single doubled bill could be a meter read error (request a re-read from PWB before investigating further) or a large one-time event (filling a pool, irrigation startup).
The toilet flapper is the single most common source of an unexplained high water bill in Portland homes. A worn flapper allows water to seep continuously from the tank to the bowl, triggering the fill valve to top off the tank repeatedly. This runs silently at 200–1,000 gallons per day without any audible clue in many homes.
Test every toilet: put a few drops of food coloring in the tank. Wait 15 minutes without flushing. If color appears in the bowl, the flapper is leaking. A flapper costs $5–10 and takes five minutes to replace. It’s always the first thing to check before scheduling leak detection service.
Also check: fill valves that run audibly after a flush (you can hear a low hiss from the fill valve if it’s not seating fully), tank bolts dripping (look for water on the floor around the toilet base), and the water supply line to the toilet (look for mineral staining at the valve connection indicating slow seepage).
For Portland homes with in-ground irrigation, a zone controller malfunction can leave a zone running continuously without being visible from inside. Walk the yard and check for: soggy ground at a zone head location when irrigation hasn’t run recently, one zone head that’s always slightly wet, a stuck-open zone valve audible as a faint hiss at the valve box, or a cracked or broken head that’s not popping up but is flowing water underground.
Shut off the irrigation controller and check your water meter flow indicator. If the meter still shows flow after the controller is off and all interior fixtures are closed, the irrigation supply valve at the meter or the backflow preventer assembly may have a failure that’s allowing continuous flow even when the controller is off.
Close the interior main shutoff (the valve inside your home where the supply line enters). Check the meter. If the meter stops completely, the leak is inside the home — proceed to isolate fixtures. If the meter continues showing flow with the interior shutoff closed, the leak is between the meter and the interior shutoff — the underground supply line from the meter to the home.
This isolation test is the fastest way to determine whether you need an interior leak detection visit or an exterior supply line investigation. It takes two minutes and eliminates half the diagnostic possibilities. Full instructions on reading Portland water meters and conducting the test are in our step-by-step guide on how to do a water meter leak test in Portland.
If you have a documented plumbing leak that caused an abnormally high water bill, Portland Water Bureau offers a one-time leak credit on your account — typically one billing cycle adjustment. You need a licensed plumber’s written repair documentation to apply. Request this at the time of any repair we perform and we’ll include the documentation needed for the PWB application.
Call us when: the meter test shows water loss that isn’t coming from a visible fixture or toilet; you’ve checked all toilets and irrigation and the bill is still high; you hear running water inside walls or under floors with everything off; or you have a warm spot on the floor, damp baseboards at floor level, or a mold smell without visible moisture source.
Electronic acoustic leak detection and pressure isolation testing locate hidden supply line failures inside walls, under slabs, or underground without opening walls or breaking concrete first. Our Portland leak detection service runs $150–$350 depending on property size and typically pinpoints the leak to within inches before any access work begins. When repair and detection happen in the same visit, the detection fee applies toward the repair cost.
Unexplained high water bill? We find the leak before opening anything — detection fee applies toward repair when done same visit.
Call +1 (971) 293-4200Portland homeowners ask these when facing an unexplained high water bill.
Acoustic detection before any wall opening. Detection fee applies toward same-visit repair.
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