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A Guide to Knowing If Your Pipes are Leaking Underground

September 1, 2018

If you are worried about a pipe leaking underground without knowing, the good news is that there are things that you can look for so that you know when there’s a problem so that you can do something about it. Below is a guide on how to tell if you have a secret leak in a pipe underground and how to keep your house from being damaged.

Signs there may be a leak underground:

• Strange wet areas in landscaped areas and/or water pools on your ground’s surface.
• An area that is soft, mossy, green or mold that’s surrounded by dryer spots.
• A really noticeable drop in your flow volume or water pressure.
• A new issue with air or dirt in the water or water that’s rusty, even though this could mean another issue.
• An area of an irrigated section that’s suddenly dead, dying or brown which used to be green and lush. This is because the water pressure is too low and the heads of your sprinklers can’t pop up properly.
• Heaving or cracking of paved areas
• Sinkholes or potholes
• When your structure or floor is leaning
• A sudden unexplained increase in water use, consistently high water use or steadily climbing water use.

If you didn’t notice any these signs above, it’s possible that you are going to hear something that’s pointing to a water leak underground.

What Are Sounds Made by Water Leaks?

Underground pressurized pipes with water leaks often make different sounds:

• Hisses and Whooshes come from pipe vibration and orifice pressure reduction.
• Small clinking sounds come from stones and pebbles bouncing off pipes
• Splashing or babbling brook sounds happen when there’s water spray striking the wall of the soil cavity.

The hissing or whooshing sounds are the only ones that happen when there is a pipe leak that has a water pressure of 30 psi and up. This type also sounds like static. The other listed sounds aren’t always there, and they aren’t as noticeable. So that hissing/whooshing sound is what the professionals are going to look for.

Factors Which Affect Sounds

There are a few factors that are going to affect how frequent and loud those sounds that underground pipe leaks are going to make. Below are the factors.

• The water pressure of the pipe
• The material and diameter of your pipe
• The soil’s type and compaction
• How deep the pipe’s buried.
• How the surface’s covered – asphalt, concrete slab, grass, loose, etc

The sound’s loudness or intenseness and the water pressure of the pipe are directly related.

Now you know what you should look for if you’re afraid that you might have a leak under the ground. When you know the signs and the symptoms, you can have it treated quickly before there’s a huge problem that is more expensive to fix.

The sooner you have a leak fixed, the less money you will have to pay to have it fixed. Look for these signs and you’ll be able to quickly recognize the problems and have them fixed.