Found with equipment rather than by opening walls, and on a tank house, checked in the right order so you are not paying to hunt for a leak that is not there.
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A water bill that has climbed with no change in habits is the classic leak symptom, and in most of Sydney that is exactly what it turns out to be. Out here there is a step that comes before it.
Most houses on these estates have a rainwater tank plumbed to the toilets, the laundry cold tap and the outdoor taps, with an automatic changeover so those fixtures keep working when the tank runs dry. That changeover is a mechanical device and it can stick.
If it sticks on mains, nothing goes wrong. Every fixture works. There is no noise, no warning light and no wet patch. You simply stop using the tank and start paying for the water that is sitting in it, and the only evidence is the bill.
So the order matters. Testing the changeover takes ten minutes. Leak detection takes an afternoon and costs accordingly. Doing them the other way round is how people end up paying for a search that was never going to find anything.
Shut the supply off before anything else, then ring. We will stay on the line while you find it.
Every fixture works. No noise, no light, no wet patch, and nothing at all to tell you anything has happened. The house simply runs on mains water instead of tank water.
Most houses on these estates have a rainwater tank plumbed to toilets and laundry, with an automatic changeover to mains when the tank runs low.
When that changeover sticks on mains, the tank stops being used and every litre comes off the meter. The first symptom is the bill.
Ten minutes against an afternoon, on a house that probably has a tank. It is the cheapest test on this page and the one most likely to explain a jump in a bill.
Look at the tank level, then run a toilet and a laundry tap and see whether the level moves or the pump runs. If the tank is full and nothing is drawing from it, the changeover is the first suspect.
A leak detection visit on a house whose changeover has stuck is money spent finding nothing, and we would rather you ruled it out first.
A pump running with nothing calling for water is losing pressure somewhere on its side of the system. It builds pressure, the pressure falls, and it starts again.
That is a leak, and it is usually in the poly line between the tank and the house or at a fitting on the pump itself. Both are ordinary repairs.
It is also hard on the pump. A pump that cycles all night is wearing out doing nothing useful.
Which is precisely why they can run for years without anyone noticing. The water is yours already, it is not metered, and losing it costs nothing directly.
What it costs is the tank. A property that is meant to run its toilets and laundry off rainwater and does not is on mains water permanently without anybody having decided that.
So the symptom to watch is the tank level rather than the account, and a tank that never seems to be full after rain is telling you something.
Everything off, and a smallest dial that creeps means water is genuinely leaving. Close the machine and the dishwasher too, and turn the irrigation controller off entirely rather than to a rest day.
A still dial with a high bill points at usage rather than a fault, and on these blocks that usually means irrigation, a pool topping itself up, or the changeover above.
Then close the valve on the inlet to the hot water unit and watch again. Still moving is the cold side. Stopped is the unit or the hot line past it.
What a burst costs is decided in the minutes between the failure and somebody closing the water. Everything after that is a repair. Everything during it is flooring and cabinetry.
On a house of this age the meter and its tap are usually easy to find and usually turn freely, which is a genuine advantage over an older property.
Learn the isolating valves indoors as well, because closing one of those handles a specific failure without taking water off the house.
Nothing in a house of this age has worn out. What fails is a connection that was not quite right at the time, and it fails when something finally moves or the pressure finally finds it.
Which is why a leak here is worth documenting rather than simply repairing, particularly inside a builder's warranty period.
Photograph the fitting and the wet area and note the date, after the water is off and before anything is opened up.
Not from age, because there has not been enough of it, but from installation. Kinked behind a vanity, over-tightened at the crimp, or slightly cross-threaded are all faults present from day one.
A hose installed under strain fails early, and it fails all at once at full mains pressure, frequently while nobody is home.
They are the cheapest thing on a new house to have checked properly and the most expensive thing to have fail.
The domestic ceiling is 500 kPa static at any outlet. Newer areas are sometimes supplied well above that, and a pressure limiting valve is what holds the property below it.
A valve set wrongly at build produces early failures across everything at once: dripping taps, water hammer that was not there before, and appliance inlet valves going before their time.
It is a gauge and two minutes, and in a house where several small things have failed early it is the first thing worth checking.
Water follows the top of a slab, the back of a stud or the fall of a joist and appears wherever it finally escapes. A stain in new plaster can be metres from the fitting that failed.
So the wet spot is a clue rather than an address, and cutting into it is frequently the wrong first move when the finish is a few years old.
Locating properly means acoustic listening, thermal imaging or pressure testing sections until the line losing water identifies itself.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Water stopped and the situation stabilised, at any hour.
The first thing worth doing when a bill has climbed on a tank house.
Acoustic, pressure and thermal, with nothing opened to find it.
Depending on the pipe, the material and how it has to be reached.
What it turned out to be, where, and what we did about it.
Does the house have one, and is it connected to the toilets. On a jumped bill that is where the visit starts.
Ten minutes that decides whether we are looking for a leak at all.
Acoustic listening, pressure testing and thermal imaging until it is a point rather than an area.
What it was, where it was, and what it took, at the figure agreed before we started.
Shut it off at the meter and ring. A licensed plumber can be heading toward you while you are still on the call.
Call 1300 381 569It can be, and on a house with a rainwater tank it very often is not. If the automatic changeover has stuck on mains, every fixture in the house works perfectly and you simply pay for water sitting in a tank outside. There is no noise, no fault light and nothing to notice, which is exactly why it runs for months.
Quickly. We test the changeover and watch what the tank actually does, and we check the meter with everything closed. Ten minutes settles which of the two conversations we are having, and it is a good deal cheaper than starting with leak detection and working backwards.
Then it is a leak, and we go looking properly. Acoustic listening, pressure testing and thermal imaging, chosen to suit what is leaking and where it runs. Nothing gets opened to find it.
Shut the water off at the meter before anything else, then ring. How much a burst costs is very largely decided by how long the supply stayed on.
Yes, and it presents differently. A tank that empties faster than the weather explains, or a pump that runs when nothing is calling for water, both point at the tank side. Neither shows on a water bill, which is why they get missed for years.
It can. A pump that cycles repeatedly with no demand usually means it is losing pressure somewhere, and that is a leak on the tank side rather than a faulty pump. Replacing the pump in that situation is money spent on the symptom.
Testing a tank changeover and pump is $150 to $300. Locating a concealed leak is $250 to $600. A burst repair is $300 to $900. Emergency isolation and make-safe is $200 to $450.
Tell us whether the house has a tank, and what the meter does with everything off. Those two answers decide the order we work in.
Cheap test first, proper detection second, and one opening in the right place.
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