//Quick answer
- The meter test: everything off, watch the low-flow indicator. Moving means a leak.
- Usual suspects: a running toilet, an irrigation valve, a slab leak, a yard line.
- Electronic detection locates it without demolition. No trip charge.
01Definition
How do you run the meter test?
Turn off every fixture and appliance, including the ice maker, irrigation controller and any recirculation pump. Find the meter at the street, note the reading and watch the small low-flow indicator. If it moves, or the reading changes over ten minutes, water is leaving the system. That is a leak, not a mystery.
What are the usual causes, in order?
A toilet flapper that lets water seep from the tank to the bowl (silent, and the most common). An irrigation valve that does not fully close. A slab leak on a supply line under the floor. A yard line or hose bib leak outside. A pinhole in a copper line inside a wall.
02When it applies
What can you rule out yourself?
Toilets: put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait; color in the bowl means the flapper leaks. Irrigation: shut its valve and re-run the meter test. If the meter still moves with those off, the leak is in the house supply or under the slab, and it is time for detection.
What does leak detection involve?
A pressure test isolates hot from cold to learn which line is losing water, then acoustic equipment locates the escape point and the technician marks it. Under a slab, that mark decides where the concrete opens. Done-Rite has not published a flat detection price; there is no trip charge.
03What goes wrong
What does an ignored moving meter cost?
Under a slab, a lifted or cracked floor, ruined flooring and mold, with the water bill climbing the whole time. Diagnosis is not the expensive part; discovery six months late is.
04Proof
- Done-Rite works both slab-on-grade and raised-foundation homes across Orange County.
- No trip charge, a 1-hour response time, and 24/7 emergency service.
- Six plumbers averaging more than 9 years in the trade each, plus a General Manager with 25+ years.
- California CSLB C-36 licence #998069. Licensed, bonded and insured, with workers compensation.
05Action
Confirm it, then find it
Run the meter test tonight. If it moves with everything off, book leak detection: no trip charge, a marked location, and a plain repair option. Slab leak repair is $500 to $3,000.
//Keep going
Learn
//Terms used in this guide
Where this applies
Done-Rite runs these calls across Orange County from its shop in Anaheim, CA, with no trip charge in any city it serves.
Common questions
Very likely. Run the meter test with everything off. A moving meter is a leak, and under a slab nothing is wet on the surface until the damage is.
Done-Rite has not published a flat leak detection price. There is no trip charge. Call for pricing.
A warm or damp spot on a slab floor, buckled or soft flooring, bubbling paint or stains far from any fixture, a musty smell that will not clear, a pressure drop, and a soft or extra-green patch in the yard. Any one of those plus a moving meter is a leak.
