Irish Water claim we have a leak

VinLieger · 02-11-2023 3:57pm #1

I had someone from IW to the door this morning saying they've tracked a leak to our property accounting for 600 litres per hour..... He said its pretty safe to say such a leak is not in the house as it would be a swimming pool and theres no visual evidence anywhere of such a leak that we can see in our out of the house but a leak of that level could surely be damaging our house even if its just in the front garden? They've said due to where they think it is outside of the house that they will be footing the bill for the repair but im also guessing this will require some amount of digging.

listermint · 02-11-2023 4:04pm

Leaks don't often present themselves in the surface tbh .

Let them at it. They're paying for it and they'll be solving future problems for you by updating your house feed.

Win win. Just make sure its set right. I e restored as was.

10-10-20 · 06-11-2023 9:36am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058320767/irish-water-claim-we-have-a-leak

Did IW find and fix that leak? Was it in the garden? All rectified now?

Citizen Six · 06-11-2023 9:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121330995#Comment_121330995

In four days? I doubt Irish Water move that fast.

10-10-20 · 06-11-2023 9:41am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331021#Comment_121331021

At a rate of 600l p/h... I'd be shifting gears on the day! :)

VinLieger · 06-11-2023 10:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121330995#Comment_121330995

No, sure they only called last week its gonna be a while before they find it let alone fix it

micks_address · 06-11-2023 10:37am

Actually we went through something similar last week. We noticed a leak and i knew where it was - Irish water have a first leak free service. They sent someone out two days later to assess the leak and company came to fix two days after that. All done for free. They also replaced the metal water stop cover outside and are coming back to do the foothpath outside as well. Its sub contracted but a great job!

VinLieger · 06-11-2023 11:10am

They are coming today to investigate cus they don't know exactly where it is only that it has to be between the house and the meter as if it was internal we would know with such a big leak

VinLieger · 06-11-2023 11:11am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331030#Comment_121331030

Yeah thats what I thought which is why i was a bit worried but as I said there's no evidence of the leak so im a bit skeptical of the rate they claim

10-10-20 · 06-11-2023 11:15am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331279#Comment_121331279

That's pretty good to hear.

OP, I'm just concerned for your sake as a loss of 600l per hour might sound like it's entirely on IW to rectify, but my concern is that if a volume of water as large as that is disappearing unnoticed, it's also taking away soil/clay and sands with it. If that's happening at your foundations then you can expect significant issues in the future. If it's just in the garden then you can expect some soil subsidence in the medium-term. I'd be looking at your driveway, paths and soil to see if you can spot any signs of subsidence. Hopefully it's just at the meter and not affecting your premises.

kippy · 06-11-2023 11:23am

Had a similiar thing (although the rate was higher) at an in laws house.

They also had a farm down the back of the house. IW identified there was a massive leak in the property at some point and gave notice to the homeowner.

The came in and did a survey a few weejs later and the the work a couple of weeks after that, you'd never know on the surface or anywhere nearby where the leak was but they found it an replaced the pipe.

I don't think there' were any long term issues and even with that rate of water loss etc there wasn't any subsidence or evidence of where the leak was at all.

They generally do a good job.

VinLieger · 06-11-2023 11:42am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331464#Comment_121331464

Ive looked everywhere and theres no sign of anything, I live in a typical estate in dublin so not like there's a lot of space to be searching for it between the meter and the house

VinLieger · 06-11-2023 2:53pm

Haha just had the investigator to the door, we don't have a leak, the house 2 doors down from us does. We did have a higher than normal reading which im pretty sure I know the cause of, but this guy reckons the original guy checked both meters and mixed up the house details so he called into us with the bad news instead of the neighbours

10-10-20 · 06-11-2023 3:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121332689#Comment_121332689

Ok, good news. I was going to ask whether you also had a noticeable drop in mains pressure recently... but you clearly don't as you don't have a leak!

Citizen Six · 07-11-2023 9:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121332689#Comment_121332689

"We did have a higher than normal reading which im pretty sure I know the cause of"

Is this a humblebrag about you getting a new swimming pool?

10-10-20 · 07-11-2023 11:01am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336093#Comment_121336093

What ever you do inspector, don't look in the garden...!

VinLieger · 07-11-2023 12:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336093#Comment_121336093

Hah no i had a broken expansion vessel on my boiler for a while so had to keep a slow trickle running through the system to keep the heating loop filled until i could get it fixed.

The reason it was broken was because a plumber left the fill loop tap on and that would account for an increase in use as we didnt know for a few months.

Irish Water claim we have a leak

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