Telling a leak on the utility side of the meter from one inside the house, and what to do in each case.
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A water service line leak can sit on the utility side of the meter, which is the utility's responsibility, or inside the house, which is the owner's. Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility supplies the city and several nearby communities, so the first question is which side of the meter the leak is on. Anchorage Water Damage Restoration answers calls at any hour.
A leak in the water supply can be hard to place. Water from a break in the service line between the main and the house can travel under the yard, along the foundation or into the crawl space before it surfaces, and the owner may see only a wet patch on the lawn or a higher reading on the bill. The first job is to work out whether the water is on the utility side or on the house side of the meter.
The meter is the usual dividing point, but its exact location and the rule for who maintains the pipe on each side depend on the service and the property. The rule for each address is set by the utility's own records, so the answer is to check your account with the utility rather than to assume a boundary from the look of the pipe.
The signs that help are the position of the wet spot, whether the water runs when the house is quiet, and whether the meter is turning when every fixture is off. A meter that is still moving with the water off inside the house points outside. A wet patch in the yard that is worse after a cold night or after a thaw points to the service line. Both are worth recording before anyone digs.
Do not dig in the yard to find a service line without calling for a locate first, because service lines can be shallow and a dig can cut the line or injure someone. Do not open the meter or its lid, and do not try to shut the curb stop yourself. If water is pooling against the foundation and the house is wet, keep the electrical panel and any outlets in the wet zone off until the power has been confirmed off.
Close every tap and fixture in the house, then check whether the meter is still moving. A moving meter with the water off inside the house means the leak is between the meter and the street, or in the meter itself. Write down the reading, the time and whether the meter moved at each check.
Walk the line from the meter to the street and note wet ground, soft patches, and water that runs toward the house. Photograph each place. Water from a service line can travel a long way before it surfaces, so the spot you see is not always above the break.
When the leak is on the utility side, the utility is the party that repairs it, and it should be called on its own line. Give the address, the meter reading and what you have seen. Ask the utility which side of the meter it maintains for your property, because that answer decides who you call first.
Once water has reached the house, the restoration crew is the right call, whichever side of the meter the leak came from. The crew extracts the water, reads the moisture in the foundation, the crawl space and the floor, and records the path the water took inside the house.
The crew's log, your meter readings and your photographs are the record that both the utility and the insurer will ask for. Keep copies of each, because a single missing reading can make a claim harder to settle.
Close every fixture in the house and watch the meter. If the meter still turns, the water is leaving the system somewhere between the street and the meter or at the meter itself. If the meter stops, the leak is on the house side. The check takes a few minutes and should be repeated before deciding.
Write the meter reading at the start and again after an hour with every tap off. Note the time and the weather, because cold ground and a thaw can change where the water shows up. A small change may be a toilet still filling, so check the toilets and the water heater before reading the meter as a leak.
Compare the wet area with the line from the meter to the street. A wet patch that sits over the line, or that follows it toward the house, is more likely to be on the utility side. A wet patch that sits under a floor or behind a wall inside the house is on the house side, whatever the meter shows.
The utility repairs leaks on its side of the meter, and the owner repairs leaks on the house side through a plumber. The line between them depends on the service and on the property, so the first step is to ask the utility which side of the meter it maintains for your address.
Questions about a bill for water that leaked are for the utility, not for this company. This company does not bill for water, does not set utility rates, and cannot change an account. The utility's own customer service is the place to ask how a leak adjustment is handled for your account.
Repairs on the owner's side are the owner's cost, and the cost is set by the plumber who does the work. Ask the plumber for a written scope and for the credentials the job requires before the work begins, and keep the written scope with your record of the leak.
Water from a service line is usually clean at the source, but it can carry soil and debris once it has run through the ground. The crew treats it as the category the readings suggest, and it removes the water from the floors and crawl space before drying.
Water that has travelled under the house tends to rise into the floor structure and the foundation wall. The crew checks the sill, the subfloor and the crawl space insulation, because those are the parts that take up water from below rather than from above.
The drying plan follows the path. Moisture is measured in each place the water went, and the equipment is set to match the readings. A house that is dried from the top down, when the water came from below, is still wet in the parts that matter most.
The utility needs the address, the meter reading, the time you first noticed the water and the place where it is showing. Photographs of the wet ground and of the meter help. Give the information on the utility's own line, and keep a note of the call.
If you have been asked to hold the meter reading or to avoid digging, do so until the utility has been on site. Digging near a service line without knowing its location is dangerous, and it can make the leak worse.
Keep your own copies of the readings and the photographs. Those records help if the leak is later disputed, and they show when the water was first noticed rather than when it was reported.
Because the meter decides who fixes the pipe, who pays for the repair and which crew is needed first. A house-side leak needs a plumber and a drying crew. A utility-side leak needs the utility before any house drying can start, because the line can keep running while the house is being dried.
The crew asks the meter question on the first call, because the wrong order costs time. Dispatching a crew to dry a house while the service line is still running wastes the crew's visit and the owner's money. Dispatching a plumber to a house-side leak while the utility is still digging is wasted too.
The answer is not always clean. In some places the meter sits inside the house, and in others it sits at the street. The crew does not assume either arrangement. It tells you what it can see, and it tells you who to ask about what it cannot.
A break in the pipe between the street and the meter is the utility's to repair. It is often found by the wet ground and by the meter that keeps turning. The house may still be affected if the water has run toward the foundation, and that part is cleaned up by the owner's crew once the utility has closed the line.
A break in the pipe after the meter, inside the house or in the yard on the owner's side, is the owner's to repair through a plumber. The meter stops turning when the house is shut, and the leak is traced by moisture readings and by opening the smallest access point that shows the break.
Water at the meter, its connection or its lid can be on either side of the boundary, depending on the property's arrangement. The utility is the first call, because it can confirm the boundary and close the line if the leak is at its equipment. Keep the meter and its surroundings undisturbed until the utility has been asked.
Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility supplies Anchorage, Chugiak-Eagle River, Peters Creek, Eklutna and Girdwood. A leak report from any of those places starts with the same question about the meter, and the utility is the place to confirm the arrangement for a particular address.
In Girdwood the Municipality sets a separate service area under its code, and the exact boundary is for the Municipality to confirm. Ask the utility and the Municipality which service area applies to the property before assuming that the house side and the utility side follow the same rule as in the city.
A service line can run a long way under yards and driveways in outlying communities, and the path is not always marked on the surface. Tell the utility where the line seems to run, and keep the ground around the meter clear so the utility's crew can reach the connection without digging through the house's own pipe.
If it's an emergency, call now. For non-urgent water service line and meter leaks, send the form and we'll call you back.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Water from a frozen, split supply line in an exterior wall, crawl space or cellar, answered 24/7 in Anchorage.
Homes outside the city core, where the water utility, the fire service area and the Girdwood service area differ.
Pumping and removing standing water from floors, cellars and crawl spaces, answered around the clock across Anchorage.
Finding a leak inside a wall, under a floor or in a slab, using meter readings, moisture mapping and a thermal camera.
A frozen pipe often splits while it is still frozen and leaks only once it thaws.
The meter is the usual dividing point between the utility's service line and the house plumbing, but the rule for a particular property depends on the service and the account.
Chugiak, Eagle River and Girdwood are communities inside the Municipality of Anchorage, sitting well outside the city core.
Close every tap, toilet and appliance that uses water, then look at the meter's dial or leak indicator. If it keeps moving, water is leaving somewhere outside the house. Take a reading, wait an hour and take another.
The restoration crew does not dig service lines. It removes the water from the house and records the path the water took. Any digging to reach a line is done by the utility or by a contractor the owner hires, after a locate has been carried out.
Ask for the location and the reason in writing. Then call a plumber for the house-side repair and ask the plumber for the credentials the job needs. Keep the utility's answer and the plumber's written scope together.
The crew can see the house side and report what it finds at the meter and the entry point. It cannot locate a buried service line from the surface. A locate is carried out by the utility or by a locating service before any digging begins.
It can. A leak that ran for days appears on the next bill as a higher reading. Questions about the bill and about any adjustment go to the utility on its own account line, not to this company.
Do not operate the curb stop or any valve outside the house yourself. Shut the house's own valve if you can reach it, and leave the street side to the utility, which has the right tools and the right to operate it.