Water leak between the municipality and our house

[stevelou]

Hey I'm looking for some input on how to handle this situation.

We bought a house from a builder back in July of 2015, and late last week found out that we have a substantial leak between the municipality valve and our house. Our insurance is only concerned with the house and if there is any damage to anything in said house which as of yet there seems to be none. The builder is washing their hands of it until we can find proof that they did something in error and even then there is only a 2 year warranty on water delivery and distribution systems. New home warranty is also not much help as shocking as that is.

So far we have been essentially left to figure it on our own as well as perform an investigation so that we can potentially legally go after the builder if they are found at fault. I'm wondering if anyone has encountered anything like this in the past and what actions they had available to them as we are currently not sure how to proceed.

Any help would be graciously appreciated.

[spikerS]

at this point, it would be up to you to excavate the leak location and determine the cause. After that your next steps would be dicated by what you find...

[Cagare]

You may end up spending more money/time investigating the leak than just replacing the entire line. Also, unless it's a very obvious error it will be extremely challenging to go back on the builder for it.

Most of these leaks happen at the joints, so either at the curb stop for the City, or they coupled your line somewhere in the middle. It's extremely uncommon for a leak to develop on modern home service waterlines, as it would have been damaged during the initial install and noticed immediately.

So, if trying to find the error, find the joints, and then go from there. Otherwise the biggest expense for a new line will probably be the restoration of the surface, so I hope it's not under your driveway.

[JRSC00LUDE]

How did it come to light and what issue is it causing?

[jwslam]

I wonder what the long term effects are of the leak seeping water into the ground...
Would 311 care that the builder caused city water to go to waste? They can't measure it because it's not past your house meter and nobody is paying for this...

[Cagare]

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I wonder what the long term effects are of the leak seeping water into the ground...
Would 311 care that the builder caused city water to go to waste? They can't measure it because it's not past your house meter and nobody is paying for this...

Water loss in the municipal system is quite astounding. I am pretty sure they report on it. It largely goes ignored because it costs more to reduce it then to treat and distribute the water.

The risk with a leaky water system is local issues like settlement and water seeping into other infrastructure.

[spikerS]

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Water loss in the municipal system is quite astounding. I am pretty sure they report on it. It largely goes ignored because it costs more to reduce it then to treat and distribute the water.

The risk with a leaky water system is local issues like settlement and water seeping into other infrastructure.

And sinkholes

[ExtraSlow]

If it's bad enough that you figured it out, it's bad enough that you shouldn't leave it. A five minute call to your insurance broker might be worthwhile, but no matter who is paying, you want to get started on the dig.

[stevelou]

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How did it come to light and what issue is it causing?

We've always kind of had low pressure and I just associated it to living in Okotoks where all new builds are supposed to use less water. Any way last Thursday we had a sudden drop in pressure to where the toilets would take 10 mins to refill, and called it in to start trying to figure out what the issue is.

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If it's bad enough that you figured it out, it's bad enough that you shouldn't leave it. A five minute call to your insurance broker might be worthwhile, but no matter who is paying, you want to get started on the dig.

Insurance is only concerned with the foundation and what is inside of it. Or if there is any damage.....

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You may end up spending more money/time investigating the leak than just replacing the entire line. Also, unless it's a very obvious error it will be extremely challenging to go back on the builder for it.

Most of these leaks happen at the joints, so either at the curb stop for the City, or they coupled your line somewhere in the middle. It's extremely uncommon for a leak to develop on modern home service waterlines, as it would have been damaged during the initial install and noticed immediately.

So, if trying to find the error, find the joints, and then go from there. Otherwise the biggest expense for a new line will probably be the restoration of the surface, so I hope it's not under your driveway.

So far the company we've had out to look at it thinks that the installers forgot to install something in the joints. He is hoping to have a camera by next week to look at it more in depth and then we go from there.

[Cagare]

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So far the company we've had out to look at it thinks that the installers forgot to install something in the joints. He is hoping to have a camera by next week to look at it more in depth and then we go from there.

I assume it's a plastic waterline. The most typical thing to forget is a steel crush ring insert at the couplings. This is so the coupling crimp doesn't just crush the plastic pipe and has something to bite down on. That's certainly something that may not manifest right after install, and would develop over the years with a small amount of ground settlement or water hammer, which would pull the line out of the coupling.

It's the stupidest little thing, that has next to no cost, but gets forgotten about so much and is the source of so many of these problems.