Leak Detection in Jacobs Well

The pump test replaces the meter test. Close every tap, toilet, appliance, trough and irrigation zone on the property. Let the pump build to cut-out and switch off. Now leave it alone and listen. If it kicks back in by itself, water is escaping. Time the gap between cycles and write it down, because the interval tells us roughly how big the loss is. A pump restarting every few minutes with nothing running is a serious leak. One that restarts overnight is a slow one. Either way, that timing is the most useful thing you can hand us on the phone.

Second check, the tank. Note the level on the gauge or with a stick, use no water overnight, check it again in the morning. A drop with nothing running is a leak, not consumption. Over a longer window, compare the fall against what your household uses and what rain has fallen.

We rule out the pump before we go looking for a leak, because two common pump faults look exactly like one and searching the property would be wasted money.

• A ruptured pressure tank bladder. The pump short-cycles rapidly, kicking on and off every few seconds whenever a tap runs. Nothing is leaking at all. Pressure tank replacement is quoted on inspection.
• A failed foot valve or non-return valve. The line drains back toward the tank when the pump stops, so the pump restarts to re-pressurise even though no water has left the system.

Then we isolate, branch by branch. This is the part that takes the time, because there is no single house-entry valve covering everything. We close the supply at the dwelling and watch the pump. Still cycling means the loss is on the property side, in the run from the pump to the house or in one of the branches. From there each branch gets isolated in turn: the shed, the granny flat, the pool house, stock troughs and their float valves, garden taps and the irrigation network. A jammed trough float will empty a tank quietly and quickly and is a common find on properties with stock.

Finding a break in a long buried run. A line from tank and pump to a dwelling can run hundreds of metres, usually in poly, buried at a depth that made sense on the day and was never recorded. Poly is not metallic, so a standard locator has nothing to find. We trace with a sonde where the line can be accessed, work from what the owner remembers of the trench, and follow the surface signs that do mean something out here, a strip of grass greener than everything around it in dry weather, ground that stays soft in one line. Acoustic pinpointing works, but pump pressure is lower than town mains so the signal is quieter, and on a stubborn find we pressurise the line separately to get something worth listening to.

Why it is worth chasing quickly. On tank water a leak does not just cost money on a bill, it costs supply. Cartage is a real expense and a real disruption. We are QBCC licensed for plumbing (licence 15243081), so we repair rather than report and leave.

Non-invasive leak detection is $200 to $500 or more, and acreage jobs generally sit at the upper end of that range. The reason is scope rather than difficulty per metre. A suburban block has one supply line and one dwelling. An acreage property can have hundreds of metres of buried poly, a pump and pressure tank to test first, and separate branches to sheds, a granny flat, garden taps, stock troughs and irrigation, each of which has to be isolated and cleared in turn. There is also a travel component for the hinterland, which we flag up front rather than adding at the end.

Repairs are quoted separately once the break is located, because a repair to an accessible poly joint and a repair to a line under a driveway are not remotely the same job. Pressure tank, foot valve and pump work is quoted on inspection. If water is pouring out now and the tank is emptying, after-hours attendance is charged at the emergency rate plus the work, told to you on the phone before we leave.