High water bill - ISSUE SOLVED (see page 5)

[redrabbit]

Me and GF live in a 2 bed flat. Our bill for 6 months was £350 - 5 times higher than expected. No leaks noticed by us.

Water company have just come and found the issue.

The guy noticed a trickling sound coming from the water tank in attic. Very gentle sound and said it's probably the ball cock.

About to call plumber - do you think this would be like a £100 sort of job - it sounds simple but then I know nothing about plumbing.

Still surprised that such a small trickling could cause a massive bill! Lesson learned

Thanks

 

[HERTS P&D]

Where is the over flow/ warning pipe? is there signs of water on the floor outside? Normally you will see water marks or green algae build up.

A new float valve will sort it out.

Andy

 

[redrabbit]

The overflow for the tank? I'm not sure and I've not noticed any leaks but I never considered it could be in the attic - very stupid!

Going to call plumber today

 

[HERTS P&D]

Yes the overflow from the tank, there should be a white pipe sticking out of the building somewhere.

It will only overflow in the evening when no water is being drawn and the tank over fills.

Andy

 

[redrabbit]

Also, is that right - could a gentle trickle cause my bill to be £350 and 5x expected amount?

My usage was 163 cubic metres

 

[redrabbit]

Yes the overflow from the tank, there should be a white pipe sticking out of the building somewhere.

It will only overflow in the evening when no water is being drawn and the tank over fills.

Andy

Ah right. There's two I know off - for bathroom and for downstairs toilet.

There may be another one I suppose - will check for one.

 

[redrabbit]

Yes the overflow from the tank, there should be a white pipe sticking out of the building somewhere.

It will only overflow in the evening when no water is being drawn and the tank over fills.

Andy

I've found the two white pipes for tank. Nothing is coming out of them

 

[Dan Robinson]

Then you'll have a leak under the floor somewhere.

We have just issued a report to an insurance company for a customer after finding a monster leak that has gone unnoticed for months.

The bill for tracking, exposing and reinstating will likely be >£16000. The repair of the leak was £75+vat

The best thing is the customer had the original invoices for the instalation in 1997 and it was £40 a tile back then. ... floor and ceiling.

Timbers are ruined so the whole lot has to come out.

Water had been running down the other side of the footings in the cellar but not visible in the decorated bit that we could access from underneath. Could've been even worse if they left it.

 

[Burnerman]

If there's no sign of activity from any of the overflows, check the toilets for continuous (but quiet) flushing.
If there's a tank problem somewhere it would have shown up by now!
John

 

[redrabbit]

My GFs Dad is on his way round. Decided I'm going to write a letter to the company expressing my frustration at:

- In October my usage was Extremely high apparently
- there are no leaks I can see
- I don't trust the young lad who came round from the water company saying my loft tank was the issue.

My first bill was for 45m3
This bill is for 163m3

My circumstances are the same, so somewhere i have lost 118m3 of water. It can't be JUST the loft or the toilet, I've not noticed any overflow and even now there isn't any.


EDIT: 10 baths = 1m3 apparently. So 118 = 1180 bath fulls of water

 

[doitall]

Turn the inside stopcock off and check whether the meter is still going round.

If it is then and outside leak would be the landlords problem.

 

[redrabbit]

Turn the inside stopcock off and check whether the meter is still going round.

If it is then and outside leak would be the landlords problem.

I did that earlier, and the guy (or young lad) who came said it was still spinning really slowly, implying the leak is internal.

I'm going to re-try it when GFs Dad gets here.

Will update soon

 

[doitall]

if it's turned off there shouldn't be any movement.

Any chance another flat is connected to your supply, or an outside tap for example.

 

[redrabbit]

UPDATE

GF's Dad came round and we identified that the issue wasn't the loft tank but the upstairs toilet.

The ball cock was broken causing the water to overflow. But it's intermittent which is why it was difficult to notice and also wasn't a huge gush, but just a steady drip.

Changed the ballcock (with his help but I learned something new!) and it works fine now.

Going to turn off all water tomorrow for the whole day to check the water meter is the same and hasn't moved.

The water company also agree, that if I give two readings, a week apart, then they will use that as the average and bill me for it. Meaning it should reduce heavily to the proper amount.

 

[D_Hailsham]

the guy (or young lad) who came said it was still spinning really slowly, implying the leak is internal.

If you have turned off the internal stopcock (usually under the sink) and the meter is still spinning, then the leak is outside the house. Turn off the stopcock in the street. If the meter stops, there is a leak between the two stopcocks.