Water Lines
The water service line is the buried artery between the utility's main and your meter or house, and in most of the country, most of it is your responsibility. It fails out of sight: a hiss under the lawn, a bill that doubled, a meter that spins at midnight.
This section covers the service line's whole story: leak diagnosis, repair versus replacement, trenchless installation methods, new service installation, and the material questions (lead, galvanized, polybutylene) that decide a line's future.
Our Services
Signs You Need This Service
Signs the service line is in trouble:
- The meter moves with everything off. The definitive test: house valve closed, meter still creeping. The loss is between the meter and the house.
- A jump in the water bill. Buried leaks bill you before they show you.
- Wet or lush strips along the line's path. The lawn marks the route: greener, softer, sometimes audibly hissing.
- Low pressure arriving at the house. A leak, a partially collapsed line or an old restricted material throttling supply at the front door.
- Water in the street or at the curb box. Surfacing water near the curb stop involves the utility boundary, and is worth reporting while diagnosing.
- Discolored water after work on the line. Disturbed sediment from an aging metal line, and a prompt to ask what the line is made of.
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Common Causes
Repair or replace? What decides:
- Material. Copper and modern PE earn spot repairs; lead must go, galvanized is living on borrowed time, polybutylene fails by nature. Those three argue for replacement, not patches.
- Age and failure history. A second leak on the same line usually prices replacement against a future of excavations.
- Depth, length and obstacles. Driveways, mature trees and utilities along the route shape method and cost more than the pipe itself.
- Trenchless eligibility. Directional boring and pipe bursting replace lines with entry and exit pits instead of an open trench; soil, depth and route decide eligibility.
Service Details & What's Included
The work this section covers:
- Leak diagnosis. Meter tests, acoustic location and isolation narrow the leak to a point before anyone digs.
- Repair. Spot repairs at located failures on lines that earn them.
- Replacement. Full service-line replacement, open trench or trenchless, with materials sized for the home's demand and bedding done right.
- New service installation. New connections coordinated with the utility: taps, meters, inspection and restoration.
- Material identification. Determining what the line is (lead, galvanized, copper, plastic) from access points and records; the answer drives everything else, including lead-line replacement programs where cities offer them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the water line mine or the utility's?
Typically the utility owns from the main through the meter or curb stop; the owner owns from there to the house, though the exact split varies by city. The utility's rule sheet settles it, and diagnosis respects the boundary.
How do I know if my service line is leaking?
The meter test: close the house-side valve, watch the meter. Movement means the buried line is losing water. Bills, wet strips and pressure loss corroborate; acoustic equipment then finds the point.
Should the line be repaired or replaced?
Repair a located failure on sound modern material. Replace when the material is lead, galvanized or polybutylene, when failures repeat, or when the line is undersized for the home. The estimate should show the logic, not just the number.
Can the line be replaced without digging up the yard?
Often. Trenchless methods pull or bore a new line between small pits, preserving driveways and landscaping. Eligibility depends on soil, depth, route obstacles and local rules; where it fits, restoration savings usually pay for the method.
How do I find out if my line is lead?
Check the pipe at the meter entry: lead is dull gray, soft enough to scratch bright, and non-magnetic; galvanized is threaded and magnetic. Utility records and city service-line inventories help. If it is lead, replacement is the answer, and many utilities run assistance programs.
I suddenly have no water. Is that the service line?
First check the meter valve and any utility notices; a failed line usually announces itself with water somewhere. A dry, silent no-water event is more often the utility or a valve. Diagnosis walks the path from street to house in that order.
Service Line Help
Report the evidence (meter movement, the bill, wet ground) and what the line is made of if you know. The diagnosis and the utility boundary sort out from there.
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