How to Find a Water Leak in Your Yard (8 Simple Tips)

When your property has a water leak, the last thing you want to do is let it go and keep spending a ton more than you need to each month. You want to quickly find the leak, fix it, and get everything back to normal as soon as possible.

If you follow the eight tips we’ve highlighted below and the tips for identifying a leak in the first place, you can get your water leak under control in no time!

The 8 Steps on How to Find a Water Leak in Your Yard

1. Turn Off the Water & Check the Meter

If you’re trying to determine if there’s a water leak in your yard, this is the easiest way. Start by locating your water meter and shut-off valves. Then, turn off all the water-using devices in your home and shut off the water valve.

Check the current meter reading, then come back in 30 minutes to an hour and recheck it. If there’s a change in the reading, there’s a leak, and it’s likely in your yard.

2. Check the Water Pressure

This is another tell-tale sign of a leak somewhere near your home. If you’re noticing a drop in water pressure throughout your home, there’s a good chance there’s a leak somewhere outside your home.

The drop in water pressure could be gradual from month to month, or it could be a sudden drop if a line gives out all at once.

3. Look for the Obvious

When you’re trying to find a water leak in your yard, start by looking at all the obvious locations. Check out the hoses, faucets, and every other water-producing device in your yard. This is something you’ll want to check before calling a professional or digging anything up.

The last thing you want is to spend a ton of time and energy digging things up only to find the problem is you didn’t turn off the spigot!

4. Look for Wet Soil

If the water leak in your yard is bad enough, it can create wet or soggy patches in your lawn. This happens when the soil becomes overly saturated with water as it leaks. However, while this is a tell-tale sign of a water leak in your yard, it usually only happens with a severe leak.

5. Look for Extra Greenery

If the entirety of your yard is dead or dying grass but one area is really thriving, it might be getting a little extra water. It might look nice now, but it’s driving up your water bill, introducing contaminants into your water supply, and it can get even worse in the future.

But if you don’t have any super obvious locations for a water leak, a little extra greenery might be pointing you straight to the problem.

6. Identify Sinkholes

While this is pretty rare, if your property has a bad enough water leak for long enough, it’s possible for it to turn into a sinkhole. The good news is that this should point you straight to the water leak. The bad news is that it’s a bad leak and fixing a sinkhole can be expensive.

7. Call 811 Before You Dig

If you need to do anything past a little surface digging, you need to call 811 before you start digging. We know that it’s the last thing on your mind and you want to find the leak right away so you can fix it, but when you’re digging it’s possible for you to end up hitting other utility lines.

You don’t want to end up creating a dangerous situation or creating additional expenses because you damaged something else while digging.

8. Hire a Professional

If you have a water leak in your yard, we highly recommend calling a professional to have them help you fix it. They can quickly find the leak in your yard, and they’ll safely dig in your yard and around other utilities to access and fix the problem.

Not only that, but when they reach the leak, they’ll know everything they need to do to fix it and get your water back on as soon as possible. We know it can be expensive, but letting the water constantly leak into the surrounding soil is only going to create more expensive problems for you.

The 3 Signs of Water Leaks

Before you take the time to find a water leak in your yard, you need to know there’s one there in the first place. Below we’ve highlighted three tell-tale signs of a water leak.

1. Higher Water Bill

If you’ve noticed an uptick in your water bill from month to month but you aren’t using more water, this is a clear sign of a leak. Higher water bills can trickle up a bit each month as a leak gets worse, or they can skyrocket all at once after a line fails.

Just ensure your water bill goes up because of the increased water usage, not because the company is raising its rates.

2. Drop in Water Pressure

If you’re used to getting good water pressure throughout your home and you start to notice a lower pressure, that’s a sign of a leak. Just like the water bill, a drop in water pressure can happen gradually, or you might notice a sudden drop all at once.

3. Rust, Dirt, or Air in the Water Supply

When water comes out of your faucet you expect it to be clean. If it’s not, that’s a sign of a problem. Whether it’s rusted lines or a full-blown leak, you’ll want to figure out what’s going on and it’s a clear sign of a bigger problem.

Conclusion

Whatever you do, don’t ignore a water leak in your yard. Not only will it drive up your monthly water bill, but it can also cause more damage to the surrounding property and utility lines. While a water leak might be out of sight, you really can’t let it stay out of your mind!

Featured Image Credit: JumpStory