Extreemely high water bill?

Question

for elderly, private home, what can be done about it ? If you had such an experience please help

Answer 1

Here are some of the first things to do. You can chesck the meter yourself. Usually in front of house near the road there a rectangular box. there is a small access lid, you may need to pry up the lid (will not brake it so don't worry). Male Sure all faucets/ spickets are off. Inside this meter box there should be a round dial with clear top (you may need to pull some of the dirt off with your hand to see it). Inside of this there is smaller dial (RED) that spins when water is passing through the meter. If this dial is not moving then you must have left something on and forgot about it. If this dial is moving (and you assured all spickets/ faucets off) then there is a leak. Hopefully it is the yard between your house and meter. Walk throught yard and see if you notice a muddy or spongy spot. Also check exposed pipe in home, such as near waterheater/ washing machine. If you haven't found the leak yet, then you have a "slab Leak" (aleak in the plumbing in the/ below concrete slab/ foundation/ wood floor, whichever you have). At this time call a plumber. You can turn the meter off to the house at the meter box. If you don't know how, your local Fire Department would be happy to help you, seriously. Call the fire department (preferrably not through 911, but non-emergency) or drive to closest fire house, if plumber is't quickly accessible. Try these few things, and I hope everything works out. If you live in Palm Bay FL, I can help you out.

Answer 2

My husband works on the water crew of a municipality, they go out and check meters for people pretty regularly. Sometimes they'll open up a meter head and it'll be full of water, oh problem found. Sometimes they'll find nothing. What you can do while they are checking it though is (and this is while the municipality has the meter exposed) turn the water off to the house. If the meter continues to run, you have a leak in the ground between the house and the meter. Time to start digging.

Answer 3

Have the meter checked, insure that you do not have a leak somewhere, also make sure that your toilet is not constantly running. If there isn't a meter problem, the somewhere between the meter and you home, water is leaking. I say outside the home, cause if it were enough water to make you notice a drastic increase in the bill, you would see signs in the house of a leak.

Answer 4

Tiny leaks can waste thousands of gallons of water. A small opening the size of pencil can leak tens of thousands of gallons a month.

Two common trouble areas are the toilet and dripping faucets. If you want to check your toilet for leaks, one way is to put some food coloring into the tank and watch to see if that shows up in the bowl without flushing. If it does, you have a flapper leak. Faucets should be easier to detect.

If you can't find any leaks, I would contact the utility to have the meter checked and to discuss the issue with them.

Answer 5

Leaks are probably your culprit but another thing to look at....

Do you run a lot of water outside?
watering yard/garden?
filling swimming pool?
Washing cars?

Your water bill also charges for sewer rate based on how much water goes into the house.
If you use a lot of water outside you're also being charged sewer rates for that water, which isn't going into the sewer.

Some municipalities will allow you to have your outside taps attached to a seperate meter so as to not be charged for sewer.

It's worth looking into.

Answer 6

first check for visible leaks/drips. if youve done that make sure every thing is turned off,toilet valve ,garden hose,washer,dish washer,so on.go to the meter and watch and listen. you may be able to see the dial spin,or hear water passing thru meter.you could have a leak that is undetectable if the meter is in the ground away from the house.

Answer 7

First, have the city/town, check for water leaks in the pipe coming into the house "after" the meter if it is outside on your house

If no leaks then check your toilets and taps for leaks and running flow because the toilet bowl "float" is stuck or defective and constantly runs.

Do you water your garden too much??

Answer 8

call a plumber- my parent's had this happen with an older duplex, and it turned out one of their toilets was running, and they couldn't hear it, so lots of water was being wasted, and they had a huge bill all of a sudden. There was no flood, or sound of water running, so except for the large bill all of a sudden, there was no indication anything was wrong.

Answer 9

usually there is a drip leak or faucet left on somewhere that causes this.
or people with swimming pools to fill have high bills too.
i would look high and low for a leak.
it could be anywhere. get a plumber if you can't find it.

Answer 10

My water bill was like that and i checked out a few things.Leaky faucets,busted pipes,running toilet,maybe out of date washer, maybe the hot water heater.