Leak Detection
Faerie Glen
Leak detection in Faerie Glen starts with the City’s own 15-minute meter test, so you know there is a leak before anyone is paid to hunt for it. Then it is located to a point and shown to you before a tile or a wall is opened and the repair is priced.
Most leaks show on the meter before the wall
Signs of a hidden leak, and where each one usually leads.
A toilet cistern that never stops
The City’s own leak advice starts at the toilets: look and listen for water running into the bowl. A worn flush valve or a float set too high wastes water quietly, day and night, and it reaches the bill before anyone notices the sound.
Damp on a wall or a lifting floor tile
Water from a pipe inside a wall or under a floor travels before it shows. The stain marks where the water surfaced, not always where the pipe failed, which is the reason locating has to come before opening anything.
A bill that jumped with nothing changed at home
Under the City’s by-law the meter is presumed accurate unless it is shown to be faulty, so the first job is proving whether water is really passing through it. The 15-minute test answers that without spending anything.
A tap that drips all year
Eskom’s hot-water fact sheet puts a tap dripping 60 times a minute at 11,935 litres a year. A new washer or cartridge costs little. That volume of water, billed on Tshwane’s stepped tariff, costs a good deal more.
A wet patch in the garden that never dries
The buried supply line between the meter and the house is the usual suspect. That stretch matters for another reason too: it is the only kind of leak the City’s internal-leak assistance considers at all.
Hot pipes weeping at the joints
SANS 10252-1 notes that high and changing temperatures put expansion strain on joints, and that water above 60 °C is more corrosive. A slow leak on a hot line also wastes the electricity spent heating that water.
The City’s 15-minute test, and what the City will and will not refund
The City of Tshwane publishes its own leak test, and it costs nothing. Turn off every tap and water-using appliance inside and outside, read the meter, wait 15 minutes and read it again. If the reading has moved, the City says it might indicate a leak. It is the first thing worth doing yourself, and it is the first thing done on a leak detection call-out here.
A moving meter matters because the bill follows it. Under the City’s water supply by-law the meter is presumed accurate unless it is shown to be faulty, and the owner must repair any part of the installation that leaks. On written request and payment, the City will take a special reading within seven days, which helps when you need to show that a leak has been fixed.
The City’s internal-leak assistance is narrower than most people assume. It covers only the pipe from the meter to the house connection point, and the City’s page excludes geysers, toilets and any leak inside the house or in the walls. It asks for a plumber’s invoice, a photo or sketch and a certified affidavit, and it is capped at R1,000 for the repair and R2,000 for the lost water, one claim a year. The page carries no date, so confirm the terms with the City before relying on them.
Everything else is paid at the stepped tariff. From 1 July 2026 the first 9 kℓ is free, and each kilolitre above it costs between R36.01 and R64.26 depending on the step. A leak pushes the whole month’s use into dearer steps, which is why a hidden leak shows on the bill as a jump rather than a creep.
Finding it is a matter of method. Closing valves section by section, acoustic listening, thermal imaging, tracer gas and a pressure test on an isolated line each narrow the search, and the aim is to mark the leak before anything is broken open. If the meter shows no movement with everything closed, the search stops there and you are told so, rather than sold a hunt for a leak the meter says is not there.
Do the 15-minute meter test yourself tonight. If the meter moves with everything closed, you have a leak worth finding.
Leak detection that ends in a marked spot
So a leak search does not turn into a dig.
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Proof of a leak first
The meter test is done with you watching, so you both know there is a leak before the search starts.
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Located, then opened
Acoustic, thermal or pressure tests narrow it to one spot. Only then is a tile lifted or a trench dug, and only as far as the repair needs.
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The search priced before it starts
The call-out fee and how the search is charged are stated before booking. If a second visit is needed, it is priced before it happens.
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Paperwork for the City’s scheme
If the leak is on the meter-to-house line, the invoice and photos are prepared the way the City’s assistance form asks for them.
Narrowing a leak down to one spot
Each step narrows the search, and you can stop after any of them.
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Meter test
Everything closed and the meter read twice, 15 minutes apart, with you there.
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Split the system
Valves closed section by section to separate the garden line from the house, and hot from cold.
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Locate
Listening, thermal imaging or a pressure test on the suspect section until there is one spot to open.
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Repair and re-test
The leak repaired and the meter test repeated, so a still meter is the proof.
Leak detection questions
What people ask when the water bill arrives.
How much does leak detection cost in Faerie Glen?
How do I check for a leak with my water meter?
Will the City refund water lost through a leak?
Why is my Tshwane water bill so high?
Who is responsible for a leak between the meter and the house?
How do plumbers find a leak without breaking walls?
How much water does a dripping tap or a running toilet waste?
I live in a sectional title complex. Who pays for the leak?
Request leak detection in Faerie Glen
Do the meter test first if you can, and tell us whether the meter moved.
Where we work
- Faerie Glen
- Garsfontein
- Lynnwood Glen
- Moreleta Park
- Lynnwood
- Lynnwood Ridge
- Lynnwood Park
- Die Wilgers
- Equestria
- Wapadrand
- Olympus
- Constantia Park
- Waterkloof Glen
- Menlyn
- Silver Lakes
- Mooikloof
- Woodhill
- Murrayfield