Leak Detection in Ashburn, VA

My house is fairly new. Why would it leak?

Only about 2 percent of homes in the 20147 ZIP code were built before 1980, and the biggest building decade was the 2000s. That makes Ashburn very different from the inner suburbs. Pipe material is rarely the problem. Instead, leaks come from push and crimp fittings, the braided hoses on washers and faucets, refrigerator ice maker lines, shower valves set during construction and water heater connectors. Builder-grade parts in Ashburn Farm, Ashburn Village, Broadlands and Brambleton are reaching the age when those small components start to give out, and a slow drip behind a finished basement wall can run for weeks before the drywall shows it.

How do I know it is a leak and not just higher use?

Turn off every fixture and appliance, including the irrigation controller, and watch the meter for a few minutes. If it moves, water is leaving somewhere. Then close your main shutoff. If the meter still moves, the loss is likely on the buried line between the meter and the house; if it stops, the leak is indoors. A dye test in each toilet tank rules out a running flapper. Loudoun Water's customer relations line, 571-291-7880, can help you read your usage history, and its after-hours emergency line, 571-291-7878, is for main breaks and water coming up in the street.

What about the sprinklers and the pool?

Lawn irrigation and pools are common in Ashburn neighborhoods, and both are frequent leak sources. Loudoun Water's cross-connection program requires backflow preventers on those connections to be tested every year by a certified tester. The zone valves, buried lines and heads past that device are the homeowner's to maintain, and a cracked head or stuck valve can leak on every cycle. Test zone by zone with the meter watched.

A note on Ashburn water

Loudoun Water serves Ashburn with Potomac River water, plus Goose Creek supply when needed, treated at its Trap Rock facility and at Fairfax Water's Corbalis plant, and it disinfects with chloramine. Loudoun Water states it has no lead service lines in its system. Its annual water quality report lists hardness if you want a sense of how much scale to expect on valves and fixtures.