If your water bill has jumped and nothing about how your household uses water has changed, the near-certain explanation is that water is escaping somewhere you cannot see. The good news is that you can confirm it yourself in fifteen minutes, for free, before anyone comes out.
The meter test proves it in fifteen minutes
This is the same first step a plumber takes, and doing it yourself means you arrive at the conversation with a fact rather than a suspicion.
- Turn everything off. Every tap, both toilets settled, the dishwasher and washing machine off, the ice maker off, and any irrigation off. Anything that draws water automatically has to be included or the test is meaningless.
- Find the meter. In most Wichita Falls homes it is in a box near the street, under a metal or plastic lid at the property line.
- Watch the leak indicator. Most meters have a small triangular or star-shaped dial that spins at even a tiny flow. If it is turning with everything off, water is escaping somewhere.
- Or take two readings. Note the number, wait thirty minutes without using any water, and read again. Any change confirms a leak.
The usual culprits, cheapest first
Before assuming the worst, rule out the common and inexpensive causes:
- A running toilet. The single most common cause and the easiest to miss, because a leaking flapper wastes water silently around the clock. Add a few drops of food colouring to each toilet tank, wait twenty minutes without flushing, and if colour appears in the bowl, that flapper is leaking. It is a cheap part and a quick toilet repair. Check every toilet in the house before assuming anything more serious.
- A dripping tap or fixture. A steady drip wastes a surprising amount over a year, and on the hot side you are paying to heat it too.
- Irrigation. On a larger lot this is the classic answer, and it hides because a sprinkler fault only leaks while the system runs. A meter test on a quiet afternoon shows nothing. Isolate the irrigation at its own valve and compare a full day's readings with it on and off.
- A water softener stuck regenerating. A softener that has jammed in its regeneration cycle can send water to the drain continuously. Worth checking if you have one.
When it is a hidden leak
If the meter test says water is escaping but you cannot find a running toilet, a dripping tap or an irrigation fault, the leak is hidden, and that is a different job. It could be in the buried service line, inside a wall, or under the slab.
This is where you stop guessing and get it located properly. Professional leak detection uses acoustic listening and thermal imaging to pinpoint the leak without opening anything, so that any repair goes to one specific place rather than turning into an exploratory demolition. Opening walls to go looking is the most expensive way to find a leak there is.
The one you should not ignore
In Wichita Falls, a bill that climbs with nothing visible is often a slab leak, because most homes here sit on a concrete slab with the supply lines running underneath. The water goes straight into the ground under the house, so you pay for every gallon and see none of it. The other clues are a warm patch on the floor if it is the hot line, and the sound of running water when everything is off.
A slab leak is one of the few plumbing problems where waiting reliably makes it worse. The escaping water keeps eroding the opening, so the flow increases, and under the slab it washes out or swells the soil supporting the foundation. What starts as a plumbing repair can become a foundation problem. If the meter test points inside and you have any of those clues, treat it as worth locating sooner rather than later.