When you brush your teeth in front of the mirror, you remind yourself to turn off the tap. You pour water into a jug and put it in the refrigerator to cool, so you don’t have to run the faucet and wait for the stream to go cold every time you want a drink. You practice these daily habits to stop wasting water.

If you’re dedicated to shrinking your consumption, you can shave down your water bill by calling for plumbing repairs. Dripping faucets, faulty toilets and leaking pipes will squander a lot more than those few seconds of an open tap. Read ahead to find out just how much water these problems are sending down the drain.

Dripping Faucet

One droplet of water won’t show up on your water bill, but thousands and thousands of droplets over the weeks will. A faucet that drips 6 times a minute will lose 1,200 litres of water in the span of a year — the total could fill up 7 bathtubs to the brim. Now, imagine how much a faucet could lose with a stronger leak:

• 10 drops a minute leads to 1,989 litres a year
• 12 drops a minute leads to 2,387 litres a year
• 15 drops a minute leads to 2,984 litres a year

Stand by the faucet with a timer and count how many drops hit the basin in a minute. After figuring out the number, try our drip waste calculator to get a careful estimate of how much-unused water is going down the drain by the end of a day, the month and the year. Having a year-end estimate will show why you might regret putting a small plumbing repair on the back-burner for months on end.

Faucets spring leaks when they have corroded valve seats, worn out washers or loose O-rings. A plumber can come to your house, diagnose the root cause and fix the issue right away.

If the faucet is old and worn-down, you should consider getting a replacement, or you’ll need to call a plumber again in a few months. We can replace all faucet makes and models for you, so you don’t have to worry about repairs for a long time.

Running Toilet

Toilets are already known as the fixtures that use up the most water in the house. Models made before 1980 used to require approximately 7 gallons per flush. New models optimized for water conservation and environmental purposes use 1.6 gallons per flush.

If you are surprised by the amount of water that a working toilet can use, you will be stunned by the waste that a broken one can accumulate. A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water in a single day. Neglecting the problem will leave you with an astronomical water bill. Last November, The Loop shared the news story of a rental property in Toronto that received a $4,000 water bill after a running toilet went unfixed for several months.

Other than a giant water bill, you can tell you have a running toilet when your toilet sounds like it’s continuously filling up the tank. The endless sound is telling you that the tank is refilling the water supply and it can’t seem to stop.

Some popular causes for running toilets include faulty flappers or broken fill-valves that are supposed to keep the tank’s refill cycle under control. Another explanation is that the rubber ball (the float) is sitting too high in the tank and it needs to be adjusted. An older float can crack and fill up with water, ruining its effectiveness.

A trained plumber can investigate the fixture to see what’s the root of the problem so that it can be repaired promptly. If the toilet is malfunctioning because it’s too old or broken-down, we can help you find an economical replacement. We can assist you with the model selection, the delivery and the installation.

Pipe Leak

A dripping faucet can pour litres and litres down the drain and a pipe leak can squander even more. If your sky-high water bill doesn’t point to a running toilet, your second guess should be a hidden pipe leak somewhere around the house. The costs of a service pipe leak depend on the size of the crack or break in the pipe wall and the amount of time it’s left unrepaired:

Hole Size	Litres Wasted Per Day	Cost Per Day	Cost Within 120 Days
1/16 inch	3,570	$13.58	$1,629.60
1/8 inch	14,000	$53.25	$6,390.00
3/16 inch	32,130	$122.21	$14, 665.20

 

Sometimes pipe leaks will be easy to catch — you’ll see an exposed pipe in the basement spraying water on the floor or soaking a nearby wall. On the other hand, the pipe could be hidden from view, so you will need to look for other signs that it’s there. 

Much like the running toilet, you can confirm there is probably a leak in your house when you receive a suspiciously high water bill. Another sign that you have a burst pipe or leak is a substantial change in water pressure because the supply from the pipes is being drained at another source. Watermarks, puddles of standing water and moisture damage around the house are big red flags. 

These are some other important clues to look out for:

• Bubbling or whistling sounds in the pipes
• Dripping sounds in the walls
• Discoloured water
• Sudden mould or mildew problems
• Musty smell
• Rotten egg smell

When you notice that something is going on, you should call us and we will send over a professional to inspect your home’s plumbing system. We can use video camera inspections to find the location of the leak and then repair the drain as soon as possible. That way, you can stop worrying about the climbing rates on your water bill.

Remember that you can contact us anytime with your plumbing issues — whether it’s a dripping faucet in the kitchen sink or a leaking pipe hidden behind your basement wall, we will be ready to help you. We are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. If it’s the middle of the night and you realize your toilet is running, it’s okay to pick up the phone and ring us up.

Your household can conserve lots of water when you repair plumbing leaks and drips. Now that you know some of the warning signs, you can stop the litres from adding up and tackle the problems immediately. Calling up a plumber when you need one is always a good habit to practice.