Wet ground in dry weather is the irrigation system, the service line from the meter, or the slab. The meter tells you which, and the test takes two hours.
A wet spot in a Leander yard is one of three things, and an afternoon is usually enough to narrow it to one. It is the irrigation system, the water service line running from your meter to the house, or water from a leak under the slab finding its way out. Which one it is decides who you call, because two of the three are a licensed plumber's work and the third is not.
The meter answers the first question, which is whether the house is losing water at all. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's method is to check your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used, and if the meter changes at all, you probably have a leak. Switch the irrigation controller off before you start, and keep everyone off the taps, the washing machine and the ice maker for the full two hours.
Run it twice if you can, once with the irrigation off and once with it live. A meter that holds still with the system off and moves with it on has told you which half of the yard you are dealing with, and that is most of the diagnosis done for free. While you are outside, the EPA also suggests checking the garden hose where it connects to the spigot, which is the cheapest thing on this page to rule out.
A wet patch that appears on watering days and dries out between them is the irrigation system rather than the plumbing. Leander makes that easier to test than most places. The city is in Phase 2 Water Conservation, which limits landscape irrigation by automated systems, hose-end sprinklers, soaker hoses and drip irrigation to one day a week, from midnight to 7 a.m. or 7 p.m. to midnight, based on the ending number of the address where your water meter sits. You know which day is yours. Ground that is wet on the other six is not being made wet by the sprinklers.
Small irrigation leaks deserve attention because they are not small in volume. The EPA puts a leak of 1/32nd of an inch, about the thickness of a dime, at roughly 6,300 gallons of water a month. The same agency advises checking an in-ground system each spring before use for damage from frost or freezing, which is worth knowing in November rather than March: the damage happens in winter and the bill arrives in spring.
Leander grants 21-day variances for watering new landscaping, with none between May 10 and Sept. 1, and asks that new lawns be watered only before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. A new-construction yard on a variance is the one case where wet ground outside your assigned day has an innocent explanation.
Ground that never dries out, in a week when nothing watered it, points at the water service line between the meter and the house. That line holds pressure every hour of the day, so a hole in it does not wait for a schedule the way a sprinkler leak does.
Do not expect the wet patch to sit over the leak. Buried pipe lies in a trench, and loose backfill is an easier path for water than undisturbed ground, so it travels along the trench and surfaces at the lowest or softest point it can reach. The 2021 International Plumbing Code requires exterior water supply piping to be installed not less than 6 inches below the frost line and not less than 12 inches below grade, so there is a foot or more of soil between the failure and anything you can see. Older lines were not always put in to the current code, and some sit shallower than that.
The same code requires piping to be installed so as to prevent strains and stresses beyond the structural strength of the pipe, with provision made where necessary to protect it from damage resulting from expansion, contraction and structural settlement. In ground that moves the way Central Texas clay moves, settlement is the word doing the work in that sentence.
From the meter to the house, the line is yours. The City of Georgetown writes the boundary into its utility service agreement in plain terms: for water service the Point of Delivery is the water meter, or the customer's property line where the meter sits on the customer's property, and the customer is responsible for the utility service, facilities and equipment on their side of it. That agreement also makes the customer responsible for excessive consumption caused by faulty equipment and for promptly repairing leaks on their side, and says a customer who does not do that maintenance pays for the city to do it instead.
Leander puts it more briefly: city water customers are responsible for keeping plumbing on their property in good working order. So a leak in the yard between the meter box and the slab is not a call to the utility to come and fix it. It is a water leak detection and repair call, and the utility's part in it is the meter reading that proves the loss is real.
| What the yard is doing | What it usually means | Whose licence |
|---|---|---|
| Wet only on your watering day | An irrigation line, head or valve | Licensed irrigator |
| Wet every day, no rain, no watering | The service line between meter and house | Licensed plumber |
| Meter still moves with the irrigation off | Water leaving the pressurised system | Licensed plumber |
| Meter holds still with everything off | No continuous loss yet; recheck with the system live | Yours to watch |
| Ground soft right at the meter box | Could be either side of the meter | Call the city and a plumber |
| Warm patch on the floor indoors, bill up | Possibly a line under the slab | Licensed plumber |
A yard leak is a bill before it is a repair. The EPA puts the average household's leaks at more than 9,300 gallons wasted a year, says nine percent of homes have leaks that waste 50 gallons or more per day, and totals household leaks nationwide at nearly 1 trillion gallons annually. Its rough benchmark is worth checking yours against: a family of four going over 12,000 gallons in a colder month could have a serious leak.
Leander does offer a leak adjustment on the bill, as a courtesy rather than an entitlement, and the conditions are specific. The consumption has to be at least twice the average of the previous three months, you need at least six months of history at the address, and the request has to arrive within 90 days of the completed repair with receipts attached. Water used for irrigating lawns or gardens is not eligible, and neither are outlets left running or unattended. Utility Billing Customer Service takes those questions on 512-259-1142. Keep the invoice.
The two halves of your yard answer to two different agencies, which is the part most people do not expect. Irrigation belongs to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: a person may not sell, design, install, maintain, alter, repair, service or inspect an irrigation system in Texas, or consult on those activities, unless licensed by the commission, and a licensed irrigation technician connecting a system to a water supply must work under the direct supervision of a licensed landscape irrigator. Leander's own conservation page links a page headed "Hire Qualified People to Fix Your Irrigation System" for exactly this reason.
The water line belongs to a plumber. Texas Occupations Code 1301.351 states that a person other than a responsible master plumber may not engage in plumbing unless the person holds the proper licence, registration or endorsement and the work is supervised and controlled by someone licensed under the chapter. Vaquero Plumbing works under RMP 15304.
Nothing on this page asks you to dig. Reading the meter, switching off a controller and noting which days the ground is wet is the homeowner's half, and it is genuinely useful, because it is what we would ask you on the phone anyway. Locating is ours, and it is done by isolating the system and narrowing the position with equipment rather than by opening the ground to find out. If the trail leads under the house rather than across the yard, our slab leak page covers what happens next.
We are family-owned, we back our work with a two-year warranty, and we cover Leander along with Liberty Hill, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Georgetown and Austin. The Leander page has the rest of what we do in town. The office is open Monday to Friday 8:00 to 5:30 and Saturday by appointment, and the number is 512-893-8705.
Switch the irrigation controller off and run the EPA's meter test, which is to check your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter still moves with the irrigation off, the loss is on the water line. If the ground only gets wet on your assigned watering day, which Leander's Phase 2 rules limit to one day a week, the irrigation system is the likelier answer.
You are. The City of Georgetown defines the Point of Delivery for water service as the water meter, or the customer's property line where the meter sits on the customer's property, and makes the customer responsible for the service, facilities and equipment on their side of it. The City of Leander states that its water customers are responsible for keeping plumbing on their property in good working order.
Water follows the trench the pipe was laid in, because loose backfill is an easier path than undisturbed soil, and it surfaces at the lowest or softest point it reaches. The 2021 International Plumbing Code requires exterior water supply piping to sit not less than 12 inches below grade and not less than 6 inches below the frost line, so there is a foot or more of soil between the hole and anything visible.
Only if they also hold the irrigation licence. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requires a person to be licensed by the commission to sell, design, install, maintain, alter, repair, service or inspect an irrigation system in Texas. Work on the water service line is separate and is governed by the Texas Occupations Code, which Vaquero Plumbing works under as RMP 15304.
Leander offers a leak adjustment as a courtesy when its conditions are met: consumption at least two times the average of the previous three months, at least six months of consumption history at the address, and a request submitted within 90 days of the completed repair with receipts. Water used for irrigating lawns or gardens is not eligible. Utility Billing Customer Service is 512-259-1142.
From leaks and clogs to water heaters and repipes, our family-owned crew is ready with same-day service and honest pricing.