Water Line Repair

What the water service line actually is

Your water service line is the buried pipe that carries water between the meter (or your well system) and the house. On a typical Southwest Florida lot it runs from a meter box near the street, under the yard or driveway, and comes up at the house where the main shutoff valve sits. Everything inside the walls is your distribution piping. The service line is the one pipe every fixture in the house depends on.

Most service lines are 3/4 inch or 1 inch on single-family homes, larger on commercial buildings. They’re out of sight, so nobody thinks about them until the yard turns into a swamp or the water pressure drops off. We repair and replace these lines, along with the shutoff valves and pressure reducing valves that go with them.

One thing we don’t do: work on the utility’s side. The water main under the street and the meter belong to the utility, and their crews handle anything on that side of the meter.

Who’s responsible for which part

The general rule in our area is simple. The utility owns the main and, in most cases, the meter and meter box. The property owner owns the service line on the house side of the meter and everything connected to it. Lee County Utilities, for example, spells out that it maintains the lines up to and including the meter, and that pipes and equipment beyond the meter belong to the customer. Other utilities in Charlotte and Collier Counties follow a similar split, but the exact dividing line can vary, so it’s worth checking with your provider if a leak is close to the meter.

If the leak is on the street side

If we find the problem is at the meter or between the meter and the main, we’ll tell you and you’ll need to call the utility. There’s no sense paying a plumber to dig on pipe you don’t own and aren’t allowed to touch.

Condos, villas and HOA communities

Shared buildings get more complicated. In many condos one master meter feeds the whole building, and the association is responsible for the service up to the point where it branches off to individual units. Some villa and townhome communities have individual meters but shared trenches. Your declaration or the association’s maintenance chart usually spells it out. We can work with the property manager or the board so the right party approves the work before anyone starts digging.

Signs your water service line is broken

A service line leak rarely announces itself with a geyser. More often it’s slow and underground, and the water finds the easiest path out. These are the signs we hear about most:

• A wet or spongy patch in the yard that doesn’t dry out, even when it hasn’t rained
• A strip of grass that’s greener or grows faster than the rest, often in a line toward the house
• Water pressure that dropped off across the whole house at once
• A water bill that jumped without any change in how you use water
• The leak indicator or dial on the meter moving with every fixture in the house turned off
• Soft ground, settling pavers or a small sinkhole near the path of the line
• Muddy or discolored water after the line has been disturbed

The meter check is the easiest test you can do yourself. Turn off every faucet, the ice maker, the irrigation and anything else that uses water. Then look at the meter. If the low-flow indicator is still turning, water is going somewhere. Next, close the main shutoff at the house. If the meter stops, the leak is inside the house. If it keeps moving, the leak is likely on the service line between the meter and your valve.

An inside leak is a different job. Our leak detection service covers slab leaks and hidden leaks in the walls.

What causes service lines to fail in Southwest Florida

Some lines just wear out. Others get damaged. In our area we see a handful of causes over and over.

Age and material

Older homes may still have galvanized steel service lines, which rust from the inside and eventually leak or clog. Early plastic lines and fittings can turn brittle, and copper can pinhole in certain soil and water conditions.

Tree roots

Roots from oaks, ficus and palms can wrap around a line, crush it or push it until a joint separates. A pipe that’s already weeping attracts roots that make the leak worse.

Irrigation and landscaping work

Sprinkler installs, new plantings and fence posts cause a lot of the breaks we repair. A shovel or trencher only needs to find the line once. Irrigation lines are often buried in the same shallow zone as the service line, which makes it easy to hit.

Construction and heavy equipment

Pool builds, driveway replacements, additions and dumpster deliveries all put weight and digging near the line. So does storm cleanup when heavy trucks roll across the yard.

Sandy soil, high water tables and storms

Our soils shift when they get saturated and dry out again. Hurricane storm surge and flooding can wash out soil around the pipe, and uprooted trees can pull a line right out of the ground. After a big storm we often find breaks that weren’t obvious for weeks.

How we find the leak

Before we dig, we want to know where to dig. We start by confirming the leak is on the service line with meter and valve checks. Then we trace the line’s route, since it doesn’t always run in a straight line from the meter to the house.

Next we use listening equipment and the site itself to narrow things down: wet spots, the location of fittings, where the line passes under trees or hardscape, and where other trades have been digging. On a lot of jobs the leak is at a fitting, a transition between two materials, or a spot where someone else dug recently. A good locate means a smaller hole and less lawn or paver to put back.

Repair or replace the line

A single break in an otherwise healthy line is usually a repair. We expose the damaged section, cut it out and splice in new pipe with the right couplings for that material. If a landscaper nicked a newer poly line, that’s often a short job.

Replacement makes more sense when:

• The line is galvanized, or it’s leaked more than once in the last few years
• The pipe is brittle and cracks when we handle it near the repair
• Roots have damaged a long stretch rather than one spot
• Pressure is low because the old pipe is undersized or choked with scale
• You’re already remodeling, adding a pool, or redoing the driveway, and the trench is going to be open anyway

We’ll show you what we find and tell you which option we’d pick for our own house. If the pipes inside the home are in the same shape as the service line, it may be time to look at whole-house repiping too, but we won’t push that unless the problems are real.

Materials we use and why

Common service line materials in our area include polyethylene (PE), PVC, copper and, in older homes, galvanized steel. For new service lines we most often use one of these:

• Polyethylene (PE) tubing: flexible, resists corrosion, and comes in long runs, so there are fewer joints underground. It’s a good match for pulling or boring under a driveway.
• PVC: rigid and widely used for water service in our area. It’s durable once it’s bedded and covered properly.
• Copper: still used in some cases, often for the riser at the house or where a utility or local rule calls for it.

Each material has its own fittings and its own transitions at the meter and house. Mismatched or poorly made transitions are a common source of leaks, so we pay close attention at both ends. We’ll recommend a material based on the length of the run, what’s in the way, what the local jurisdiction accepts, and what the line has to connect to.

What about lead service lines

Lead service lines are far less common in Southwest Florida than in older cities up north, since so much of our housing was built after lead pipe fell out of use. Still, federal rules now require public water systems to inventory the service lines in their system and identify any that are lead, galvanized or unknown, and newer rules set a path for replacing lead lines over roughly the next decade. If your utility sent you a letter about your service line material, we can dig a test hole at the house end and tell you what’s actually in the ground.

What replacing a service line involves

Every property is a little different, but most replacements follow the same steps.

Permits and locates

Replacing a water service line generally requires a plumbing permit from the city or county, and we handle that application. Before any digging, Florida law requires a locate request through Sunshine 811 at least two full business days in advance, so the buried power, gas, cable and phone lines get marked. Private lines like irrigation and landscape lighting aren’t covered by 811, so we look for those too.

Trenching or boring

In open yard we usually dig a trench along the new route. Where the line has to cross a driveway, pool deck, sidewalk or big tree, we may bore underneath instead so the hardscape stays in place. Code sets minimum depth and keeps the water line separated from the sewer line. The exact numbers depend on the jurisdiction and the pipe, and we follow what the local inspector requires.

Connections at the meter and house

At the meter end we connect to the customer side of the meter without touching the utility’s equipment. At the house we tie in to the existing plumbing, and this is usually when we replace the main shutoff valve and add or replace a pressure reducing valve if the house needs one.

Testing, inspection and cleanup

Before we cover anything, we pressure test the new line and check every joint. The inspector may want to see the trench open, so we schedule around that. Once it passes, we flush the line, backfill, and put the ground back as close to how we found it as we reasonably can. Sod and pavers can usually be reset, though landscaping and irrigation repairs are something we’ll talk through with you before we start.

Main shutoff valves

The main shutoff is the valve you need to work when a pipe bursts or a water heater lets go. Too many homeowners find out it’s stuck at the worst possible moment.

Older gate valves use a wedge that slides down into the valve body. Over years of sitting in one position, mineral buildup and corrosion lock them up, or the stem breaks when someone finally turns the handle. Some close most of the way and never fully seal. Ball valves are the usual replacement. They open and close with a quarter turn, they’re easy to read at a glance, and they hold up well.

We replace main shutoffs as a standalone job or as part of a service line replacement. If yours is buried in a shrub bed, hidden behind a wall, or you’ve never been able to find it, we can move or add a shutoff where you can reach it. The cold supply valve on your water heater is worth checking at the same time, since it tends to seize up the same way.

Water pressure that’s too high or too low

High pressure and pressure reducing valves

The Florida plumbing code, like the International Plumbing Code it’s based on, generally caps static pressure inside the building at 80 psi. When the street pressure is higher, the code calls for an approved pressure reducing valve (PRV) to bring it down. High pressure is hard on everything: supply lines, toilet fill valves, washing machine hoses, water heaters and the pipes themselves.

PRVs don’t last forever. When one fails, pressure can creep up, or it can drop and leave the whole house weak. Signs of a bad PRV include banging pipes, a relief valve on the water heater that drips, faucets that spit, or pressure that swings through the day. We test pressure with a gauge, and we replace or adjust PRVs as needed.

Low pressure

Low pressure across the whole house often points to a leak in the service line, a partly closed or failing main valve, a failed PRV, or an old galvanized line that’s clogged with rust. Low pressure at one fixture is usually a local problem like a clogged aerator or a bad cartridge, and that falls under our general plumbing repairs.

Backflow at the meter and irrigation

Many irrigation systems, and some homes and businesses, need a backflow preventer so water from the property can’t flow back into the public system. The utility generally sets the rules for where one is required, and the property owner is typically responsible for installing and maintaining it. If we’re working near an existing backflow assembly, we’ll make sure the connection is done so it keeps working as intended.

Well homes and city water conversions

Homes on private wells

Plenty of homes in Lehigh Acres and other parts of our area still run on private wells. On these properties the service line runs from the pressure tank to the house instead of from a meter. We repair and replace that line, the shutoff, and the plumbing that connects to the house. We don’t drill wells or service well pumps, so if the problem is the pump, the tank or the well itself, you’ll need a well contractor. If you’re in Lehigh Acres and not sure which side the problem is on, we can help sort that out.

Connecting to city water in conversion areas

Cape Coral’s Utilities Extension Project (UEP) has been bringing city water and sewer to neighborhoods that were on wells and septic. Under the city’s process, the city installs the meter, and the property owner hires a plumber to run the line between the meter and the house. The city gives owners a set window after the Notice of Availability to connect, currently 180 days, so it pays to plan ahead. Existing wells may be allowed to stay for irrigation depending on the project area.

We can run the new water service, tie it into your existing plumbing, and handle the plumbing permit. If you’re also switching from septic, our sewer line service handles the sewer side. Homeowners in Cape Coral can call us once the notice arrives so the work gets scheduled before the deadline.

Commercial water services

Commercial properties have larger service lines, backflow assemblies that need regular testing, and tenants who can’t be without water for long. We repair and replace water services for retail buildings, offices, restaurants and multifamily properties, and we plan shutdowns around business hours whenever we can. For planned work on bigger buildings, we’ll coordinate with the property manager and the utility ahead of time.

If you’re building new, we can install the water service as part of our new construction plumbing work. More on our commercial work is on the commercial plumbing page.

When to call us

Call us if your meter keeps moving with everything off, if a wet spot in the yard won’t go away, if pressure dropped suddenly across the house, or if your main shutoff doesn’t close. If you’ve found a break that’s actively flooding the yard, shut off the main valve at the house if it works, or the valve on the customer side of the meter if you can reach it safely. Leave the utility’s equipment alone.

We serve Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties, including Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Naples, Lehigh Acres, North Fort Myers, Estero, Sanibel, Alva, Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, Golden Gate and Marco Island. See our service areas for details. Call (239) 518-4198 or send us a request and tell us what you’re seeing.