If your Edgewater meter moves with every fixture off, or a stretch of floor turns warm or damp, a water line under the concrete may be leaking. Nearly four in five Edgewater homes predate 1980, and the city makes property owners responsible for their water service lines and meters. Call the number on this page to be connected with a local plumber in Edgewater.
Edgewater is a small, fully urban city of about 2,300 households, bordered by Denver, Lakewood and Wheat Ridge just west of Sloan's Lake. Census survey figures put the median home at 1958, with about 79.4% built before 1980, so many houses have copper or older pipe that has been under concrete for six decades or more. The city buys its water from Denver Water through six master meters and owns and maintains its own distribution system. It maintains and replaces the mains, while owners are responsible for their service lines, meters and the sewer line up to the main.
Steps to take now
- Do a meter test. Turn off every fixture, read the meter, wait an hour, read again.
- Check toilets and spigots. These cause most false alarms.
- Isolate the water heater. Close its cold inlet; if the meter stops, suspect a hot line.
- Feel the floors. Walk barefoot across tile and basement floors to find warm areas.
- Shut the main if water surfaces. Then move rugs and furniture.
- Get a proper locate. Pressure testing and acoustic listening should come before concrete is cut.
Symptoms and likely causes
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Warm stripe across a floor | Hot line leaking below |
| Meter creeping, floors normal | Cold-side leak or the service line |
| Rusty water at a tap | Aging galvanized pipe somewhere in the system |
| Damp basement carpet | Water rising through the slab |
| Weak pressure at one fixture | Leak or buildup on that branch |
Cost factors
- Time to isolate and pinpoint the leak in an older system
- Whether a spot repair or a reroute makes more sense given the pipe's age
- Floor finishes and any finished basement to restore
- Drying and repairing wet walls or cabinets
- A City of Edgewater permit; homeowners can pull their own plumbing permit only if they do the work themselves and the property is not for sale or rent
In homes this old, many owners choose a reroute so they are not back under the same floor a year later. A plumber can show you the condition of the exposed pipe and explain whether the rest of the buried run is likely to hold up, which is the main question behind that decision.
Slab Leak Repair questions in Edgewater
Are older homes here more likely to have a slab leak?
Who pays to fix a leak between the meter and the house?
Is rerouting the line better than breaking into the slab?
Does slab leak work need a permit here?
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