October 2015
High Water Meter Bill – Most Common Issues Found
In beautiful West Vancouver, we often see a high water meter bill. If you suspect you have a leak, or if you’ve determined you have a leak from our blog on “High Water Meter Bill – What You Should Do”, you will likely be looking about for the cause.
To follow is a list of the most common places that water is wasted so you know where to look first.
- Running toilets. If you find yourself giggling the handle to make it stop, take a quick look under the ‘hood’ often it means that the chain is just too long and getting caught in the flapper which is the seal at the bottom of the tank. Shorten it by a few links and it should stop.
- Dripping faucets. Sorry to be cliché but it continues to be one of the most common places of water loss. It’s hard to conceive that a slow drip can add up to 280 litres per week, but true.
- Irrigation systems – cracks in areas that were not properly winterized can cause excessive water use. We recommend West Vancouver Irrigation for that.
- Auto-fill valves on pools. While not a problem by themselves, they can often mask a bigger pool issue and the high water usage can be the first clue.
- Sudden wet patches inside or outside the house are, unfortunately, usually what they seem. Burst water pipes usually cause more damage than they cost to repair. In these cases, early detection and quick action is your best bet.
Some of these repairs can be DIY if you are comfortable with that, or you may call in your favorite local plumber R&B. For repairs more complex, such as burst water pipes, we recommend calling a technician at R&B.
Once you have repaired your leak you should notice that your water consumption has dropped. Many municipalities, West Vancouver included, will offer you a refund on a portion of the excessive usages once a repair is made. Link to City of West Vancouver’s Leak Adjustment page.
High Water Meter Bill – What You Should Do
*Update: Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the details of the new May 2019 Bylaw changes*
You may have received a surprisingly high water meter bill, or even a letter from your municipality advising you that you have a leak. If you find yourself in a similar situation and suspect you have a leak, here is what you should do.
First: log-on to the West Vancouver, or local municipality website and check your monthly consumption. This will allow you to compare with past bills and see how much above normal it really is. If you suspect you have a problem, this will be a good place to confirm it.
Got a usage problem? Here are the next steps. While these steps can be DIY if you are comfortable with that, or you may call in your favorite local plumber R&B at any point for help.
- Locate your meter. Your meter is a flat brown box located at the property line. It is sometimes covered in shrubs or trees if it’s an older installation, and if you can’t find it, a call to the city will tell us exactly where it is.
- Take the lid of the box and look if the meter is spinning, or number moving. If it is spinning, that indicates that water is being actively used on your property.
- Next go into your house and find your main water shut off. This will shut off the water to your entire home. Check your meter again.
- Stopped spinning? That means you have uncontrolled water use inside your house.
- Still spinning? That means you have a loss of water outside of your house and you should continue to isolate systems such as sprinkler system, pool auto fill valve, etc. If at any point the meter stops spinning, you have found your source.
- Still Spinning? If, after turning off all valves, you are still showing water usage, this points to the main water line as the culprit.
When to call a plumber:
At any point along steps 1-6 if you feel at all uncomfortable or unsure of the process, please call R&B. Once we know where to look, we can continue to isolate the exact location and affect a repair.
R&B does main water line replacements, water leak repair, drainage, and hot water heating repairs. We also have cameras and remote equipment to help identify the exact source of leaks buried behind walls, underground and that may be draining away from the house.
The silver lining if you live in West Vancouver is, the Municipality has a process that allows you to claim back for a portion of your water bill from the past six months if your repair shows a drop in consumption.
See our next blog on the usual culprits of high water use for a list of things you can look for before you call R&B.
May 10, 2019 Update:
As of May 10 this year, the District of West Vancouver has changed the Leak Adjustment Bylaw to only allow particular leaks to qualify for an adjustment. You can find the new bylaws here. That said, we know most people don’t have the time to sift through a 20 page document , so here’s the long and the short of it:
Waterworks Regulation Bylaw 4490, 2006No rebate, refund or credit whatever of any money paid or payable for water shall be made except as follows. A rebate for the metered water utility fee to compensate for the water leak will be made at the discretion of the Treasurer when a firm that has repaired the water leak will provide an attestation to the District confirming the following conditions: a) There was a water leak on the buried portion of the service between the water meter and the point where the service pipe enters the building on the buried water service;
b) They have properly repaired the leak; and
c) A leak of that nature would have caused the volume of excess water usage
d) An application for adjustment has been received, in writing, within 30 days of the mailing of the most recent utility statement.
If conditions are met, the Treasurer will recalculate the metered water utility fee for the most recent quarterly period by estimating the normal volume based on usage history and trends over the previous two years. The recalculated metered water volume utility fee will be the sum of the following:
a) Normal volume multiplied by the unit rate in Schedule “B”.b) Excess volume multiplied by 25% of the unit rate of Schedule “B”.
c) Water leaks administration fee in accordance with Schedule “C”.
If you have more questions and want clarification on what this means for you, give us a call at 604-980-1369, or to find out whether or not you qualify, contact the West Vancouver Municipal Hall. You can find their contact information here.
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Flooding (or not flooding) Storm Sewer Tips
Flooding because of Sump pump or drainage? Here are some tips.
The big news last winter was the flooding of many North Shore homes and Argyle Secondary School. Heavy rains and big storms are to be expected this time of year, and if climate change continues, every year. Should we also expect flooding? Isn’t that what our drainage, storm sewers or sump pumps are for? Or is there something that you, as a homeowner can do to prevent it from happening to you?
Flooding caused by things like overflowing creeks and overburdened city sewer systems, are unfortunately beyond the homeowners scope of influence. While things like clearing leaves and debris from city storm sewer grates will help keep water from the roads; it is massive amounts of water finding the easiest way down that is often the cause of the type of floods we saw in Lynn Valley last year.
Flooding in individual houses from failures to home based drainage management systems are another story. And there are things you can do to help prevent a flooded basement in your home. In the Flooding or not flooding series you can read about sump pumps and drain cleaning as well as learn about early warning signs.
But if you are flooding, please call our 24-hour emergency service line. We keep our large stock of drain cleaning equipment onsite for easy access in any emergency.
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Money Saving This Heating Season – Tips For Under $250
For a small investment there are things you can do for your furnace, boiler and water heater, to save money this heating season.
$135. Have your furnace or boiler serviced. Checking and cleaning the burner assembly are among two of the most important things that an annual service will achieve for you. A nice even flame will keep your efficiency high. Don’t forget about carbon monoxide testing that is done at the same time. That and the 20 other service points will keep you safe and happy for the season. Fortis BC has brought back the TLC grant. You can save $25 per appliance to a max of $50 per household, on them.
$50 – $135. For a basic service call, less if it’s an add-on to an existing service, we can service your water heater. This annual safety and service test is recommended for all gas burning appliances by Fortis BC. It ensures your appliances are running at peak efficientcy. We can also often spot potential problems before they develop into inconvenient issues.
$250 or less (or more depending on model) you can have a good quality programmable thermostat supplied and installed in your home. In common use for many years, this idea will not be new to you, but you may have thought it was out of budget. Set it to reflect when you are really home. You may find you only need heat in the mornings and evenings. Most have holiday settings, weekend settings and over-ride for those Pro-D and sick days.
Those will get you going. The trend in heating efficiency is a heat recovery ventilator or HRV. Look forward to my Blog series on what an HRV is and what getting one installed in your home will do for you.
–Blog 3 of 3