Water meter question?

We are a Catholic grade school. Our water main comes into the building and goes into a compound water meter, with a high and low flow reading. The meter is a Neptune 4".

Our problem is that in 3 months we went through 325,000 gallons of water. At a cost of $1700.00!

The city told us we have a leak, but we don't. While the kids were off yesterday for their Mid Winter break I read the meter with NO one there. When I checked it this morning before the kids came back, we had burned through 3,000 gallons!

Everyone says there's a leak! But I can't find one! I've checked toilets, faucets, boilers, outside spiggots, u name it, but we can't find the leak!

I know this is more of a commercial question, but if anyone could give us some advice we'd be glad to take it.

Thanks!

You either have a leak or somebody is stealing about 100,000 gallons a month from you.
Hire someone to find it for you and do it immediately.
With luck it will not be under a building that may suffer serious damage when the water digs a big enough hole.

Do you have flushometers or tanks on your toilets? A tank type toilet can and will leak when the rubber flapper valve gets old and can't seal well anymore. If there are any shutoffs for different parts of the building, try turning them off and see if you can isolate it. Look for a toilet with a cold tank - that will show you if it is leaking. Is there a lavatory where you notice the water is always colder than others? That's where the leak is. Course, it could be multiple units.

If it is a leak say in the floor, you may not notice.

jadnashua said:

Do you have flushometers or tanks on your toilets? A tank type toilet can and will leak when the rubber flapper valve gets old and can't seal well anymore. If there are any shutoffs for different parts of the building, try turning them off and see if you can isolate it. Look for a toilet with a cold tank - that will show you if it is leaking. Is there a lavatory where you notice the water is always colder than others? That's where the leak is. Course, it could be multiple units.

If it is a leak say in the floor, you may not notice.

Click to expand...

All of our toilets are sloan valve units. I have checked them have not noticed any water flow down the bowl. The sinks are off and not running or dripping either.

I'm really starting to wonder if it's an underground leak. We haven't noticed any saturated areas though on the lawn.

This is really confusing. What else could it be?

It sure sounds like an underground leak to me.

You won't always find water on the ground either. If you have gravel, the water will follow that path.
You can hire a leak dectection service, they find leaks with sound meters.
Sometimes you get lucky and you find the leak and can patch it.
Sometimes, you just replace the line.