FAQ

For most houses in the village, somewhere in an estimated $150 to $400 band, and any repair is priced on its own. The buried line from the b-box runs an estimated $200 to $500, because it sits three feet or more down. No local average has been published, and anything you rule out before the visit brings the figure down.

Usually a toilet, sometimes a softener, occasionally a hidden pipe. The village names the toilet flapper as the leading cause, and a softener stuck in its cycle can run water to the drain for hours. Bills here are quarterly, so a jump can be three months of a small problem.

In Lake in the Hills the split is at the b-box, not the meter. The village's service line inventory gives the pipe from the main to the b-box to the village and the rest, up to the house, to the owner, so a leak between the b-box and an indoor meter is the owner's.

Start with where the meter is. If it is outside, watch the flow indicator, then close the main valve inside; still turning means the buried line. If it is inside, the buried line never shows on it, so look for a soft strip of lawn, seepage where the pipe enters, or pressure that sags everywhere.

By closing things off one at a time. Shut each toilet's supply, bypass the softener, close the water heater inlet, and watch the flow indicator after each; the one that stops it is the leaking branch. Water that appears only when a fixture runs is a drain or splash.

You can question it with the village's Finance Department, which handles water billing. First compare the meter's reading with the one on the bill: if they disagree, the bill is the problem. If they match and the indicator turns with everything off, the water went somewhere.

It depends on the leak, not the house. A flapper that never quite seals can waste more in a quarter than a pinhole in a wall. With an indoor meter, water escaping from the buried b-box run will not raise the bill at all, because that water never passes the meter.

Not to find one. Repairs that alter the plumbing are permitted through Community Development at Village Hall, 600 Harvest Gate, with inspections on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Contractors need a village license; an owner doing their own work files a Letter of Intent.