Plumbers - why is my water bill so high? (floor, how much, heat)

[m22]

We just moved into a new home and the water bill is out of control. Over $200/mo. compared to our neighbor's $40. They have a similar lifestyle & kids, run their sprinklers a little less than we do but not much. I don't see a visible leak anywhere but we are suspicious of a big plumbing problem...
1.) all the sinks drain slow
2.) kitchen sink drain/disposal backs up & water comes out of reverse osmosis tap
3.) there are signs of water damage & repaired drywall behind a toilet that extends the full length of that wall.
4.) our toilet requires two flushes to fully drain. it sort of back-washes back into the bowl.
Ideas?

[SuSuSushi]

Did you buy this house? If so, what did the home inspector find when you had it inspected?

[m22]

We bought the house in July & nothing was noted about the water in the inspection. On our final walk-through, we happened to have the inspector with us (long story...homeowner crashed into her own garage before closing & had it repaired, we made the sale contingent on warranties on the garage & final inspection by our inspector.)
So I pointed out the water damage/drywall repair behind the toilet to the inspector & he said he must have missed it on first look because former owners had trash can, magazine rack, etc. on the floor there. He said it looks like a leak was repaired there & didn't seem to be worried. He came recommended to us by a friend who has 4 properties in San Antonio & this guy inspected them all.
But we have found other things he missed, so I haven't been too impressed.
One more thing about the water...
It takes forever to heat up! So we do run it for a while to get it warm.

[Barking Spider]

YOu are talking about two different things. Supply and waste.

The high water bill is the supply pipes.
The slow draining is the waste pipes.
The slow draining sinks are probably just clogged pipes. You didn't say how old the house is, but you may want to have a plumber come out and clean the drains.
Slow draining is something that is very hard to tell during a home inspection, unless it is really slow. Sometimes everything is fine during the home inspection, then the sellers spend a lot of time cleaning before they move, and dump the dirty buckets of crud down the drains.

The high water bills are something else. The timing of the sprinklers is only part of the issue. It really has to do with how many sprinkler heads there are and what type. Say your neighbor has 5 heads and runs it for 30 minutes. You on the other hand have 10 heads and run it for 30 minutes. You are using twice the amount of water your neighbor is.

The very first thing you need to do is check for a leak. Turn everything off in the house and go out and look at the water meter. It should not be moving at all.
Next make sure your toilets are not running when they are sitting idle. Sometimes, the flapper leaks a little, water drains out of the tank, then the toilet kicks in for a few minutes to re-fill the tank. A faulty toilet can waste huge amounts of water.
If you can go under your house, go down there and look for signs of leaks.
Look around your yard for leaks in your sprinkler piping.

Hope this helps

[Ultrarunner]

Everything above ^^^^

Or, it could be as simple as a misread meter or "New Account" fees being added to the first bill.

One of our local water companies is notorious for estimating bills so as to not have to send out someone just to read the meter on closing day. They just take total usage and allocate by the number of days vs. actual usage of the individual parties.

[Cosmic]

First thing is to inspect the water bill carefully and understand how the charges are calculated. Make sure the money is for water, not something else. The amount of the bill tells us nothing. You also must understand exactly how it is calculated. Your area may have extra charges over certain amounts. How many gallons are we talking here?How many gallons is your neighbor using? Some areas the amounts are due to the sewer portion of the bill. You may also be getting a surcharge due to sewerage that can be a huge lump sum. We have gotten them here in Ohio in some towns, EPA something or other, peeps get wallop big time with an extra charge. Got to understand the bill numbers and how they are generated.

It does sound like you have some experience with more than one month's bill and they all have been high, is that correct? That would rule out book keeping type stuff or the initial readings being an estimate.

Then like the Barking Spider sezs, go read the water meter, write it down, pay close attention to the lil hand. Ensure everything is off that uses water. Water meter should not seem to be moving. Do this just before bed and everybody is no longer using water. Get up early next morning before any water use and read the meter again. This will give you many hours and detect even wee leaks well. This type procedure allows you to decide is the high water use, due to a leak of some type or is it all actual usage.

If you think you have a leak, then it is a procedure to search them down. Toilets can be the culprit. They will make a sound sometimes if the flapper is leaking, you will see ripples in the surface of the water in the bowl. If you put your ear to the tank, can usually hear it. Even small leaks can really add up. Talking 720 odd hours in a month. A few gallon per hour leak can be in the thousands total at the end of the month.

Toilets can be a main culprit. Especially if your neighbors have low flow toilets and you have old water glumping ones. A bunch of peeps, flushing old design toilets a bunch in a month can run the bill out of sight.

Your first approach is to do enough testing to decide, is the high usage due to a leak or normal use. Water sprinklers can be bad. Not all sprinklers use the same amount. Your neighbor might not be the best comparison to what is going on. If you decide there is no leak, then focus on what is using water. You can do a test again. Read the meter, flush the toilets, see how much it uses. Same with each use. See it any are abnormally high or if it more relates to very high frequency of use by some particular device. Bad habits can use a lot of water. Many peeps have that problem.

[Mjames]

Just a thought, how many months of usage are you billed for at one time? Where I used to live in Calif., we were billed every other month. Where I live now, we are billed every 3 months. Make sure you know how many months of usage you are seeing in each billing cycle.

[sidekick1026]

Originally Posted by m22

We just moved into a new home and the water bill is out of control. Over $200/mo. compared to our neighbor's $40. They have a similar lifestyle & kids, run their sprinklers a little less than we do but not much. I don't see a visible leak anywhere but we are suspicious of a big plumbing problem...
1.) all the sinks drain slow
2.) kitchen sink drain/disposal backs up & water comes out of reverse osmosis tap
3.) there are signs of water damage & repaired drywall behind a toilet that extends the full length of that wall.
4.) our toilet requires two flushes to fully drain. it sort of back-washes back into the bowl.
Ideas?

my bill went from $91 to $411 in a month.

1. shut all your water valves in the house, check water meter, if meter is running, you have leak somewhere outside.
2. put food coloring in your toilet tank, if that color reaches to the bowl, you have silent leak in your toilet, like i did. chang out all the seals in the bowl. that toilet used up 200gal in one day.
good luck to you

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by sidekick1026

my bill went from $91 to $411 in a month.

You're new here... always check dates of postings.
M22 asked their question almost 4 years ago.

[harry chickpea]

Yeah. We haven't paid a water bill in OVER four years. $100/mo x 48 months =