Polly Plumbing | 1762 Keller Pkwy, Keller, TX | (817) 286-3446. Written by Haven Brady, Co-Founder. Locally owned, not a franchise. Every leak diagnosis on our trucks gets reviewed by a licensed master plumber. Texas License RMP-42199. Serving Keller, Southlake, North Richland Hills, Grapevine, Flower Mound, Fort Worth, Arlington, Trophy Club, Roanoke, and all of Tarrant County.
The bill came, and the number was wrong. Not a few dollars off. Doubled, maybe worse. And when you walk the house, everything looks fine: no dripping faucet, no wet carpet, no stain on the ceiling, the toilets flushing like normal. So where did all that water go?
This is one of the more unsettling plumbing puzzles a homeowner runs into, because the water left without leaving a trace. It drained into soil, or concrete, or ran quietly at 3 a.m. while the house slept. But here is the reassuring part: you can solve most of this mystery yourself in about half an hour, with no tools and no expertise. The one test that cracks it open is sitting in a box by your curb.
This guide is a step-by-step investigation. We will confirm whether water is actually leaking with a single simple test. Then we sort the summer suspects from most to least likely, separate the cheap fixes from the ones that need a plumber, and cover the billing questions worth asking your utility before you spend a dime. Follow it in order and you will know a great deal more than the bill told you.
Start Here: The Meter Test That Answers Everything
Before hunting for a leak, confirm you have one. This test does exactly that, and it is the most useful thing in this article.
Turn off every drop of water in and around the house. Every faucet, the dishwasher, the washing machine, the ice maker, and every irrigation zone. Nothing running, nothing filling. Then find your water meter, usually in a concrete or plastic box near the street, and lift the lid.
Look for the leak indicator. Most meters have a small triangular or star-shaped dial, or a tiny wheel, that spins whenever water is moving through the meter. With everything in the house off, that indicator should be perfectly still. If it is turning, even slowly, water is flowing somewhere it should not be, and you have a leak. If you cannot spot a leak dial, write down the exact meter numbers, wait an hour using no water at all, and read them again. Any change means water moved while you were not using any.
That single result splits your entire problem in two. A still meter means you probably do not have a leak, and your high bill is coming from something else, usually usage, which the next section covers. A moving meter means water is escaping continuously, and the sections after that help you find where. Thirty minutes, no cost, and you have cut the mystery in half.
If the Meter Is Still: The Usage Suspects
A still meter is good news, and in a North Texas summer the culprit is usually not a leak at all. It is the yard.
Most of a home’s warm-season water goes outside, and irrigation is the giant on the bill. The first stretch of real heat. A new lawn or fresh landscaping. A controller quietly running longer than you realized, or a single zone that stayed on. Any of these can spike a summer bill with nothing actually broken. Before assuming the worst, check what your sprinklers have been doing, because in July and August that is the likeliest answer by far.
Other honest usage adds up too: houseguests for a week, a pool or spa filled, a new water-hungry appliance, or teenagers discovering long showers. None of that is a plumbing problem. It is real water, legitimately used, showing up on a real bill. If the meter is still and the yard checks out, the mystery may simply be a busier month than usual.
If the Meter Is Moving: The Hidden Leak Suspects
A moving meter means the water is leaving through a leak you cannot see. Here are the suspects, ranked from the cheapest and most common to the most serious.
The silent toilet. This is the number one hidden water waster, and it is often completely silent. A worn flapper lets water seep from the tank into the bowl continuously. A running toilet can waste a stunning amount of water without a sound. There is a free test for it: put a few drops of food coloring in the tank, wait fifteen minutes without flushing, and check the bowl. If color appears in the bowl, that toilet is leaking, and it is usually a cheap, quick fix, which our toilet repair guide for Keller TX covers. Test every toilet in the house; more than one can be guilty.
Irrigation leaks. Different from simply overwatering, a cracked line, a broken sprinkler head, or a valve stuck partly open can leak underground continuously, often showing as a suspiciously green or soggy patch in the yard. Running each zone and watching for abnormalities usually finds it.
A leaking appliance or fixture. A dishwasher, washing machine, water softener, or water heater can weep slowly in a way that never puddles where you would notice. A water heater in particular is worth checking, and our water heater leaking guide covers what its drips mean.
The service line. The pipe running underground from your meter to your house can develop a leak, and because it is buried in the yard, the water simply disappears into the ground. A soft, muddy, or unusually green strip running from the meter toward the house is the classic sign. This one is a real repair, and it is our water line repair guide for Keller TX territory.
A slab leak. The most serious of the common causes. When a pressurized water line under your foundation fails, it runs continuously, and the water has nowhere visible to go. The classic signs are a warm spot on the floor, the faint sound of running water when everything is off, and exactly this kind of unexplained bill. Our slab leak repair options guide covers how those get fixed, and our clay soil makes them a genuine Keller possibility.
What You Can Fix, and What Needs a Plumber
The suspects split cleanly into two groups, and knowing which is which saves you money either way.
Genuinely yours to handle: a running toilet, usually a flapper or fill valve, which is a cheap part and a short job. Adjusting an overzealous irrigation controller. Swapping an obviously cracked sprinkler head. These are real do-it-yourself wins, and for a still meter caused by irrigation, the fix is often just a schedule change.
The plumber’s side: anything buried or hidden. A service line leak, a slab leak, or a leak you know is there because the meter is moving but cannot locate, all need professional detection. This is where acoustic listening equipment and thermal imaging earn their keep, pinpointing water behind concrete or under the yard to within inches so the repair stays small. That process is our leak detection guide for Keller TX, and it is the difference between fixing a leak and excavating a guess.
The honest rule: if the meter is moving and the toilets all passed the dye test, the leak is hidden, and hidden leaks are found with equipment, not luck.
Polly Plumbing is a locally owned shop on Keller Parkway. We find hidden leaks and fix the plumbing behind them across Keller and Tarrant County, and every finding comes to you in writing.
Call Your Utility, Too: Billing and the Data They Have
Here is a step most people skip, and it is worth taking before you assume the worst about your pipes.
Sometimes the bill itself is the problem. An estimated read rather than an actual one, a meter reading error, or a new tiered rate or sewer fee can push a bill up without a single drop leaking. It is worth a call to your water utility to confirm the reading was actual and to ask whether rates changed.
While you have them on the phone, ask for your daily usage history. Most utilities log consumption by the day, and that data is quietly powerful. A leak that started on a particular date shows up as an obvious step-change in the numbers, jumping from normal to high on the day it began and staying there. That timeline tells you whether you are chasing a sudden failure or a slow creep. It can even point at the cause: a spike that lines up with a hot weekend is likely irrigation, while a jump with no explanation is likely a leak. That history is free, and it is one of the best diagnostic tools you are not using.
Why Hard Water Quietly Raises Bills Here
There is a slow, local reason these small leaks keep appearing, and it is worth understanding.
Keller’s water is hard, and over the years that mineral load wears on everything it touches: valve cartridges, toilet flappers, fill valves, irrigation components, and the moving parts inside a water softener. The City of Keller’s water quality reports put local hardness among the highest in Texas. That steady wear is why flappers fail, cartridges start to seep, and small drips appear a little sooner here than in softer-water places. It rarely causes a dramatic leak on its own, but it accelerates the small failures that quietly raise a bill, which is one more reason a softener can pay for itself over time. Our water softener guide for Keller TX runs that decision honestly.
When a High Bill Is Worth Acting On Fast
Most high bills are a puzzle you can take a day or two to solve. A few deserve quicker attention.
If the meter is moving fast with everything off, water is being lost in real volume, and every day adds to both the bill and any damage. If you find a warm spot on the floor or hear running water with the house silent, that points toward a slab leak worth confirming promptly. And a soft, soggy strip across the yard from the meter suggests a service line losing water into the ground continuously. None of these are middle-of-the-night emergencies in the way a burst pipe is. But they are this-week problems, not this-season ones, because a continuous leak only gets more expensive the longer it runs. When you are ready to have it found, a live person answers day or night, there is no emergency surcharge, and the written quote is the invoice.
We Are Close By
Polly Plumbing finds hidden leaks and repairs the plumbing behind them from our shop on Keller Parkway, serving Keller, Southlake, North Richland Hills, Flower Mound, Fort Worth, Arlington, Trophy Club, Roanoke, and all of Tarrant County.
Meter still spinning with everything off? That is water you are paying for, going somewhere you cannot see. Call (817) 286-3446. Live agents answer 24/7, we pinpoint it before anyone digs, and the written quote is the invoice.
Frequently Asked Questions About High Water Bills
Why is my water bill so high with no visible leak?
Because the water is leaving where you cannot see it, or it is legitimate usage you did not notice. Start with the meter test: turn off all water, then watch the meter’s leak indicator. If it moves, you have a hidden leak, commonly a silent toilet, an irrigation line, a leaking appliance, a buried service line, or a slab leak under the foundation. If the meter is still, the cause is usually usage, and in a Keller summer that almost always means irrigation. Thirty minutes of testing splits the mystery in half. Call Polly Plumbing at (817) 286-3446 if the meter keeps moving.
How do I check my water meter for a leak?
Turn off every water source in and around the house, including irrigation and the ice maker. Find your meter in its box near the street and lift the lid. Look for the small triangular or star-shaped leak indicator, which spins when water moves; with everything off, it should be still. If it turns, you have a leak. If there is no such dial, record the exact numbers, wait an hour using no water, and read again, any change means water flowed. This simple test confirms whether a leak exists before anyone starts looking. Call Polly Plumbing at (817) 286-3446.
Can a running toilet really raise my water bill that much?
Yes, dramatically, and often silently. A worn flapper lets water seep continuously from the tank into the bowl, wasting a large volume around the clock without any sound. Test it free: put a few drops of food coloring in the tank, wait fifteen minutes without flushing, and look in the bowl. Color in the bowl means that toilet is leaking. The fix is usually a cheap flapper or fill valve and a short job. Test every toilet, since more than one can leak. Call Polly Plumbing at (817) 286-3446 if you would rather have it handled.
Is my high summer water bill a leak or just irrigation?
In a North Texas summer, irrigation is the more likely answer, which the meter test confirms quickly. Most warm-season household water goes outdoors, so the first real heat, a new lawn, or a controller running longer than you realized can spike the bill with nothing broken. Run the meter test with irrigation off: a still meter points to usage, and the fix may be just a schedule change. A moving meter means an actual leak, which could be an irrigation line, a service line, or a slab leak. Rule out the sprinklers first. Call Polly Plumbing at (817) 286-3446.
What are the signs of a slab leak causing a high bill?
The classic trio: a warm spot on the floor, often from a hot water line, the faint sound of running water when every fixture is off, and an unexplained jump in the bill with no visible water. Because a slab leak is under the foundation, the water has nowhere obvious to go, so the bill and these subtle signs are often the only clues. The meter test will confirm water is being lost, but pinpointing a slab leak needs electronic detection, not DIY. Keller’s clay soil makes slab leaks a real possibility. Call Polly Plumbing at (817) 286-3446.
Could my high water bill be a billing or meter error?
Yes, and it is worth checking before assuming a leak. An estimated read instead of an actual one, a meter reading error, or a new tiered rate or sewer fee can raise a bill with nothing leaking. Call your water utility to confirm the reading was actual and ask whether rates changed. While you are at it, request your daily usage history, which shows exactly when consumption jumped, a leak appears as a step-change on the day it began. That timeline separates a sudden leak from a busy month. If the data points to a leak, call Polly Plumbing at (817) 286-3446.
When should I call a plumber about a high water bill?
When the meter is moving with everything off and the toilets all passed the dye test, because that means the leak is hidden and needs equipment to find. Also call promptly if you notice a warm floor spot, running water you can hear but not see, or a soggy strip across the yard from the meter, all signs of a continuous leak that gets more expensive daily. Running toilets and irrigation adjustments you can often handle yourself, but buried and slab leaks need professional detection. Call Polly Plumbing at (817) 286-3446 to have a hidden leak pinpointed.