The pipe that carries water from the street to an older Seattle house is easy to forget about. It runs underground from the meter box at the curb, under the lawn or the front steps, and into the basement or crawlspace, and as long as the taps work nobody thinks about it. When it starts to fail, though, it tends to do so quietly, and the signs are often mistaken for something else.
How these lines wear out
A lot of homes built in the first half of the last century still have galvanized steel service lines, and some later ones have early plastic or thin copper. Galvanized pipe rusts from the inside, so the opening slowly shrinks and pressure drops a little at a time. Eventually a weak spot gives way. Copper lasts longer but can pit in certain soils. Older plastic lines can crack at fittings, especially where they were bent tightly or buried near rocks.
Seattle's ground does not help. Wet winters keep the soil saturated, slopes shift a little every year, and the big street trees that make many neighbourhoods so pleasant send roots in every direction. Any of those can put stress on a line that has been in the ground for decades.
Signs worth paying attention to
The clues are usually small. Pressure that has been fading for a while, especially when two fixtures run at once. Rusty or cloudy water first thing in the morning. A patch of lawn that stays soft or unusually green through a dry spell. A water bill that creeps up with no change in habits. The sound of water moving when everything in the house is turned off.
One easy check: shut off every tap and appliance, then look at the meter at the curb. If the small leak indicator is still turning, water is going somewhere it should not.
When it looks like a basement problem
A leaking service line that enters through the foundation can show up as a damp wall or water on the basement floor, and people often assume it is groundwater. Sometimes it is. Houses on sloped lots or near ravines can take on water from outside after heavy rain, and that calls for drainage or a sump rather than a new pipe. There is a good example of how that plays out in older homes near a ravine in north Seattle, and if your wet basement looks more like seepage than a leak, read the full write-up before deciding which problem you have. The meter test above is the simplest way to tell them apart: seepage does not move the dial.
What a repair usually involves
Once a leak is confirmed, the first question is whether to patch a section or replace the whole run from the meter to the house. On an old galvanized line, a patch often just moves the next failure a few feet down the pipe, so full replacement is common. Whether that means a trench across the yard or a trenchless method depends on what is in the way: driveways, retaining walls, mature trees and the depth of the existing pipe all matter.
The utility side of the meter belongs to the water provider, and the house side belongs to the owner, so it helps to know where that line falls before work starts. A permit is normally part of the job. There is a clear walk-through of how the repair itself usually unfolds for anyone who wants the step-by-step view.
If the line breaks suddenly
A sudden break is a different situation. Know where your main shutoff is before you need it; in many older houses it is in the basement near the front wall, and the curb valve inside the meter box is the backup. Turning the water off fast limits the damage while you arrange help. It is worth looking at what to do when a line breaks after hours so the steps are familiar ahead of time.
Questions to ask before work starts
- Will the whole line be replaced, or only a section, and why?
- What material is going in, and how will it connect to the house plumbing?
- How will the yard, walkway or driveway be restored?
- Who handles the permit and the inspection?
A service line is not glamorous, but it is the one pipe everything else depends on. Catching the early signs and fixing it properly once is far easier than chasing leaks across the lawn every few winters.