Underground leaks announce themselves — if you know the signs
A sprinkler leak rarely surfaces as a dramatic geyser. More often it is subtle: a patch of lawn that is always soggy while the rest is normal, a water bill that climbed for no reason, a section of walkway that stays damp, soil sinking along a line where the pipe washed out underneath. In Kissimmee's sandy soil, leaking water drains downward fast, which means a significant break can run for months with only a soft spot and a rising bill as evidence. We find these leaks systematically and repair the pipe — not the symptom.
How we find what you cannot see
Leak detection starts with the system's behavior: which zone shows pressure loss, which area stays wet, where the meter spins when everything is off. We isolate zones one at a time — running each while watching pressure and listening at the valve box — to narrow the break to a single lateral line. Then we walk that line's path, probing soil moisture and looking for the subtle surface signs: greener grass strips, soft ground, water weeping at seams. For stubborn cases, we use acoustic listening to hear pressurized water escaping underground. The goal is always the same: one precise dig, not a trench across the yard.
What breaks pipes in Central Florida
Tree roots are the number one pipe killer — they find the moisture at glued joints and pry them apart over the years. Shallow pipes get crushed by vehicles or cracked by edgers and aerators. Old PVC gets brittle with age and heat cycling. And poor original workmanship — dry-fit joints that were never properly glued, pipes laid without bedding — fails on its own timeline. When we repair, we cut back to sound pipe, use proper primer and solvent welds, bed the repair in clean fill, and pressure-test before backfilling. The repair should outlast the original.
The water bill tells the truth
If your bill jumped and nothing else changed, check the irrigation first — a single broken lateral can lose thousands of gallons between cycles, and because it drains into sandy soil, you may never see surface water. We have found leaks that had been running for a full billing cycle or more, each one costing more than the repair would have. A meter test takes minutes: everything off, watch the meter. If it moves, water is going somewhere it should not.
After the repair: preventing the next leak
Every leak has a cause, and addressing it prevents repeats. Root intrusion calls for root barriers or rerouted lines with root-resistant joints. Shallow-pipe damage calls for proper burial depth on the repair section. Brittle aging pipe across the whole system calls for an honest conversation about phased repiping versus continued spot repairs — we will show you the math both ways. And water hammer, the pressure spike that cracks fittings, calls for an arrestor at the source. We do not just patch the hole; we tell you why it happened and what keeps it from happening again. That is the difference between a repair and a solution.
How it works
Symptom mapping. We document the wet areas, bill history, and which zones behave oddly. Zone isolation. Each zone pressurized individually to identify the leaking line. Precise location. Moisture probing and acoustic listening narrow the break to a small area. Surgical repair. One clean excavation, proper pipe repair with pressure testing. Restoration. Backfilled, tamped, and sodded — plus a full zone test to confirm the fix.
What it costs
Leak detection and pipe repair in Kissimmee typically runs $200-$600, depending on how deep the line is, how hard it is to access, and how much pipe needs replacing. A shallow lateral break in open lawn sits low; a deep mainline break under pavers sits higher. Prices vary — you get a written price once we have located the leak, before we dig. Compare that to another month of leak-inflated water bills.
Stop paying for water your lawn never sees
Every day a leak runs is money literally going into the ground. If your bill spiked, if a spot never dries, if the soil is sinking along a line — send the form. We will find it, fix it, and prove it with a meter that finally sits still.
Trust the meter
Your water meter is the most honest diagnostic tool on the property. Once a season, turn everything off — irrigation, house water, all of it — and watch the meter for ten minutes. If it moves, water is going somewhere it should not, and finding it early is always cheaper than finding it late. Make it a habit alongside checking the irrigation zones visually each month: walk the yard while a zone runs, look for the soggy spots and the weak heads, and call at the first sign rather than the tenth. Leaks reward early attention like nothing else in irrigation.