Leak Detection in Vintage Court

Last reviewed and updated: 2026-09-28

Vintage Court is a named residential community in the Marietta area. In neighborhoods built out in a single phase, the plumbing tends to be consistent from house to house, same era, same material, same installer, which makes diagnosis faster and means failures often arrive in clusters rather than one at a time.

The starting point is always the same: confirm the leak at the meter, establish whether it is inside the house or out in the buried service line, then locate it without opening anything.

Claiming the leak credit afterwards

Once the leak is repaired, your water utility may credit part of the inflated bill, but only if you can prove what was wrong and what was done about it.

Cobb County Water System allows a partial credit once in a rolling 12-month period, applied to no more than two affected months. The county describes it as "a partial offset of the costs associated with certain plumbing failures, not to fully compensate a customer for the costs of a leak." You need your account address and number, a brief explanation of the leak, and a plumbing repair receipt, a receipt for parts, or at minimum a letter explaining what was done. Pool leaks also require the pool volume, and you keep paying the bill while the claim is processed.

Marietta Power & Water runs its own separate process for City of Marietta customers. Check the utility name on your bill to see which applies to you.

Water pressure as an early warning

Pressure is one of the few things that tells you something is wrong before any water appears.

A sudden drop across the whole house usually means water is escaping before it reaches your fixtures, a valve has partly closed or failed, or the utility is working on the main. Ask a neighbor first, if their pressure dropped too, it is the utility and not your plumbing. If the drop is only at your house, see sudden low water pressure. A drop confined to one fixture is almost always a blocked aerator or a worn cartridge.

Pressure that is too high is its own problem. Sustained static pressure above roughly 80 psi shortens the life of supply lines, water heaters, valves and appliance hoses, and contributes directly to pinhole leaks. A gauge that screws onto an outside tap costs very little. If a house has had several unrelated leaks, a failed or missing pressure-reducing valve is worth ruling out.

Start at the water meter

Before anything else, confirm the leak exists. Turn off every tap, appliance, icemaker and irrigation zone, then find your meter, usually in a covered box near the curb, and watch the low-flow indicator. It is a small triangle, star or dial designed to turn at very low flow rates. If it moves while nothing is running, water is escaping somewhere on your side of the meter.

1. Record the full reading and leave the property untouched for one to two hours.
2. Read it again. Any change confirms a leak, even if the indicator was moving too slowly to see.
3. Close the main house shut-off and re-check. Still moving means the leak is in the buried service line between the meter and the house. Stopped means it is inside or under the house.
4. Isolate irrigation separately if you have sprinklers, since they usually tee off before the house valves.

That single test costs nothing and narrows the problem more than anything else you can do yourself.

Supply leak or drain leak: the timing test

One observation you can make yourself narrows the problem in half, and it costs nothing.

A supply line is pressurized all the time, so a supply leak runs constantly, day and night, whether anyone is home or not. A drain line only carries water while something is draining, so a drain leak appears in the minutes after a shower, a bath, a dishwasher or a washing-machine cycle, and then stops.

That distinction decides which equipment is used. Pressurized leaks are found acoustically, by listening for the hiss of escaping water through concrete or soil. Drain leaks make almost no sound at all, so they are diagnosed with a camera inspection, smoke testing or a hydrostatic test instead. Tell us which pattern you are seeing and the visit gets considerably shorter.

Which water utility bills you here

Most addresses outside the City of Marietta utility service area are billed by Cobb County Water System, which allows a partial leak credit once per rolling 12-month period across no more than two affected months, with proof of repair required. A Marietta mailing address does not by itself make you a city utility customer, the name printed on your bill is what settles it.

Local notes

Know where your main shut-off valve is and check that it actually turns, before you need it. The middle of an active leak is the worst possible moment to discover it is seized, and being able to close it is what limits the damage while you arrange a proper look.

Frequently asked questions