The bucket test
The exact method, why the bucket has to sit in the pool, what each result means, and why the quarter-inch-a-day rule does not survive a Valley June.
Run the test →Guides and tools
Leak guides for Phoenix valley property owners
The pages people land on from a question rather than from a service name. Every one of them is written to be useful even if you never call us.
Where to start
Three questions, and the page that answers each
Most people arrive here in one of three situations.
“Is my pool actually leaking?”
Start with the bucket test. It is ten minutes of setup and it settles the question with your own pool, in your own weather, rather than against a number from the internet that was not written for a Phoenix summer.
“Why has my bill gone up?”
Read water bills across the Valley. It covers reading the usage history rather than the total, how billing periods and usage blocks differ between providers, how to find your meter and how to make it tell you whether water is moving.
“Something is wet and I do not know why.”
Go to emergency leak detection for the order to do things in, starting with finding and closing the shut-off.
Situations
Guides by what is happening
Water bills by provider
The metro is served by many water providers with different billing periods, units and usage structures. How to read yours, and where the meter is.
Read your bill →Emergency leak detection
Water getting out right now: the shut-off, the photographs, and why cutting into a slab to look makes everything worse.
What to do now →After the monsoon
Why wet ground hides the one wet patch that matters, and what storm season does to irrigation, pool plumbing and buried lines.
Storm checklist →Vacant and seasonal homes
A leak in an empty house runs until somebody looks. What to do before you fly out, and what to walk on the first day home.
Before you leave →Before you buy
An instrumented leak locate before close: the four systems worth testing and how it fits an inspection deadline.
Pre-purchase checks →Documenting a claim
What a claim file usually needs, what a written locate contains, and where our role stops.
Documentation →What a job looks like
The whole sequence from first call to the yard going back — with no job photographs, because we do not have any yet.
Start to finish →Services
If you already know what you need
The guides above are about situations. These are the services themselves, each with what it can establish and what it cannot. Leak detection and leak repair is all we do — no sewer work, no gas lines, no water heaters, no drain cleaning and no fixture or appliance installs. If what you have is not a leak, we will tell you that too.
Who is calling
Pages for particular readers
Some readers arrive with a professional problem rather than a household one — a transaction to close, a claim file to build, a board to report to, or a portfolio of units to keep dry. Those pages set out what we do for each, and what we deliberately do not.
- Realtors and escrow — a written locate on a closing timeline.
- Property managers — multi-unit water loss, scheduled access, one point of contact.
- HOA boards — common-area irrigation and shared lines, documented for the board.
- Insurance adjusters — a locate document that says what was tested and how.
- Home warranty companies — diagnosis and documentation for a file.
- Pool professionals — you found the water loss, we locate it, you keep the account.
- Seniors — a plain explanation, no pressure, and family kept in the loop if that is what you want.
By where you are
Service areas, and what is particular
Each area page covers what is actually different about the housing there, because build era decides pipe material and material decides how leaks behave. Sun City’s median housing unit dates from 1973 and 88 percent of its housing predates 1980; Buckeye’s median is 2010, with 89 percent built since 2000. Those two towns need a different first hour on site, and the pages say so.
Housing figures: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2023).
Straight answers
About these guides
Which page should I read first?
If you have a pool and the level is dropping, the bucket test. If a bill has jumped, the water bills page. If something is wet right now, the emergency page, starting with the shut-off.
Do I have to call you to use these?
No. They are written to be useful on their own, and the bucket test in particular needs nothing from us at all. If the answer turns out to be a leak, you will know far more about it than most people do when they ring.
Do you do general plumbing as well?
No. Leak detection and leak repair only — no sewer, no gas, no water heaters, no drain cleaning, no fixture or appliance installs. If what you have is outside that, we will say so.
Are these guides specific to Phoenix?
Deliberately so. Evaporation rates, monsoon damage, caliche and clay soils, flood irrigation and the way Valley providers bill are all local, and they change the answers enough that a general guide would mislead you.
Tell us what the water is doing
One line about what the water is doing, and we will point you at the page that applies — or just answer it.
Read something and still not sure?
Describe what the water is doing in one line. We will tell you which of these applies and what we would look at first.
5.0 on Google
What customers in the Phoenix valley have written. The words are theirs, on listings we cannot edit.
“Humberto has been amazing! Prompt, professional, and patient. He has gone above and beyond, taking the time to show me how to operate the water valves and educating me so I can continue to monitor for future leaks. He identified multiple leaks and made thoughtful recommendations.”
“Beto was very professional, thorough and patient in explaining everything he was doing and why. It was an excellent and well worth it experience, and this is saying something for an architect who had a hundred questions!”
“The owner and operator of this company is everything a contractor should be. On time, honest, competent, reachable, comprehensive. Hope to work with him again in the future.”