Silverdale: My Water Bill Doubled and Nothing Changed

Why this happens in Silverdale

Start with a running toilet. A flapper or fill valve that doesn't seat lets water run silently from tank to bowl. Around Ridgetop and Island Lake the housing dates from the subdivision boom after the Kitsap Mall opened, which makes this the likeliest answer to high water bill.

Then irrigation. A cracked mainline, a valve stuck open, or a drip zone that never shuts off can run a meter all night. We've seen it near Island Lake more than once, usually on first-generation polyethylene that has gone brittle.

Don't overlook a leak on the buried service line. Galvanized steel from the 1940s, copper from the 60s and 70s, polybutylene from the 80s, brittle early polyethylene: all of it fails eventually, and in Kitsap's till and outwash it can leak for months with no wet spot. On Silverdale properties from the subdivision boom after the Kitsap Mall opened it comes up more than you'd think.

Before you call

Silverdale is polybutylene country.

First steps for high water bill near Bucklin Hill: pull last year's bill for the same month and compare. Isolate irrigation at its own shutoff and re-test. Close the house main shutoff and watch again: still moving means the buried line. Then call; the rest is a locate through loose outwash on the Clear Creek flats, not guesswork.

What happens next

When it's the buried line, the fix in Silverdale is high water bill investigation: we meter test, report through a winter water table close to the surface at the marked spot on tight side yards full of irrigation, and repair. Pipe locator and the mini excavator ride on the first trip so it's finished the same visit.

Clear Creek, Bucklin Hill, Anderson Hill Road: near any of them, high water bill gets the same crew and the same equipment. Our home base, day or night, with the mini excavator on the trailer for 60- to 120-foot subdivision runs.