Key takeaways
- A standard home inspection rarely tests the buried service line; a five-minute meter test does.
- Look at the pipe at the point of entry: gray threaded steel is galvanized, gray flexible plastic is polybutylene, both are replacement candidates.
- Find the footing drain outlet and the downspout outlets; if nobody can, budget for drainage work.
- Ask for drawings of the private lines; if there are none, a private locate before any project is cheap insurance.
Why the buried line gets missed
A home inspector looks at what's visible: the water heater, the fixtures, the pipe at the point of entry, the crawlspace. The service line from the meter to the house is buried and nobody tests it, which is how buyers inherit a leak that has been running since before the listing. The meter test takes five minutes and the seller's water bills for the last year tell the rest of the story.
The checklist
- Do the meter test: everything off, low-flow indicator watched, house isolated. On a well, watch the pump with nothing running.
- Ask for twelve months of water bills, or on a well, the pump's age and service history.
- Look at the service line at the point of entry and at the meter: galvanized steel and polybutylene are end-of-life materials in Kitsap.
- Note the house's era: 1940s shipyard housing, 1960s–70s copper, 1980s–90s polybutylene subdivisions each have a known failure pattern.
- Open the crawlspace hatch after rain. Standing water, floating vapor barrier or staining on the foundation means drainage work.
- Find the footing drain outlet and the downspout outlets. If the seller doesn't know where they are, assume they're buried or failed.
- Walk the lot for soft spots, sunken trench lines and green stripes in dry weather.
- On a slope lot, look at the uphill side of the house for a curtain drain or the lack of one.
- Ask for any drawings of private lines, septic as-builts and irrigation layouts.
What the answers mean
A moving meter is a negotiation item and a repair before or just after closing. Galvanized or polybutylene on a long run is a replacement to budget for even if it isn't leaking yet. A wet crawlspace with no findable drain outlets is a footing drain and downspout project. None of these should kill a deal on the peninsula, because almost every house here has one of them; they should just be known and priced.
After closing
Before the first fence post, tree or patio, get the private lines located and keep the sketch. Do the meter test again in a month. And if anything on the checklist came up, get it on the calendar for the dry season.
Written by the crew at 360 Leak Finders
We locate, excavate and repair buried water lines and exterior drains across Kitsap County, 24 hours a day. If this guide raised a question about your property, call (206) 354-9906.