[Texas, NW Austin area; the house is a production home built in '87 on a monolithic slab on grade] Our bill has nearly doubled in the last 2 months; the first month we passed it off to other circumstances that we thought might have caused it, but this last bill should not have been so high... (reference the attached drawing as a visual aid) I checked the meter with everything turned off in the house, and the triangle was turning pretty fast. I don't have a shut off at the house though, only on my side of the meter. I thought I knew where the service line entered the house; there are (2) 3/4" PVC pipes that come out of the ground on the right side of the garage (relative to the street view) and enter the wall. There is a water softener on the opposite side of the wall, and the water heater is in a closet open to the garage, on the wall common to the house. There is a hose bib on the left (north) side of the house coming out of the wall, but that is all. The past few weeks have been very dry, and I don't have much grass under my big trees in the front, so it should show very obviously... I couldn't find any signs of water in any logical path between the south garage corner and the meter, which is on the opposite lot corner, across the driveway... however, while I was looking, my neighbor came out, and after telling him my problem, he said he noticed that the ground next to his house, which is a couple of feet down a short hill from mine was really soggy and lush. We walked over and I could push my heal a few inches into the ground. The soft area was almost the full length of his house, along the low area; you could feel the ground compress below your feet while walking. We dug a hole and it collected water almost immediately. However, [i]this area is nowhere near the expected/logical path of the service line[/i]... It was getting late, so I turned the water off at the meter and went to bed. I went out to turn the water back on this morning and the water had drained from the hole; within minutes of turning it back on, the hole collected water again... [i]this is definitely coming from my service line...[/i] I dug another hole east of the first one, and it collected water, another east of it, and it did not collect... I went back and dug one west of the first; it collected water, so I dug another west, and it did not. I dug 3 more holes uphill, centered on the middle hole of the first row, and the one in the middle collected water within an hour... I'm relatively certain I have found the general area of the leak, but not sure where to put my efforts; the big juniper trees would have been there when the house was built in '87, so it doesn't seem logical that they would have run the line through the clump of trees, but the outermost tree is up the hill and on on my property line... is it possible that they ran the line onto my neighbors lower property, around the trees and rocks, and back up and over to the north corner of my house, entering the slab below grade? [attach]103091[/attach]

Hi all, I embarked on a bathroom remodel project. A 48x36 rectangular shower is being converted to a 36x36 corder shower stall. I did not expect to see a vent pipe inside the inner wall of the rectangular shower stall. It goes up into the attic directly above. Please see attached image. This wall has to go, so something needs to be done about the vent pipe. Is it alright to add a few elbows and re-route the vent pipe along the floor, up the side wall and into the attic? Thanks Tbone [attach]103291[/attach]