Help! Can't find source of water

Hi!
My yard has been soggy since my husband and I bought it 3 years ago. My landscaper guy was fixing our sprinkler system (not a leak) and noticed that there was some water in the corner of the garage. We never noticed it before, nor after this day. It did however rain the previous day. We called a plumber to investigate for a possible leak. Long story short, they dug where water main comes into the house and supposedly found and repaired leak. However, within the next day or two, my husband went to check on it and sunk a foot in the covered hole due to soggy ground. We called plumber back out. They ran test and determined we supposedly have a leak under garage. I've got a giant hole in my yard and they started to tunnel but but their progress was halted by clay soil. Plumber thinks better to cut slab. I would rather reroute before cutting slab, but I'm not totally convinced there is a pipe leak. You see, I've been conducting my own experiment. The water is turned on outside. When we use water, the water meter moves as one would predict. When we are at work, no water is being used (except maybe ice maker which I keep an eye on). Since water is on but not being used, I would presume that if you had a leak, the water meter would move. Well, it doesn't. I've been taking meter readings before and after work, and there is no movement. So does this mean that there is no leak or could there be another explanation? By the way, our water bill has never been high and water pressure has always been fine. Our house was built in 2002. There has been clear water accumulating in the hole. It did however rain, so that kinda makes it difficult to determine how much of the water is from rain and how much is from supposed leak or maybe my house was built on a damn spring! Please help.

Thanks, Lisa

Is the water meter located in the house or at the street???

What Tom is saying is that if the leak is on the utility company side of your meter, your meter will not show any usage from that leak.

If, instead, the leak is on the homeowner side of the meter, you should see usage from the leak.

Thanks for the reply. The meter is located at the street. We pumped water out of hole last night. This morning there was about 7 inches of water in the hole. The meter didn't move. Next test is to shut water off and see if hole accumulates water today. I suspect it will. Could the water perhaps be from over saturation from years of slow leak. Now that the leak is repaired all that water is just seeping out??? Or Maybe there's a leak under garage from a drain pipe? Any thoughts as to what's going on is much appreciated.

Also, the leak isn't coming from the street side. It appears that the water is trickling from under garage.

Possibly springs? ??

jeffmattero76 said:

Possibly springs? ??

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That happens.
Not often, but it's possible.
Brand new home. Front yard was always soggy. builders had to install large sump with a pump.

Mr_David said:

That happens.
Not often, but it's possible.
Brand new home. Front yard was always soggy. builders had to install large sump with a pump.

Click to expand...

Happened to the old guy who used to live next door to me when he had his house built hack in the 50s. There is a creek running through his yard, so I believe he installed a French drain and piped it to the creek using gravity.

Thanks for the comments. After my tests yesterday, it seems that the hole fills when the water is turned on, but when off, it doesn't . So this brings me to the conclusion that there must be a leak, but I just don't understand why the meter reading isn't increasing when water not in use, considering the amount of water that is builds up. I crawled down in the muddy hole yesterday, and it's evident that water was trickling down from underneath garage. If it were water from a drain pipe, I would think that the water would be sudsy or perhaps have a smell to it. I did wash clothes and shower. This water is clear and odorless. It just isn't adding up to me. Maybe it's an intermittent flowing spring that just happened to be flowing during my water test. Sounds highly unlikely. I need to make a decision soon as my neighbors are given me the stink eye because of my unsightly excavation site. Would you advise that I go ahead and reroute (go through walls up into my attic) or say the hell with it and just put in a sump pump or perhaps both?? Any advice on next step would be greatly appreciated.

should be a red triangle on the meter, that is the leak detector
if it moves, water is being used

If you turn the water off at the meter and have no water come in the hole then I wouldn't think you have a spring because it would
run no matter what you do. There are companies that can locate your leak and tell you where it is at.

Also if you shout off water to the house you will not have any water in your drains outside of some condensate or something like that. I would repair the issue whatever it is, water is not to be trifled with.

Shut it off, dont shout it off