Urgent plumbing help for leaks, drains, and sewer problemsPlumbing Service in Dallas-Fort Worth
A small leak looks harmless until you price it. Pick your city, enter your normal monthly use, and choose a leak. The math uses Dallas and Fort Worth's own published tiered rates, so the extra gallons are charged at the tier they actually land in.
Water lost per month
765 gal
Added water charge
$3.68/mo
$44.16 per year
Extra sewer if it runs December through March
$4.74/mo
locked into your sewer average
Dallas: FY26 rates (effective October 1, 2025). Dallas bills residential sewer on the average of water billed in December, January, February, and March (40,000 gallons maximum) or the actual month's water use, whichever is less.Estimates use a 30-day month and the published volume rates only; fixed monthly charges don't change with a leak. Your utility bill is the final word.
Dallas and Fort Worth don't bill your sewer on each month's water use. They lock it to your winter use. Dallas averages the water billed in December through March, capped at 40,000 gallons, or uses the actual month if that's lower. Fort Worth averages December through February and applies it from the April bill onward. A leak that runs through those months doesn't just cost you water. It raises the sewer volume you're billed for long after you fix it.
Here's what that looks like in Dallas for a household using 8,000 gallons a month with a 50-gallon-a-day leak, the size the EPA says 9% of homes have. The leak adds 1,500 gallons a month. At the $4.81 tier that's about $7.21 in water. At the $6.19 sewer rate, it's another $9.29 a month in sewer if the leak runs through the winter. The sewer side costs more than the water side.
Bigger leaks climb tiers fast. A running toilet or a slab leak losing 200 gallons a day adds 6,000 gallons a month, pushing that same Dallas household into the $7.98 tier: about $41.54 in added water charges and $37.14 in winter-locked sewer charges every month.
The cheapest time to find a leak is October or November, before your city starts measuring your winter average. Shut off every fixture and watch your meter's leak indicator. Our step-by-step meter check takes about 15 minutes. If your bill already jumped, compare it with your city's published increase in our 2026 DFW water and sewer rate guide.
Both cities set your residential sewer volume from your winter water use. Dallas averages December through March (up to 40,000 gallons) and Fort Worth averages December through February. A leak that runs during those months raises the average your sewer charge is measured against, so you keep paying for it after the leak is fixed.
The EPA says a faucet dripping once per second wastes more than 3,000 gallons a year, about 250 gallons a month. For a Dallas household already using 8,000 gallons a month, that lands in the $4.81 per 1,000 gallons tier, so it adds roughly $1.20 a month in water charges, plus about $1.55 a month in sewer charges if it runs through the winter-average months.
Turn off every fixture and appliance, then watch the leak indicator on your water meter for 15 to 30 minutes. If it moves, water is going somewhere. Our meter-check guide walks through it step by step.
No. They're estimates built from each city's published volume rates and a 30-day month. Fixed monthly charges, drainage fees, and billing-cycle length vary, and your utility bill is always the final word.
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