Main Water Line Leak—Again

This month we got a water bill for 170$ which was 4-5 times more than it was last year. During the winter the price goes way down because we aren’t watering grass, so I knew we had another leak in the main water line. The meter was spinning very fast even with the water turned off, but we didn’t know where the leak was because there wasn’t any pooling of water anywhere. I got estimates from two plumbers. The first one wanted to dig a new trench and put in a whole new water line. He wanted to tear up the patio Siara and Nate had made, and he wanted to drill a hole in the concrete walls of the house. He wanted 3000 dollars for this destructive plan, so I called another plumber that was recommended by our house plumber, JP. The new plumber was a humble guy but had lots of experience. He suggested we get a leak finding company to locate the leak for 200 and then he would fix the leak for 100 dollars a foot they had to dig down. The leak detector company put gas in the line to figure out where the hole was, and they found it outside the patio area. It was such a relief not to have to tear up the patio. The plumber then came and dug it put and fixed it. Later I found out he would have replaced the whole line by pulling it out and would have only charged us 1200. I had texted him about that before getting the leak detector, but he didn’t get back with me in time. The leak detector people came out right away after I called them. It cost 330 (more than expected) for that and 425 for the repair. It would have been better to replace the line so we don’t get any more leaks. Oh well.