Same or next day
Water bill climbed with no change in usage
The water bill has jumped by a noticeable amount with no guests, no filling of the pool and no change in routine. In a villa, irrigation is often the largest outdoor user, and a fault there can waste water every night without anyone seeing it.
Irrigation & Landscape
A valve stuck open is treated as urgent because of the water it wastes.
Call nowBook a water-use check on WhatsApp01LIKELY CAUSES
What usually sits behind this symptom, and what tells one cause from another.
Valve stuck open or weeping
Meter moves with all indoor water off; one zone flows when it should be off.
Underground leak on the irrigation mainline
Meter moves with the irrigation valves closed but mainline live.
Controller schedule doubled or reset
Multiple start times or extra cycles programmed.
Broken heads spraying freely
Geysers or puddles during the cycle.
02BEFORE ANYONE VISITS
What you can safely check.
- Turn off every tap and appliance and watch the water meter for 15 minutes.
- Review the controller programme for extra start times.
- Walk the garden during a cycle and look for geysers.
- Compare recent bills to the same months last year.
03WHAT WE MEASURE
We read the meter with everything off, then isolate the irrigation supply to see whether the meter stops. Each zone is run and checked, the programme is reviewed, and valves are inspected. If the irrigation is cleared, the search moves to the plumbing.
04IN A VILLA
Villa gardens have more zones and longer runs than any apartment balcony, and many controllers have multiple programmes. A small fault running every night across a large plot shows on the bill long before it shows in the garden.
05THE FIX
Which repair, and when.
Every billing cycle adds to the cost, and an underground leak can undermine paving or cause damp near the house.
Repair or replace the faulty valve
A zone is not closing.
Locate and repair the mainline leak
The meter moves with valves closed.
Reprogram the controller to match the season
The schedule is the cause.
06Typical villa irrigation callout
AED 180 – 900 depending on the fault
Controller, battery and single-solenoid faults sit at the lower end. Buried line location and repair sits higher and depends on where the fault turns out to be.
07QUESTIONS
- Is it definitely the irrigation?
- Not always. Isolating the irrigation supply and reading the meter decides between irrigation and plumbing.
- How much water can irrigation use?
- It varies widely with plot size, planting and season, which is why the controller programme is worth reviewing each season.