There's certainly been a leak somewhere...though the only evidence has been the whizzing meter with nothing in use, and a 'hiss' from the drive somewhere near the rising main, detected by an inspector with his listening rod thingy and me receiving a bill that went from average £80/6months to £700 in 6 months.
I fixed the stopcock and the meter still whizzed with it off.
The digging team came out and said it was under my property. They capped the service pipe to test it (so they say..I wasn't there, they came when no-one was home) and pushed a note through my door.
At the weekend the meter had stopped turning. I decided to take the water company at their word and changed the pipe from my stopcock back to the convenient splice where they'd spliced it. I found their philmac couplers (2, back to back..imperial to metric back to imperial). The pipe I pulled up is perfect..unless its pinholed...but would a pinhole so close to my wall leak £700 quid's worth without me noticing?
My dilemma, to avoid any further repetition, is whether the large leak that caused my meter to clock around so much, is still there and temporarily sealed, or whether the diggers were right and it was under my house. I aren't an expert in water...electric is my thing...and faults in that sort of thing tend to reoccur at the most annoying moment....powercuts on christmas day etc..unless the cause of a fault is positively identified.
If the leak's still there...I'd like it fixed for free under my 'one free repair' entitlement. I was knackered as it was, digging down to find the pipe with a little spade. If it was in the pipe I changed....well..where has the water gone? Why was the pipe I took out so dry?