Front yard, stop 3 of 5

Who fixes the water line under your front yard?

In Columbia the water line from meter to house is yours to own and maintain, and the city doesn’t repair private lines.¹ The city’s part ends at the meter.² On another system, read the name on your bill and ask that office.

Stand at the meter box and face the house. The line runs somewhere under the ground between you and the wall.

Updated November 4, 2026, Midlands House Walk

Green plastic meter box lid flush in a front lawn by a sidewalk, brick ranch house behind it — The box at the sidewalk and the house behind it. In Columbia, the buried stretch between the two is the owner’s.¹ AI-generated picture.

Brick cottage with an arched door set back behind a worn, patchy yard and a large oak trunk — A Melrose Heights cottage in Columbia, set well back behind an oak. A deep yard means more buried line to own.

Where does the line run?

Look for: Find where a pipe comes up at the house and draw a mental line back to the box. It’s a guess and not a map, so treat it as one.
What it tells you: The route matters before any digging. SC811 is free and needs at least three business days,³ but private lines may not get marked, so ask when you file before digging.

Hole dug in a garden exposing an old lead water service pipe running toward a house — An old lead service pipe uncovered in a Washington, D.C. garden, not South Carolina. Most of us never see our own line this way.

What is the line made of?

Look for: Look at the pipe where it rises at your wall and note what you can see. The buried part stays a question until someone digs or the records say.
What it tells you: Lead pipes are more likely in homes built before 1986, and testing is the only sure way to know what’s in your water.⁴ Ask your utility or a licensed plumber about the line. Utilities must keep an inventory and notify customers.⁵

Red-handled brass valve on copper pipe coming out of mulch and into a brick foundation — The house end of your stretch, where the pipe comes up to the wall. Yours may or may not have a valve. AI-generated picture.

What's on the house end?

Look for: Check where the pipe enters the foundation. Columbia’s diagram labels a House Cut-off on the owner’s side.¹
What it tells you: From the meter to here and on through the house, the plumbing is the owner’s in Columbia.² With your house shutoff closed and the dial still moving, this buried stretch becomes the suspect.

Water tower on Augusta Highway with the Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission name painted on it, traffic signals in front — The Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission tower in Lexington. Whatever name is on your bill is the one to ask.

What if Columbia isn't your water company?

Look for: Read the bill. West Columbia, Cayce, the Town of Lexington and the Joint Commission are separate providers.⁶
What it tells you: Columbia’s split doesn’t automatically carry over. Ask where your utility’s part ends, and start with whose water it is.

Do you need that coverage plan in the mail?

Columbia says optional coverage isn’t required.² Whether a plan suits you depends on its terms, so read them before signing anything.

Yours to do

Run the meter leak test and keep the readings.
Watch for a wet or greener strip between box and house, then read the soggy patch stop.
After a repair, ask Columbia about its plumbing repair reduction. It covers no more than three months, once in 12 months.¹

For a licensed pro

Digging up, repairing or replacing the line goes to a licensed plumber. Who to call covers what they’ll need.
Working out what the buried pipe is made of when nobody has records.

Where this comes from

Keep walking (AI picture)Check your water meter for a leak