Archive for Plumbing Leak – Page 2

You Have a Slab Leak, Now What?

Maybe you’ve noticed a ridiculously high water bill or heard water running that you can’t find, maybe you’ve noticed warmth on a particular part of the flooring; when it comes to unusual predicaments like these, you need to know whether or not you’re dealing with a slab leak. What to do if you might have a slab leak?

  1. Call your reputable Plano plumber
  2. Ascertain the approximate location of leak

Don’t worry, we won’t just start busting! Our men are trained to locate the leak first.

  1. Is it outside – a yard line?
  2. Is it inside?

These are some of the easy things we do to find out where your leak is:

  • Turn shut off valve in box by house. Check your meter. Is it still running? Your leak is outside.
  • Turn shut off valve in box by house. Check your meter. Did it stop? Your leak is inside the house

Is it on the hot or cold water side?

  • Turn off water to water heater.
  • Turn valve for yard back on.

Did the meter stop? If it did, you have a hot water slab leak.

There may be more detective work involved:

  • Any hot spots on the floor when you are walking barefoot in the house?

We hook a signal generator on the water pipe and follow it with our pipe locating device. Once we know where the pipe is we take our infrared heat sensor and find the hot spots along that line.

Then we must determine the depth of the leak with our pipe locating device. We use our geodesic headset and listen for the leak. If it is difficult to hear we will pressurize the system as the harder flow of water will make the leak easier to hear.

Not until this point will we break your floor and repair. We silver solder all joints below floor.  We backfill with sand and pour back floor after testing. We do not put back finished flooring.

I hope this takes some of the anxiety out of your slab leak problem. Things never really are as bad as they seem. Hire the right plumber and you’ll be put at ease through the whole thing.