“Slab leaks” sound scary, and they can be—somewhat. A slab leak is the name that plumbers use to describe leaks in pipes that occur under concrete or stone slabs, principally in the water lines that run under the concrete foundations of a house. Slab leaks occur because of shifting in the ground or aging pipes, and once they start they can be difficult to locate and repair.
So what can you do about them? Simple: nothing.
But wait… before you throw up your hands and give up, we need to elaborate. There’s nothing you can do personally to fix a slab leak. You lack the tools and experience (unless you are a professional plumber) to access the leak under the hard surface and repair it. However, you can call Brooks Plumbing in Olympia, WA and have our specialists in slab leak repair take care of the problem.
More about Slab Leaks
You may be curious as to how professionals handle leaks that occur down inside stone or concrete, and how they even know where to look to find them.
The first thing that slab leak repair technicians do is use special listening equipment, usually small discs that operate similar to stethoscopes, to find the sound of water escaping through the stone. If they need to narrow down the search area further, they can use pressure scanners or send video camera equipment on a long fiber-optic line down into the plumbing system to pinpoint the exact leak location.
Once they’ve done this and they know the location and the extent of the leak, the plumbers will know how best to address the problem. The most common method is to use a jackhammer excavate the area above the pipe and then seal it. However, for smaller leaks, the plumbers can sometimes use non-intrusive methods to fix the problem. If leaks are caught soon enough, plumbers will usually be able to repair the problem with minimal excavating.
Keep a close look-out for signs of slab leaks so you can call for plumbing help as soon as possible: elevated water bills, dampness in the basement, cracks appearing along across concrete, unexplained water pools, the growth of mold and mildew. If any of these indications show up, you may have a slave leak and you should call for assistance from professional plumbers as soon as possible.
Brooks Plumbing has helped homeowners with slab leaks in Olympia, WA, including other types of plumbing problems since 1994. You can trust to our skill and professionalism to get the job you need done fast and right. “Quality in Everything We Do” is our motto, and we live by it!
