What is a Slab Leak?
A slab leak is a leak coming from the water pipes below your house. The water lines are typically below your slab, the concrete floor on which your home is built. Therefore, contacting a plumber at the earliest sign of a slab leak is essential. If the leak goes unnoticed, it can lead to significant severe issues, including foul odors, low water pressure, uneven floors, and even foundation cracks, which can be extremely expensive to repair.
Total Plumbing is here to provide you with all the information you need to prevent these issues from becoming more serious.
Below are Total Plumbing’s 6 ways to detect a slab leak.
- High Water Bills
The first least obvious sign of a slab leak is high water bills. If you are fully aware of the typical water usage in your home and notice an unexplained price in your water bill. Contact Total Plumbing for a maintenance check to ensure everything is working properly.
- Damp Spots
If you notice damp spots in your carpet or flooring, it is most likely a sign of a slab leak. This is because water leaking from the pipes typically has nowhere to go but up. So just like the damage you observe from ceiling leaks, damage to your flooring can be an obvious sign of a slab leak.
- Smell of Mildew
If you start to notice a weird or foul odor coming from your home, it is typically a sign of a leak, and once water seeps into your flooring, mold and mildew come shortly after, causing a terrible odor.
- Hot Spots on the Floors
If you notice warmer spots on the floor, that might signal a slab leak. Hot spots are a problematic symptom to diagnose and aren’t always the sign of a slab leak, but paired with other symptoms, they can be a tail-tale sign of a slab leak.
- Hearing running water
Are you ever sitting in silence and constantly hearing the sound of running water? You’re probably hearing your water heater run. Your water heater is likely always running because it’s trying to keep up with water leaking out of your pipes.
- Detect a Slab Leak With Your Water Meter
You can use your water meter to help you test if there is a slab leak. Turn off all plumbing fixtures and appliances. Then go and watch your water meter for 15 minutes. Your water meter will register whether any water was used during that time. If there was, this is a good indication that you have a leak somewhere, and you should call for professional slab leak detection.
Slab leaks can be one of the most expensive repairs in our industry if they go undetected. The key to reducing the damage and the cost is to catch it early.
If you detect any of these issues, contact Total Plumbing as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more significant the damage may become.
