A slab leak is where the pipes in the foundation of your home spring a leak. They can occur anywhere in your foundation where there’s piping, both on incoming and outgoing sides of your plumbing.
How Much Damage Does a Slab Leak Cause?
The biggest problem with slab leaks is that they can go unnoticed for years, meaning that they have plenty of time to cause damage to the foundations of your home.
At first, a slab leak can damage your flooring, leaving carpets full of mildew and warping wooden floors. If it goes unchecked, the soil beneath the concrete slabs in your foundation will resettle, causing cracks and weakening the foundation. As your home becomes more crooked, you’ll find that you struggle to close your windows and doors, and might notice other structural problems like bowing walls or even a sagging roof.
Identifying a Slab Leak
Thankfully, once you know the signs of a slab leak, they’re easy to spot. While these issues might be caused by other plumbing problems, it’s vital that you call a plumber straight away if you notice any of these issues in your home:
- Increased water bills can be a sign that there’s a leak in your plumbing.
- Sudden low water pressure can also signify that a pipe has sprung a leak.
- Smelling mildew/must can be caused by water seeping into your home and can indicate a slab leak if you can’t identify the source.
- Hearing running water when no-one is using appliances often indicates a leak somewhere in your system, but you may not always be able to hear a slab leak.
- Water meter movement when no-one is using appliances usually indicates a leak and can be used to track down a slab leak if you can’t hear running water.
- A soggy/wet yard, particularly if it hasn’t rained recently, is a good indicator that there’s a leak underground.
Help! I Think There’s a Slab Leak in my Home!
If you think you’ve identified a slab leak, you need to call a plumber immediately. This isn’t a project that you can tackle yourselves, as you may cause more damage trying to find the leaking pipes.
If the damage isn’t extensive, a professional plumber will be able to access the pipe through a section of your flooring and repair it, so you don’t need to rip up your foundations. However, if your home is old, they may suggest replacing your entire plumbing system with a newer, more durable one. While this is an extensive and potentially expensive project, most modern systems come with a lifetime warranty. Using more modern plumbing can help prevent slab leaks in the future.
Sav-On: Your Slab Leak Experts in Glendale AZ
Our team has collective decades of experience in fixing slab leaks, so if you think there’s a leak in your home’s foundations, don’t hesitate to give us a call so we can get a technician out as soon as possible. We use the latest water leak detection technology to identify leaks, so we’ll be able to give you a variety of options to help resecure and protect your home.