Leak Repair
Once a leak is located the repair is usually straightforward. What matters is that the located leak is the actual leak, and that we look at whether the pipe around it is in the same condition.
Leak Repair
When to call
What usually brings people to this
Root intrusion is relentless here. Mature landscaping and old clay or cast-iron joints are a bad combination that shows up as a backup every few months.
These are the symptoms that usually prompt the call. Any one of them is worth a conversation, and most of them get cheaper to deal with the earlier they are looked at.
Visible water at a fitting or valve
Staining on a ceiling or wall
Damp under a sink or behind an appliance
A meter that moves with everything off
Recurring damp that dries and returns
Plumbing problems do not improve on their own. What they do is get slowly more expensive while the damage spreads into whatever is around them.
Locate precisely
A repair is only as good as the location work in front of it.
Open the minimum needed
Access is planned to be as small as the job allows.
Repair and check the surrounding pipe
If the pipe next to the failure is in the same shape, you should know before the wall closes.
Test and restore
Pressure checked, area put back.
Worth knowingWhat leak repair actually involves
There is no upselling here. We tell you the options and the trade-offs and you pick the one that suits your situation.
The repair itself is usually the quick part. What determines whether you are back in six months is the condition of the pipe on either side of the failure, and that is worth looking at while the access is already open. If the section that failed is representative of the rest of the run, patching one spot is buying a short reprieve, and you should hear that before the wall closes rather than after the next leak.
Our trucks carry waterproof high-definition camera equipment, locating gear, cable machines and jetting capability, which means most calls are diagnosed and resolved on the same visit rather than turning into a sequence of appointments.
We cover a large territory, and that is deliberate. Being able to send someone is worth more than being closest on a map. If you are outside the usual radius, call and ask. We cover more ground than most shops our size.
We check the obvious causes before the expensive ones, in that order.
Keeping it from happening again
Plumbing problems do not improve on their own. What they do is get slowly more expensive while the damage spreads into whatever is around them.
Check the pressure at a hose bib occasionally. Above about eighty psi you are shortening the life of every fixture, valve and appliance in the building, and a regulator is a cheap fix.
Watch your water bill. A bill that climbs without a change in habits is often the only warning a hidden leak will give you before the damage shows.
Look behind and under appliances once in a while. Washing machine hoses, dishwasher connections and ice-maker lines are common leak sources and they are all hidden from normal view.
If a drain has slowed, deal with it while it is slow. A slow drain is a partial blockage announcing itself, and it will finish the job eventually at a less convenient moment.
Who you are calling
We run a genuine 24-hour line rather than an answering service that takes a message until the morning.
Forty-four years is long enough that we have worked on some properties two and three times across different owners. That kind of continuity only happens when the same family stays in the business.
We are set up so that a job involving the house, the tank and the ground between them is handled by one company under one set of licenses.
No sales pitch, and a straight explanation of what we found.
Big Mike's · Yucaipa, California
Questions we get about leak repair
If yours is not here, call and ask. We would rather talk it through than have you guess.
How long does a leak repair take?
Most are a single visit once the leak is located. Access and pipe condition drive the rest.
Will you have to open a wall?
Sometimes, and we keep it as small as possible. Locating the leak first is what keeps that opening small.
Should I repair or repipe?
One failure in sound pipe is a repair. Several failures in the same material usually means the pipe is at the end of its life.
Is a slow drip worth fixing?
Yes. A drip inside a wall or cabinet damages what is around it long before it becomes visible.
Do you work on commercial property as well as homes?
Yes. Residential, commercial and industrial, including offices, apartment complexes, hotels, restaurants and plant systems.
How soon can you get here?
We run a 24-hour line and same-day service is normal. When you call we will give you a realistic window rather than an optimistic one that slips.
Do you work with contractors and property managers?
Regularly. We coordinate around construction schedules, tenant access and operating hours as a matter of course.
Do you clean up afterwards?
Yes. We haul off whatever we replaced and put the area back. You should not be able to tell we were there except that it works.
How this fits the rest of the system
Water pressure is worth understanding because too much of it quietly destroys a house. Above about eighty psi, fixtures wear faster, appliance valves fail early and pipe joints take stress they were not designed for. A great many homes in this region run higher than they should because the supply pressure in the street is high and nobody has ever checked the regulator.
Before we come out
If there is a water meter on the property and you can find it, knowing whether it is spinning with everything off is useful information.
Yucaipa is where the shop is, and the work radiates out from there. Some days that means a call three miles away and some days it means the far side of Riverside County.
Related work and where we do it
Other work we do in homes
- Gas Line Installation
New gas runs for appliances and outdoor kitchens.
- Water Heater Installation
Replacing a tank water heater.
- Water Filtration
Point-of-entry and whole-house filtration.
- Drain Cleaning
Slow and stopped drains, cabled and cleared.
- Water Softener Installation
Hard-water treatment for Inland Empire supply.
- Boiler Repair
Residential boiler and hydronic faults.
Where we go
We run leak repair out of Yucaipa across Chino Hills, San Jacinto, Palm Springs, Banning, Bradbury, Rancho Cucamonga and Covina, and the rest of San Bernardino, Riverside and the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.
Call the shop. A person picks up.
Tell us what it is doing and we will tell you what it takes to fix it. Plain language, no sales pitch, and the number before we start.
Yucaipa, California · Serving San Bernardino, Riverside and eastern Los Angeles counties · Open 24 hours