Redlands slab leaks, found before the concrete comes up
If a patch of floor feels warm or the water bill went up and stayed up, there may be a pressurized line leaking under your slab. We test for it, pin it down, and open only what the repair needs. The same family has run this shop out of Yucaipa since 1982, and Redlands has been on our regular route for years.
First signs
A warm patch of floor, and a bill that will not come down
Most slab leaks are quiet about it. Nothing drips and nothing floods, and the first clue is usually something you feel with bare feet or read on paper.
In a slab house the water lines run under the concrete, and they are under pressure all day and all night. When one of them opens up, even to a pinhole, it runs whether anybody is using water or not, soaking the soil under the foundation the whole time. You find out when it surfaces somewhere you happen to look.
These are the things people describe when they call us about one:
One spot on the floor that feels warmer than the rest of the room
A water bill that jumped and never dropped back
A faint hiss or trickle when the house is silent at night
Carpet damp at the edge with no plumbing anywhere near it
Baseboard swelling or grout darkening along one wall
Hot water taking longer to show up at the tap than it used to
Any one of those is worth a phone call. If two of them are happening at once, we would want to come out and test.
Your water meter can tell you before we do
There is a check you can run yourself before anybody drives over, and it costs you nothing. What the meter shows is whether water is leaving the house while nothing inside should be using it, which is the first thing we would ask you anyway. Finding where it is going comes later, and that part is our job.
A meter that sits perfectly still is useful information too. It makes a constant leak on the supply side unlikely and points us at other causes, so tell us either way.
Turn everything off
Faucets, the washer, the dishwasher, the sprinklers and the ice maker. Let the toilets finish refilling before you start watching.
Find the meter
On most properties it sits in a box near the street or the sidewalk. Lift the lid carefully, because spiders like it in there as much as we do not.
Watch the small dial
Many meters have a little triangle or star that turns with even a slow flow. Give it a while and see whether it creeps.
Tell us what you saw
Whether it turned, and roughly how fast, changes how we start. Mention it when you call the shop and we will plan the visit around it.
Pinning the leak down before any concrete is cut
Once we know water is going somewhere, the real work is finding exactly where under the floor it is going. That matters more than the repair itself, because a leak located properly means one small opening in the floor, while a guess can mean a trench across the kitchen.
Pressure testing comes first. We isolate the hot side from the cold side and see which one refuses to hold, which tells us which line we are hunting for and often which run of it.
Acoustic listening is next. Water forced out of a pinhole under pressure makes a sound, and with the right equipment we follow that sound across the slab until it is loudest. Tile and bare concrete carry it well. Thick carpet and pad make us work harder for it.
Thermal imaging earns its keep on the hot side, where a leaking line warms the concrete above it in a shape the camera can see. A leak on a cold line shows nothing on thermal at all, which is one reason we never lean on a single method.
When the tests agree, we mark the floor. That mark is where the opening goes, and if we have done our part right it is the only opening.
Now and then the mark lands under a kitchen cabinet, a built-in or a shower pan. When that happens we stop and talk it over before anything gets moved, because going around the problem with new pipe can be cleaner than digging under something that was built to stay put.
Find it first. Then cut once.
Fix the spot, or take the water out of the slab
With the leak found there are two honest ways to deal with it, and the condition of the pipe decides which one we recommend.
A spot repair means opening the floor at the mark, cutting out the failed piece of line, joining in new pipe and closing it back up. When the rest of that line is in decent shape and this is the first time it has leaked, that is the sensible job and we will tell you so.
Rerouting is the other answer. The line under the slab gets capped and left where it is, and new pipe runs overhead through the attic and down inside the walls to the fixtures it used to feed. It is more pipe, but it leaves the concrete alone, and it is the repair that actually ends the trouble once the old line has started letting go in more than one place. A second leak on the same run is usually when we bring it up.
On a house with a long history of copper trouble, rerouting one line can open a bigger conversation about the rest of the supply piping. If we think it is heading that way we will say it plainly, and if we think it is nowhere close we will say that too.
Either way you hear our reasoning and see the number before any work starts. There is more on how we handle slab leak repair and detection across the whole service area, and you can look through photos from past jobs to see what an opening like this looks like.
We have worked on Redlands homes and businesses out of our Yucaipa shop for a long time, and slab work is a regular part of it. If the floor or the meter is acting strange, tell us what you have noticed and we will say what we would check first.
The rest of what we do in Redlands
- Sewer Line Repair
Backups that keep returning.
- Drain Cleaning
Slow or stopped drains.
- Repiping
Leaks in several rooms.
- Water Heater Installation
Leaking or worn-out tanks.
Everything else we cover in town is on the Redlands page, and the slab leak repair page covers this work wherever you are in the valley.
What do Redlands owners ask us about slab leaks?
Your question not here? The phone is answered at any hour.
Does a warm floor always mean a slab leak?
No. A warm patch usually points to the hot side, since a cold line leaking under the slab gives off no heat at all. Sun through a window, a heating duct under the floor or a rug over a vent can fool you too, which is why we confirm with testing before anything is opened.
My meter moves but I can't find anything wet. What now?
That tells you water is leaving the system somewhere, which is all a meter can tell you. A toilet that keeps refilling, a sprinkler valve that will not seat or a line under the slab can all turn it. We rule out the easy ones first and then test the lines.
Will you have to tear up my floors?
Not the way most people picture it. Once the leak is pinned down we open a section of floor over that spot, wide enough to work in and no wider. If it sits under tile or wood flooring, we talk that through with you before anything gets cut.
Should I shut the water off while I wait?
If water is showing on the floor or the bill is climbing fast, close the main and call. If the warm spot suggests the hot side, closing the cold inlet valve on top of the water heater can slow the leak while you wait, as long as you can live without hot water for a bit.
Is rerouting through the attic a bigger job than a spot repair?
It is more pipe and usually less concrete. The failing line stays in the slab, capped and unused, and new pipe runs overhead to the fixtures it served. When a line under the floor has already leaked more than once, that tends to be the repair that finishes the problem.
Can you get out to Redlands the same day?
Somebody picks up at any hour, and getting out the same day is the usual. A slab leak is pressurized and keeps running until it is fixed or shut off, so tell us on the phone what you are seeing and we will tell you what to close before we get there.
Floor warm, meter turning? Call the shop.
Tell us what you have noticed and we will tell you what we would test first and what to shut off in the meantime. A person answers the line around the clock, and the number comes before any concrete gets touched.