Slab Leak Repair
A slab leak is a pressurized water line failing underneath a concrete foundation. It is common in this region because of how much housing here sits on slab, and because of what hard water does to copper over decades.
Slab 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.
A warm or hot spot on the floor
Water bills climbing for no reason
The sound of running water with everything off
Cracking in the slab or flooring lifting
Low water pressure throughout the house
Once water has been somewhere it should not be for a while, you are paying for drying and repair as well as plumbing.
How we work it
Knowing the difference between a line that needs clearing and a line that needs replacing saves people a great deal of money.
Confirm and locate
Detection equipment narrows it to a spot. Nobody opens concrete on a guess.
Look at the whole system
One slab leak in an old copper system often means more are coming. That changes whether a spot repair or a repipe is the sensible answer.
Pick the right repair
Spot repair through the slab, rerouting the line overhead, or repiping. Each makes sense in different situations and we will tell you which is which.
Repair and restore
The concrete goes back and the area gets put right.
Worth knowingWhat slab leak repair actually involves
You get the number before any work begins, and it is based on what we actually found rather than a worst-case figure padded for safety.
Slab leaks in this region follow a fairly predictable pattern. A house built in the 1960s through the 1980s on a concrete slab, plumbed in copper, carrying hard water for forty or fifty years, will eventually start producing pinhole failures in the lines underneath. The first one feels like bad luck. The second one, a year or two later, is the system telling you something. That is the point at which rerouting the lines overhead or repiping the house becomes cheaper than continuing to open the slab, and we will say so plainly when we think you have reached it.
Pressure testing, acoustic listening and thermal imaging all get used regularly here, because slab construction makes hidden leaks a routine part of the work.
We are based in Yucaipa and work outward across San Bernardino County, Riverside County and the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. If you are outside the usual radius, call and ask. We cover more ground than most shops our size.
Knowing the difference between a line that needs clearing and a line that needs replacing saves people a great deal of money.
Keeping it from happening again
Once water has been somewhere it should not be for a while, you are paying for drying and repair as well as plumbing.
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.
If you have had a line cleared more than once, ask for a camera inspection rather than a third clearing. Repeated blockages nearly always have a physical cause worth finding.
Wipes should not go down any drain, whether the packet says flushable or not. They do not break down, and they are behind a large share of the main line blockages we clear.
Keep grease out of drains, and that includes running hot water after it. Hot water simply carries it further down the line to somewhere less convenient.
Who you are calling
Same-day service is normal here rather than a premium add-on, and after-hours calls get answered by someone who can dispatch a truck.
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.
Properties on septic frequently need plumbing, sanitation and excavation work on the same job. Holding all three classifications means that is one crew and one schedule.
No sales pitch, and a straight explanation of what we found.
Big Mike's · Yucaipa, California
Questions we get about slab leak repair
If yours is not here, call and ask. We would rather talk it through than have you guess.
What is a slab leak?
A water line running under the concrete foundation has failed. Because it is pressurized, it leaks continuously until the water is shut off.
Can I ignore a small one?
No. It runs constantly, it undermines the soil supporting your foundation, and it will show up on every water bill until it is fixed.
Repair the spot or reroute?
A single failure in otherwise sound pipe is usually a spot repair. Repeated failures in aging copper usually mean the pipe is at the end of its life and rerouting or repiping costs less over time.
Why are these common around here?
A great deal of local housing is on slab, and decades of hard water is hard on copper. The combination produces slab leaks at a predictable age.
Do you work with contractors and property managers?
Regularly. We coordinate around construction schedules, tenant access and operating hours as a matter of course.
How long have you been in business?
Since 1982. Big Mike founded the company and handed it to his family, who run it now. That is forty-four years in the same valley under the same name.
How do I know it is an emergency?
If it is actively causing damage or has made the property unusable, treat it as one and call. Water through a ceiling, sewage backing up and any gas smell all qualify.
What should I do before you arrive?
Know where your main water shutoff is and whether it turns. Clear access to the work area. If you smell gas, leave the building and call from outside.
How this fits the rest of the system
The age of a house predicts its plumbing problems better than almost anything else. Pre-1970 construction here typically means cast iron drainage and galvanized supply, both of which fail in known ways on a known timeline. Housing from the 1970s through the 1990s is usually copper supply on a slab, which brings its own pattern. Knowing when a house was built tells us what to look at first.
Before we come out
Photographs of the problem, particularly if it is intermittent and might not be happening when we arrive, are genuinely useful.
We reach the valley cities routinely and the outlying communities regularly. If you are unsure whether you are in range, the answer is usually yes and it costs nothing to ask.
Related work and where we do it
Other work we do in homes
- Kitchen Plumbing
Sinks, disposals, supply and drain work.
- Water Filtration
Point-of-entry and whole-house filtration.
- Tankless Water Heater Repair
Error codes, scaling and flow faults.
- Gas Line Repair
Leaking and failed gas piping.
- Drain Cleaning
Slow and stopped drains, cabled and cleared.
- Water Heater Repair
No hot water, leaking tanks, failed elements.
Where we go
We run slab leak repair out of Yucaipa across Rancho Mirage, Banning, Claremont, Menifee, Walnut, Chino Hills and Colton, 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