Slab Leak FAQs

They prove it first with the water meter and a pressure gauge, isolate the hot and cold sides, then pinpoint it with acoustic listening and, on hot lines, thermal imaging.

Yes. Cold-water leaks give no warm spot, and small ones barely move the meter. A pressure-gauge test catches leaks too small to see any other way.

Months, sometimes longer, when the water drains into the soil instead of coming up through the floor. A rising bill is often the only clue.

It is urgent rather than a same-hour emergency, unless water is coming up through the floor. The leak runs day and night, so book detection within days, not weeks.

Cold leaks do not warm the floor, so thermal cameras miss them. They are found by isolating each line and listening acoustically along the run.

Usually, yes. Rerouting the failed line through the walls or attic avoids breaking the floor, and tunneling reaches the leak from outside.

On a first leak with sound pipe, repair it. By the second or third leak on the same lines, a repipe usually costs less than fixing them one at a time.

A reroute or spot repair is often done in a day. Tunneling and whole-house repipes take longer, usually a few days.

For most homes it is a reroute: the failed line is abandoned and a new one runs overhead, so it cannot leak under the slab again.

If only one side has leaked and the pipe is sound, one line is fine. Doing both costs more now, around $7,300 versus $4,300 in one homeowner's quotes, but saves a second visit.

Detection usually runs $150 to $400. Repairs typically cost $1,500 to $5,800, with large reroutes, tunnels and whole-house repipes above that.

It depends on the method. A spot repair on sound pipe is the least expensive. Tunneling long runs and repiping the whole house cost the most.

Most reroutes and spot repairs take a day. Tunneling and repipes take a few days.