WATER LEAK DETECTION 

FIVE IMPORTANT POINTS

FACT:  Water intrusion in structures creates havoc.  It causes billions of dollars in water damage annually.  

FACT:   Left unchecked, or found too late, they cause structural damage, rot, and issues like mold.  

FACT:   A FULL-SERVICE water leak detection company is not just a plumber or a handyman.  

FACT:   An arsenal of expensive, cutting-edge leak detectors is required to find EVERY water leak.  

FACT:   One leak detection tool may work for pipes, another for roof leaks, others for window leaks

HIDDEN PLUMBING LEAKS

Finding a slab leak is like finding a needle in a haystack.  You may think that you have an idea where it is. But, you can't be sure because of the fact that a pinhole leak in a pipe (slab leak) is not accessible to view.  For ease of installation,  your plumbing system was run under or was embedded in your slab foundation - thereby making it impossible to see them when you have a leak in a pipe.  That is also why slab leak repair can be tricky.

Broken pipe issues under a slab can also be expensive  (and messy) - especially if your contractor tells you that its "normal" to jackhammer open your finished floor where his 'educated guesses'  take him - and, without verification.   If that's how your contractor or handyman  performs subsurface leak detection, you should go elsewhere immediately.  

Plumbing leak detection should be based on facts - not hunches.  Here are just a few of the clues that may mean you have a slab leak:  you feel a "warm spot" in your kitchen floor tile.  Or,  your socks got wet when you found a "wet-spot" in your bedroom carpeting.  You may also experience the onset of a "mildewy" (or mold-like) odor.  But, this alone is not enough to tell you where to make the repair.

Leak detection specialists don't base their diagnosis on a hunch.  They use the latest, state-of-the-art leak detection equipment today to enable them to verify, verify, and verify again. This high-tech equipment is very expensive.  You can't  just go out and rent it.  It can cost tens-of-thousands of dollars to fully equip a real leak detection specialist.  One of the tools that is best for locating  your pinhole pipe leak - is called acoustic leak detection.  It uses ultrasonic technology, just the way we see a submarine use sonar to find a target in the movies.

Ultrasonic leak detection systems , best of all, find your slab leak in a non-destructive manner.  They trace that pesky subsurface leak by using listening for specific sounds (that are not audible to the human ear).  The ones associated with the pinhole leak in a slab are a kind of whooshing or hissing noise.  This typically happens at or near the source of the leak - where the breach is causing the pipe to vibrate and make turbulent noises at the pressurized water sprays out of the pinhole and into the soil or neighboring slab.  

Water leak detection equipment from different perspectives such as infrared thermal imaging cameras,  moisture meters, pipe locators, and helium-sniffing devices can all be used together to create the most comprehensive slab leak detection and verification process.  This may cost a little bit more money up-front - but, historically, it can proven that it can easily save you thousands of dollars and lots of heartache in the end.