Slab leak

R

raisingboys

New member
Has anyone ever had a slab leak and what did you do about it?  I heard home warranty does not cover it.  We've occupied the house for 1 day,  :mad:. Neighbors with similar problems re-piped and others let the leak continue until a large enough damage can incur to gain >$ from insurance to eventually re-pipe.
 
I had encounter a slab leak on a 20 year old house.  After thorough study of the situation, we and the plummer decided to reroute the pipe and bypass the leak instead of dig through the foundation.  It cost slightly over $3k.  Luckly the leak did not harm any interior flooring. 

My brother also had a slab leak on a year 2000 build home by Standard Pacific.  They did dig through the foundation by some specialist who is specialize in digging through post tension slab.  It's costly but the builder pay for the bill (also paid for the hard wood floor damages) since the leak was due to construction error.  The pip was dent during  the construction and corrision occur gradually at the dent. 
 
Sadly, I have recent experience with this as well. Our slab leak was small and didn't cause much damage. Insurance would cover only the cost to address the slab leak and anything damaged by the water (which we didn't have).

The home warranty company would have fixed the leak but they would have only paid to go straight through the tile and slab and then would only fix and pour new concrete over. They specifically wouldn't replace the tile.

We ended up repiping the whole house this time. Another leak had occurred about 3 years ago and we didn't want to continue spot fixing the leaks (it is expensive and disruptive each time). If you do decide to repipe the whole house, I would recommend using a company that specializes in repipes. We had a crew of 10 open up the walls/ceilings and repipe everything in one day, another day for the city inspection, and another day for a crew of 4 to patch all the drywall and stucco.
 
Can I ask how each of you discovered the slab leak?

Was it an abnormal water bill? Moisture around the house? A feeling of sea sickness?
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Can I ask how each of you discovered the slab leak?

Was it an abnormal water bill? Moisture around the house? A feeling of sea sickness?
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We noticed a little moisture on the tile. Wiped it up and then it was there again later in the day. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be coming up from the grout. It was a very small leak when we discovered it.

A friend had a slab leak and said the tile would be warm from the leaking water.

A relative had excess moisture in a closet which resulted in mold.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Can I ask how each of you discovered the slab leak?

Was it an abnormal water bill? Moisture around the house? A feeling of sea sickness?
Click to expand...

I had 3 slab leaks in an apartment from hell. Each time, it was detected when the carpet went *squish*.

No kidding, the last *squish* detected was literally my very last step outside the door on moving day. Didn't look back.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Can I ask how each of you discovered the slab leak?
Was it an abnormal water bill? Moisture around the house? A feeling of sea sickness?
Click to expand...

On the 20 year old home, at first it was one specific area of hard wood floor next to garage becomes warm all the time.  After few days, water was detected at the garage.  It was the hot water pip that leaked and luckily, no hard wood floor was damaged. 

On my brother's home,  water just show up from the floor all at sudden.  At first, they thought it was their kid or dog that just had an accident but it turn out to be something a lot worst.   

 
I'm in a ~50 year old single story SFR on slab.  The contractor who flipped the house didn't want to mess with digging up the concrete, so they re-piped the house with new pipes through the attic.

But if you enjoy pain and suffering, I do have a contractor who is experienced in cutting through the concrete and re-piping the whole house.  He was installing new bathrooms at house in Pomona.

 
Slab leak was not discovered during the inspection.  I called the inspector, and he said there is no way to test a slab leak.

We were lucky to find the plumber who serviced this house during our escrow period.  The plumber told us that the sellers had a major leak and didn't want him to fix the leak, instead, to put a temporary fix and install a shut-off valve so they can turn the water on and off intermittently during use.  The sellers did not disclose this leak to us during escrow.

We now have mold, also, due to the leak.

We originally discovered the problem when the painters told us that our floors in one particular area was warmer than the rest.  (He would sit there during his lunch).  A few days later, water was seeping out through the wood and the baseboards (MDF) was expanding and warping.

We had a mold testing guy come and he had an instrument (similar to a stud finder) that detects moisture on the wall.  And he also had some gun-looking instrument that detects moisture by infrared light. 

Anyone had experiences with non-disclosure?  Will repost this on a different topic.

All the info helps, repipe versus reroute.  Thanks.
 
My limited understanding is that "reroute" usually means new pipe is run to bypass the section that is leaking and that "repipe" means all new pipe in the house (through walls/ceilings) leaving all the old pipe in place under the slab but bypassed.
 
You are correct Zovall.  But our piping is mostly under the concrete and will be a lot of work to re-route, right?  So, as 80% of our neighbors have done, repiping is the best alternative.  Cute holes on the dry wall where plumbing is located, and install new piping and shutting off/capping off/or bypassing the old piping system.  Messy, but would be more of a permanent solution.
 
raisingkids said:
Cute holes on the dry wall where plumbing is located, and install new piping and shutting off/capping off/or bypassing the old piping system.  Messy, but would be more of a permanent solution.
Click to expand...

Yup, that is what we did as well. If you do the whole house repipe, get recommendations from your neighbors and learn about what the process was like for them so you know what to expect. Also, consider a few other things that will be easier/cheaper to have the repipe guys do at this time:
- Tankless water heater
- 3 valve water softener loop (for future install of water softener or if you already have one picked out, see if they can install it)
- A drain for the water softener
- A line from under the sink to the refrigerator. If you install a reverse osmosis system under the sink, ideally you will want this RO water to feed the refrigerator.
- Extra hose bibs
 
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