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Plumbing · Alabama
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Slab Leak

A leak under a slab does not slow down on its own, and the water spreads through the fill and the soil beneath the floor long before anything shows on top.

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When this becomes an emergency

What a pro does

Not every house in these suburbs has a slab, so the first thing is confirming the foundation. The older streets closer in run basements and crawlspaces, while the subdivisions built outward through the seventies onward are largely slab-on-grade, and the same symptom means different work in each. On a confirmed slab, the plumber isolates the supply and pressure tests it to establish that water is being lost, and to determine whether it's the hot or the cold side, which narrows the search immediately since hot runs fail far more often. Acoustic listening equipment then puts a mark on the floor. Only after that does anyone talk about concrete. On a sloped lot the fill under a slab can wash and settle once water has been moving through it, so he'll look at whether the leak has already undermined anything. The repair is either a small opening cut to the pipe and patched afterward, or a reroute that abandons the buried section and runs new line overhead. Age and history decide which.

Frequently asked questions

If there's no basement and no crawlspace access door, and the floors sit close to the exterior grade with no step up, it's likely slab-on-grade. Around here the newer neighborhoods on flatter ground tend to be slab while the older hillside streets tend to have basements.
Neither is automatically right. A spot repair is less disruptive and makes sense for a first failure on pipe that's otherwise in decent shape. A reroute costs more work up front but takes that buried run out of service for good, which matters once a line has leaked more than once.
Water moving through the fill beneath a slab can wash out support and cause settlement, and on a sloped lot it has somewhere to travel. That's the argument for finding it early rather than watching it. Whether any movement has occurred is a question for someone who evaluates foundations.
Policies differ on this considerably, and many treat resulting damage differently from the work of reaching the pipe. Have the diagnosis documented in writing, then contact your insurance provider and ask specifically about both the damage and the access.

Slab Leak?

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Plumbing in AlabamaBurst PipeClogged DrainDrain CleaningEmergency PlumberNo Hot WaterOverflowing ToiletPlumber Near MeSewer Line RepairSump Pump RepairWater Heater RepairWater Leak Repair

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