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Everything You Need to Know About Slab Leaks | Tips from Your San Antonio, TX Slab Leak Repair Service Provider

Everything You Need to Know About Slab Leaks | Tips from Your San Antonio, TX Slab Leak Repair Service Provider

Photo By Vadim Zakharishchev at Shutterstock

Leaks are one of the biggest issues you’ll face when it comes to plumbing problems, but all leaks aren’t made equal. There’s leaks, then there’s slab leaks. Slab leak repair is a big job because slab leaks can cause a lot of serious problems, but many homeowners don’t even know what slab leaks are. To put it simply, a slab leak is a leak that occurs in the lines that run below your San Antonio, TX home’s concrete foundation. If this still all sounds a bit confusing to you, we’ve got all the information you need to know about slab leaks and slab leak repair right here.

What Is a Slab Leak?

Plumbing leaks come in all different types and magnitudes, and slab leaks are particularly tricky. Normally when you have a leak, it’s in a pipe you can see without digging into your plumbing system. Slab leaks, on the other hand, are leaks that occur in the copper water lines in your home’s foundation, which means they can cause some serious damage in a hurry. Slab leaks are fortunately found in a short amount of time in most cases, but it doesn’t take long for a slab leak to cause damage that can eventually lead to the collapse of your home’s concrete foundation.

Slab leak repair is tricky because these leaks occur in a spot where homeowners aren’t likely to spot them. Unlike a leak in the kitchen or bathroom, slab leaks are hidden away in a spot where they can fester and cause a lot of damage. If you don’t take care of a slab leak in a timely manner, it can lead to serious problems with your foundation and encourage a lot of mold growth. This is why it’s so important to know the symptoms of slab leaks so you can prevent them in your San Antonio, TX home.

Slab Leak Causes

As is the case with most plumbing problems, there are a few different things that can cause slab leaks. The most important thing is that you call a professional as soon as possible to make sure the problem doesn’t get any worse.

Sometimes slab leaks are caused by pipes that are damaged before they’re even installed, or pipes that are installed wrong. In other cases, a shift in the ground or foundation itself puts pressure on the pipe and causes a break that allows water to leak out. However, these anomalies are far from the only causes of slab leaks.

The most common causes of slab leaks, and the ones that are a lot harder to avoid, are corrosion and abrasion. No matter what you do, copper pipes are going to corrode over time. If those pipes are rubbing up against concrete or gravel, that abrasion could break the pipes down even faster. A specialist can help you determine the exact cause of the slab leak in your home so you can prevent it from happening again, but the problem generally comes back to corrosion or abrasion in some form.

Signs of a Slab Leak

If you have a slab leak in your home, there are a lot of signs you may notice. Because there’s water leaking into your foundation that you’re not using, you may notice a spike in your water bill. You may also hear water running through pipes even when you’re not using them. If none of your water lines are in use but your water meter dial is still moving, that’s a good indicator that you’ve got a slab leak. Some of the other common signs of slab leaks include low water pressure, damp floors, mold growth under carpeting and a moldy smell in your home, all of which warrant hiring slab leak repair service as soon as possible.

Fixing a Slab Leak

Since slab leaks occur in pipes in the foundation of your home, they’re not particularly easy to fix. This definitely isn’t the kind of project you want to take on yourself, so you should enlist the services of a good plumber.

When you hire somebody for slab leak repair, there are various solutions depending on the severity of the leak. If the leak wasn’t too bad, a plumber may be able to apply a simple epoxy to patch up the leak and keep your plumbing up and running; this is a good option because it doesn’t require a lot in the way of demolition. However, re-piping is the solution if you’ve got a severe leak or multiple leaks that need to be fixed. In this case, a slab leak repair expert will run new pipe through your foundation to make sure there aren’t any problems with the existing pipes. This is a bit more of an extensive solution, but it’s the best way to make sure your slab leak is fixed.

The most time-consuming and labor-intensive form of slab leak repair is pipe re-routing, which is what has to be done when pipes in walls and floors need to be replaced. This does require a good bit of demolition, but it’s also a good solution if you’re looking for a thorough way to fix the slab leak in your home.

You have to take care of your home’s plumbing system if you want to prevent major problems, and a slab leak is about as bad as it gets. If you notice a slab leak in your home, the best thing you can do is hire a plumber for slab leak repair as soon as possible. The longer you let these leaks go, the higher your risk is for serious damage. Plus, hiring the experts bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of San Antonio, TX today could save you from having to do a full pipe re-routing to fix the problem, so take care of it as soon as possible.

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