One of the most distressing problems for a home or business owner can be dealing with water leaks. Plumbing problems often occur in the drainage of the sewer or a pipe or near groundwater.
A water leak under the concrete slab can cause severe structural damage and reduce water pressure to the point where it will stop flowing into your home.
Water leaks under a slab occur when a water pipe has failed under a foundation slab. They can be caused by incompatible soil containing something causing an adverse chemical reaction when it comes in contact with the copper plumbing. This is called electrolysis and can happen at any time, even years after installation. Unfortunately, this is the most frequent cause of water leaks under slabs and requires a total replacement of each copper water pipe.
Another cause is when the pipe comes in contact with unprotected lines such as rebar, heating, or electrical conduits. Friction causes the tube to wear and leak. Another cause of a water leak under the slab is a kinked line, or in other words, a line that has been damaged by a specific worker. The notch or bleed disappears over time and causes a leak.
It can happen to anyone and to any type of structure. You can’t always tell what kind of leak you have, you may notice some unusual problems, but you won’t realize you have a severe problem until it occurs.
Some of the signs that you may have a leak are:
- A hot spot on the floor
- A water heater that won’t turn off
- Sound of water running when fixtures, such as the toilet, are not being used
- Water coming from a point under the wall
- Hot water coming from a cold water faucet
- Water coming from somewhere on the floor
- Check your water bills. If they are exceptionally high when you haven’t used more water than usual, you may have a water leak. It is essential to know what your average bill would look like because leaks under the concrete slab are not visible.
There are many slab leak detection services, from electronic methods employing sewer cameras or hammering the area and doing a visual check. However, the latter is the one to avoid at all costs.
For the location of invisible water leaks that cannot be seen with the naked eye, slab leak detection services experts use thermo-graphic cameras. Its operation is effortless and is that through a screen is colored, with different intensities, temperature changes. This lets us know at an early stage where there may be a water leak that is not visible to the naked eye.
With electronic slab leak detection services, the pipes must be disconnected and pressurized with nitrogen, which emits a high-pitched sound that can be heard through high-powered headphones. The highest point of the sound in decibels is usually the source of the leak. This is a very effective way to detect leaks.
A moisture scanner capable of penetrating any material in a non-invasive manner can also be used. That is to say, without any problems or works, it gives us precise information about the appearance of dampness in the scanned section. This can help us to discern the presence or not of water leaks.
