The slab leak is one of the most serious problems for a home’s plumbing. It’s not just because a slab leak wastes water and creates a danger of damage to building material. It’s because slab leaks are difficult to detect until they start to cause significant problems that are expensive to remedy. If your home has a slab leak, you’ll want a professional plumber in Santa Clarita, CA to fix it as soon as possible. But … how can you tell you have a slab leak in the first place? There’s the dilemma.
But it isn’t an impossible one to overcome. Below are the ways you can tell you may have a slab leak so you can call on our plumbers.
High water bills
The first sign of any hidden leak, slab or otherwise, in a home’s plumbing is a rise in water usage on monthly bills. Water use in your house should be steady from month to month, with some rise during the summer or periods when you have guests staying in your house. But when water usage spikes compared to previous months and you can’t account for it, you may have a slab leak.
Water heater behavior is odd
Your water heater turns on whenever it needs to re-heat the water in the tank because of standby heat loss or because it has recently depleted some of its water supply. If you notice the water heater is coming on more often than normal during periods when you aren’t using hot water, one possibility is slab leaks. Eighty percent of slab leaks occur in hot water lines, so these leaks often cause the water heater to need to turn on.
Warm floors
Because few Southern California homes have basements, parts of the first floors of a house often sit right on the slab. When hot water begins to escape from slab leaks, it will cause the floors to feel warm. Don’t ignore this—it’s one of the biggest warnings of a slab leak.
The sound of running water where there is no running water
No, it’s not paranormal activity. That odd sound of running water when the house is quiet may be due to water from a slab leak. See if you can find the spot where it’s coming from: if it sounds like it’s in the floor, have a plumber look into it.
Do a water meter check
When you have reason to believe there’s a hidden leak in your house, the best way to test it is to check the water meter. Locate the water meter (it’s often under a lid near the street in front of your house) and write down the number on it. Then stop using water in the house for at least an hour. Re-check the water meter. Has it changed? If it has, there’s a hidden leak somewhere in your house, maybe a slab leak. Time to get the professional plumbers on the job!
Husted Plumbing serves the Greater Santa Barbara and Ventura County Area with the best in plumbing repair, including slab leak repair. Call us when you suspect you have hidden leaks in your household plumbing.