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Help! Under Slab Water Leak

Chili Palmer

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Last weekend I was in our pantry barefoot and the floor felt warm, I thought that was weird and didn't think of much of it and grabbed stuff to make breakfast and never said anything to my wife. Now today coming home I open the garage door and walk to the door that leads to the laundry room and I see water seeping at the joint where the garage slab meets the house foundation. Oh shit! The water heater is on the opposite of the pantry in the garage. Insurance is going to send a leak detection outfit and we'll go from there.

Anybody here in RDP-land do under slab repair work? I'm in San Dimas.

Give me a call if you help me out. 562.325.3984


Thanks.
 

cofooter

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My Mom had a leak like that in her house, drywall was saturated with mold in a lot of the house. They cut out and patched 18" of drywall in most of the house, and re-routed the plumbing though the attic. Hopefully yours is simpler than that..............
 

185EZ

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Had an under slab leak in Havasu. The city actually called us and said you're using 50k gallons of water a month
Copper pipes under bathtub. Rather than doing a repair and happening elsewhere we had them run new lines in attic and insurance paid for it
 

CoolCruzin

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Just went thru this this time last year .
No leak finder needed .
I could see it and right under the stone flooring and bathroom
Plus another a smaller one making the hiss noise for 6 month the other side of the house.
We had to repipe .
They ran the new plastic type pipe .
All new valves / patch work no paint work.
9500.00
Sucks

Isaac and son plumbing
In San Dimas
I would call this guy again .
 

Chili Palmer

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Just went thru this this time last year .
No leak finder needed .
I could see it and right under the stone flooring and bathroom
Plus another a smaller one making the hiss noise for 6 month the other side of the house.
We had to repipe .
They ran the new plastic type pipe .
All new valves / patch work no paint work.
9500.00
Sucks

Isaac and son plumbing
In San Dimas
I would call this guy again .
Thanks, I’ll give them a call tomorrow morning.
 

CoolCruzin

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Be careful with Insurance .
If your policy is not updated .
It not good
Like if you had carpet and changed to tile and never told them . They will not pay
Good luck
 

SKIDMARC

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Start throwing water in places you want remodeled and start ripping things out ( Looking for water) you want replaced. Or at least that's why my cousin who does homeowners insurance told me to do. I didn't do it because we had just remodeled. But he and allot of other people have done it. No issues.
 

Javajoe

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Check this out. A couple years ago my tile floor was hot around my toilet. Yep had a leak. Called my plumber buddy. Brought his leak detecting noise thing and realized it was in the pipe running from the bathroom to the kitchen sink which was about 30’ away. Opened up the wall by the toilet and under the sink. Cut the hot water copper pipe on both ends. Shoved a smaller PEX pipe thru the existing pipe and connected it at both ends. Super simple and worked great.
 

gmnhra

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repaired two pipe leaks (one under the slab that was rerouted) and one in the wall
The third one I said no more and repiped.
Where there is one, the next one is on its way
 

norcalLmo

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Had to do this 4 years ago Tree root took out feed line to main manifold in the hallway that fed the rest of the house. Had Leak Detectors come out they bid $5k to rip up slab + open checkbook for further repairs F'd that and got a stethoscope from Harbor Freight and cut the wall open to the manifold, used the stethoscope to find which line made noise Capped the bad pipe and used P-tech pipe to reroute feed line from hot water heater and cost me about $400 bucks. If you have access to the manifold, your a single story and can reroute to the hot water heater you should be good 👍
 

norcalLmo

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Sorry spell check is screwing me up Not P-tech .....PEX found at Home Depot, Lowes erc
 

USMC2010

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I had one in the kitchen of the house I had in 29 Palms. A friend helped me, we removed floor tiles, busted up the concrete, put a submarine clamp on it, covered it with a larger piece of pvc...easy job. That leak was stopped, it was when the second one showed up across the room that we had to replumb the whole house through the attic.
 

LHC Kirby

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about two years ago, after hearing about a slab/wall leak that are neighbors were getting - about one a month for 6 straight months. We decided to repipe on our schedule and not the leaks timing. SO glad we did it... better pressure, faster hot water to parts of the house... added two outside faucets in the process. Wish I had added one other as well after the fact.... easily done but I tapped into the sprinkler main feed and added one in a better spot any ways. BOTTOM LINE - do it on your schedule not when the leak wants you to.
 

Chili Palmer

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I talked to insurance and they said that if the repair is over $750 they will increase my insurance premium 44% for 3 years....fuck that! Looks like I’m on my own here.
 

Mr. C

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I talked to insurance and they said that if the repair is over $750 they will increase my insurance premium 44% for 3 years....fuck that! Looks like I’m on my own here.

Who is your insurance ? Damn.


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Singleton

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I talked to insurance and they said that if the repair is over $750 they will increase my insurance premium 44% for 3 years....fuck that! Looks like I’m on my own here.

who do you have?
I have had 2 water claims (within 6 months) when I purchased my house. Insurance actually went down, since I did a bunch of upgrades to prevent water damage in the future. Then deductible changed from $1k to a % of the house value.
 

Mr. C

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This is my kitchen as of today. Small leak in the wall under the sink. Turned to mold issues and some rotted cabinets. The cabinets missing are being rebuilt. The granite cracked today removing it so we get to go shopping. This is going on almost 6 weeks now.
We are also gonna get a quote to do all the cabinets since we are almost halfway there anyway. Lol. What the hell it’s only money right[emoji849]
image-2021-03-03-18:47:28-244.jpg



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WhatExit?

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As some have noted above, sometimes slab leaks can be fixed quite easy and cheaply other times it's a costly problem from hell

I hope yours is the former and you can feel good about fixing this at low cost
 

Havasu blue label

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Call count On plumbing ask for Kenny tell him Steve the landscaper referred you
 

buck35

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Start throwing water in places you want remodeled and start ripping things out ( Looking for water) you want replaced. Or at least that's why my cousin who does homeowners insurance told me to do. I didn't do it because we had just remodeled. But he and allot of other people have done it. No issues.
Sounds like fraud to me.
 

mjc

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I walked into my havasu some years ago and the kitchen floor had a bump that rose 3 inches up. Yep a leak. Replumbed thru the attic and the floor sunk back all itself. That was the second water claim on this house fixed both myself. First one was 62k and this one 8k, no increase in insurance premiums.
 

Jed-O

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I still ask myself constantly... Why build on a slab? Why the fuck would anyone put plumbing other than drain lines through a slab?
Sorry, I've always been a mountain builder... Cutting flat pads into a hill side has never made any sense to me. If you want to be a chicken shit tract home contractor or laborer that's fine... But know that your product is going to be a piece of shit sooner than later.
 

Flying_Lavey

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I still ask myself constantly... Why build on a slab? Why the fuck would anyone put plumbing other than drain lines through a slab?
Sorry, I've always been a mountain builder... Cutting flat pads into a hill side has never made any sense to me. If you want to be a chicken shit tract home contractor or laborer that's fine... But know that your product is going to be a piece of shit sooner than later.
Same. A raised foundation makes way more sense to me.

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rrrr

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I'm feeling a little better knowing I have company. I got a bid back today to repipe and reroute our sewer, including a new service lateral.

Wait for it....

$26,000.00.
 

Chili Palmer

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I'm feeling a little better knowing I have company. I got a bid back today to repipe and reroute our sewer, including a new service lateral.

Wait for it....

$26,000.00.
Damn, I better run to CVS and pick up some lube, I’m not used to this much abuse.
 

HB2Havasu

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I would take the insurance money and use it toward a whole house attic re-pipe. Usually when you have the first pipe break inside a slab it’s just a matter of time for the next one to break
 

Tpltrbl303

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IMG_2404.jpg

I feel your pain


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Chili Palmer

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I had a leak about 8 years ago, same situation, but much more water pouring out. It turned out that when they plumbed the underslab water lines they used flexible copper pipe and where they bent it to come through the bottom plate of the wall it had kinked, but they bent it back. I guess in the 28 years the water flow eroded the pipe enough to wear hole at that location. They fixed it by blowing some sort of epoxy through the line to fill the hole. I'll bet that this is same situation.
 

baja-chris

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We had a leak under kitchen slab at a 15 year old house in Vista CA, mold into cabinet bases,18" of walls replaced, new countertops etc. Total $60k repair.
Liberty Mutual paid it. Of course they jacked my rates way up.

Then we decided we had had enough of California traffic and cost of living and sold the house and rented while we shopped for a new place to live.
2 years later I buy a house in Durango Colorado and go to get insurance and I'm blackballed by everyone except Liberty Mutual who wants almost $4k/yr to insure me.
I'm told I've been flagged as high risk/uninsurable. WTF??? It's like your former wife dies of cancer so now you cannot buy life insurance for your new wife.
Anyway watch out for this. The claim and blackball lasts 5 years. I only recently got back to normal rates when I bought a house in Gilbert AZ and could finally drop Liberty Mutual.
 

havasujeeper

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I purchased my latest house 5 years ago. As soon as escrow closed, I tried to get homeowner's insurance through the Auto Club. They ran a records check on my house and the corrupt, drug dealing, previous owner had filed two water claim damages on my house, so AAA said they would not write my insurance unless I took their $5000 deductible, and you had no claims for any water damage in the last 5 years. Well, the time has finally passed, I returned back to AAA, and was able to finally get $250 deductible back again.

A word to the wise in here, never mention the word water damage to an insurance company unless it is way over your ability to pay. That drug dealin' previous owner fucked me for 5 years. Why this never showed up on the title inquiry still amazes me.
 

Steve-o

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I just went through this also, I used 6balls from here. His company is called pacific repipe. I highly recommend. He was fair priced, on time, used quality supplies. He does lots of repipes. He uses the pex type pipe called upinor I believe and supposedly far superior according to my plumber friends.
 
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