Slab Leak Repair in Durham, NC

Run the meter test before anyone digs

Shut off every faucet, appliance and irrigation zone, then look at your water meter. A dial or low-flow indicator that keeps spinning means water is leaving the system. Next, close the main shutoff where the line enters the house. If the meter stops, the loss is inside the home, which is where a slab leak would be. If it keeps moving, the buried service line in the yard is the more likely suspect, and that is a different repair.

What a slab leak tends to look like

• A warm spot in tile or concrete, usually on the hot water side
• The sound of running water when the house is quiet
• Damp carpet, swollen baseboards or cupped wood flooring in one area
• A water heater that fires more often than it should
• A water bill that rises with no change in use

Does this apply to your Durham house?

Only homes on a concrete slab can have one. Crawl space homes, common in Durham's older neighborhoods, have pipes a plumber can reach from below. Durham's housing runs from pre-war houses to a large amount of newer construction, with a median build year of 1995 and roughly 30% of homes built before 1980 in Census survey data. In a newer slab home, a leak is more often a bad joint or a pipe rubbing against concrete than worn-out pipe.

How the leak is located

A plumber usually separates the hot and cold sides to see which one drops pressure, then uses acoustic listening equipment, and sometimes a thermal camera, to narrow the spot. Good locating keeps the hole in the floor small.

Repair options compared

Cost and permits

The price depends on locating time, what flooring sits over the leak, the repair method you choose and how much drying is needed. Flooring replacement is usually a separate trade. Durham City-County Building & Safety issues plumbing permits, which cover replacement work, so ask the plumber whether your job needs one and who will pull it.