What lurks beneath your home?
Homes are built on a few different kinds of foundations. Basements, crawlspaces, and slabs are the most common. A slab is a four to six-inch thick piece of concrete which serves as the foundation for many types of homes. Slabs are popular because they are easy to install, affordable, and cure quickly. When a home has a slab foundation, pipes for the plumbing system are insulated with gravel and soil and installed about a foot beneath the slab. However, time, tree roots, corrosion, freezing temperatures, and other factors can cause pipes beneath your slab to leak.
Unfortunately, accessing a pipe that is buried a foot beneath a six-inch piece of concrete is no simple feat. And knowing that there’s a leak beneath your slab can be even tougher. However, there are several indicators homeowners can look out for that hint at the presence of a slab leak. Similarly, investing in periodic slab leak detection services can help identify and address slab leaks before they cause too much damage. JIG PLUMBING offers slab leak detection and repair in Chino, CA, as well as a range of other residential plumbing services.
How can I tell if I need slab leak repair?
Slab leaks are hard to detect since the leak is under the home’s slab. However, some things tend to happen if pipes beneath your slab are leaking. These include:
- Gaps between the floor and wall
- Soft spots, water stains, and/or bubbling on your flooring material
- Windows and doors that are hard to open
- Increased mold growth in certain areas of the home
- Cracks in your home’s foundation
- Higher-than-normal water bills
- Lack of water pressure
- Puddles of water around the home’s foundation
Additionally, plumbers use different types of equipment to help detect slab leaks. These non-invasive processes can pinpoint the exact location of a leak. Popular slab leak detection methods include:
- Electromagnetic pipeline locators. These units work like radio antennas and help contractors understand how pipes are laid out beneath the slab.
- CCTV camera. Small, remote-controlled cameras give plumbers a look inside your pipes and show blockages, cracks, and leaks.
- Electronic amplification equipment. These pieces of equipment help professionals hear water moving in or around a pipe.
- Tracer gas systems. Sometimes, it’s hard to hear the sound of water because the audio sensors pick up too much noise. For times like those, gas tracer systems can help.
How can a slab leak be repaired?
Trenchless slab leak repair is often the preferred method of correcting a leak below your home’s foundation. Trenchless methods are effective in many situations and don’t require the level of demolition and rebuilding necessary for more traditional pipe replacement services. JIG PLUMBING offers trenchless plumbing repair in Chino, CA, and the surrounding communities. Our residential plumbers often use some of the following methods to replace damaged pipes in hard-to-reach places.
Cured-in-place-pipe lining (pipe lining) is a minimally-invasive trenchless process used for fixing cracked and leaking pipes. With this method, a new pipe is created within the old one using an epoxy resin-soaked felt liner. The liner is inflated within the pipe and left to cure for several hours. After it dries, the liner is taken out, and your pipe is damage free.
Trenchless brush coating is similar to pipe lining but uses a polymer resin sprayed directly onto the insides of the pipe. The spray nozzle is inserted into the pipe until it reaches the damaged pipe section. Then, a non-toxic polymer resin is sprayed onto the affected area. If necessary, the process is repeated to give the pipe an additional coating. After the spray is dry, your pipe is ready to use.
Trenchless pipe bursting is useful if the damaged pipe doesn’t have the structural integrity necessary for the other methods. With pipe bursting, a pit is dug at the end of each section of pipe being replaced. These pits are called the insertion and pulling pits, respectively. The plumber pulls a cable through the insertion pit and fishes it out of the pulling pit. Next, using a winch, the replacement HDPE pipe and a bursting head are slid through the old pipe. As the new pipe slides through, it bursts the old, failed pipe.
Keep Your Pipes in Good Repair with JIG PLUMBING
Slab leaks are hard to detect if you don’t know what to look for. Keeping an eye out for the aforementioned signs can help homeowners detect and address slab leaks before damage becomes extensive. A local plumber can also use advanced technologies to detect slab leaks. In Chino, CA, JIG PLUMBING offers slab leak detection and repair services. We are experienced, equipped, and ready to go. Call us at 844-899-9054 to schedule your slab leak repair consultation.
