slab leak insanity

[Jeepgrl30]

Hi All, Please help. We were hearing running water somewhere in the house but could not see any evidence. Called a plumber, they couldn't pinpoint the location but said that we definately had a leak. They suggested a leak detection company so I called them. They pinpointed the leak at a location at the base of a wall in the downstairs bath - in the slab. I again had a plumber come out (the leak company only finds, not fixes) who jackhammered a hole in my floor only to report that there was no leak there. After 3 more trips the leak company pinpointed a location on the other side of the wall as the right spot. So, again I had a plumber out to cut a hole in my floor (hardwood this time) and he was able to clamp the leak on the copper pipes. He told me this should do the trick. That was this afternoon. This evening we heard water running in the house again, so....apparently I still have a leak.
Should I assume the plumber or leak company did not do their jobs sufficiently? Do leaks sometimes change locations? The plumber suggested repiping the entire house but is he just looking to make several thousand dollars off my present frustration? At this point I'm about ready to tear my hair out. Good advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[master plumber mark]

If you are going to be in this house for a while
you better do the job right

if you are moving soon,perhaps just patching the
one leak will get you by...


Either your leak detection guy does not kow what he
is doing or your plumber is a dumbass..



these leaks can literally keep comming at you for years
and I dont like to just fix one at a time...

I did one recently for 900 and was not happy about it...
I know I will hear from them someday again, and it is a
MEAN re-pipe ...I bid 7500 to re-do this home running everything
along the ceilings and then letting a carpenter come in and re-trim
something over my pipes....

I prefer to just simply try to find a way to re-plumb everything
out of the slab and get al the pipes out of the slab so you dont have
to dothis again....and again and again...

ask the plumber how it can be done and how much to just
completely end the misery would cost...


it aint pretty and it aint fun...

[Cass]

Personaly, and I'm a plumber, I would never buy a slab house to live in.

[master plumber mark]

Cass, if you get a chance look at my bathroom
pics from my own personal nightmare......


Some day I am gonna be totally , completely
screwed and I know it....

I wake up some times thinking about how I am gonna
re-pipe this mess without ruining the place..

the house is a 1964 walk out basement 2 level sort of place
but was build by an Enjeneer and he did use K
copper under ground----but I KNOW what I Know
and its just a matter of time


I personally would never build a SLAB home....

But you get what you get and thank god for all that
you get......the good , bad and ugly...

http://www.weilhammerplumbing.com/bathroomremod/

[hj]

There are good leak detectors and there are poor ones. The good ones find the location the first time. I doubt that any good/real plumber would clamp a copper slab leak as a permanent repair. What you hear is probably the clamp failure. My experience has been that you usually only have one leak like that in your lifetime, unless it is a water issue or you had a very poor plumber install the piping. Good luck finding a house in AZ that is not a slab.

[Jeepgrl30]

Thanks all. So you would suggest that I go the re-piping route?
At this point I'm willing to dig a well in the back yard and drop a bucket down whenever I need water - would be just about as convenient.

Am I going to get some song and dance about how this isn't the same leak and it's not their fault, blah, blah, blah? Does fixing one leak sometimes cause another one? I would really like to be prepared for whatever they try to throw at me.
Thanks again,
Jeepgrl

[Cass]

When you say the plumber clamped the leak what do you mean?

We need to know to understand and reply. It should have been repaired with 2 pack joint / CTS couplings, brazed, or silver soldered after the bad part was cut out and replaced.

As much pipe as possible should have been exposed left and right of the leak spot and inspected closely. After the repair I like to leave the hole open for a few hours to see if water puddles from other spots not able to be seen B4 re pouring the floor.

[Randyj]

Just a note about my experiences. My mom owns some commercial property that was plumbed with copper under a slab. I've also done work on houses from the 50's and 60's that had galvanized pipe under slabs. It's bad enough to see what happens just from the earth's corrosion/rust on these old pipes. Concrete is even more active on the degradation of these metals. When these pipes start failing and you get a pin hole in one place you fix that but messing with the pipe will disturb another weak place down the line and another hole comes in it. I busted out over 100' of copper pipe, replaced it with PVC then did a nice job patching the concrete. The pipe I pulled out was riddled with pin holes. Strong acid or alkaline conditions will eat away metals and concrete definitely contributes to this problem over time. No need to patch it up ... you will have to patch another place really soon.

[rudytheplbr]

Any time copper tubing is placed underground and extended vertically thru a slab floor, it should have a surrounding pc of ABS or PVC, to protect the pipe from the chemicals in the concrete. There should be NO soldered joints in any underground copper, unless they are brazed, or silver soldered (silfos).
Any underslab piping should be Type K or nowadays Pex or similar: but surround it just the same.