Confused about what to do, please help...

Two days ago I've discovered we have a slap leak in our garage. As you can see from the picture, there's two pipes in the wall that go straight down into the concrete, and the water is leaking out of the concrete.

I've had several companies come today to give me estimates (I live in southern california) and different stories as well. They can jackhammer it and it'll cost $2000+, or they can do re-route which will be the same price or more. They all want to do this leak-detection that will cost $300+, because they say even though the water is coming from there, that might not be where the leak is. One guy says the leak is there, someone else says it's not and it could be farther into our kitchen (the kitchen is on the other side of the wall).

I don't know what to do, and I prefer if they didn't have to come into the house and cut up the drywall etc etc. I've read about epoxy, is that good? Is it only good for pinhole leaks or how bit the hole is if they can't see it. I think epoxy is very expensive right?

Any comments are suggestion would be greatly appreciated...thanks.

Forget about the epoxy. We frequently hear from folks like you with a leak in pipe buried in their concrete slab. I could never understand why house were built with copper buried in concrete because it is just a matter of time before there will be leaks. I would abandon the buried pipe and re-pipe and keep the pipe out of concrete. Even if you found the leak(s) and fixed them, sooner or later there will be more. Avoiding tearing out drywall may not be possible. Get 2 or 3 more estimates.

Here is the deal...if they jack up the concrete and repair it then you could have the same problem happen again...if it is rerouted above ground the same problem can't happen again...at least not underground...and there is no need to locate the leak...personaly this is why I would never own a slab home with underground plumbing...for a while in this area they were putting heating ducts underground also...and in time they rusted out and filled with water creating all kinds of problems...

Cass said:

...if it is rerouted above ground the same problem can't happen again...at least not underground...and there is no need to locate the leak...personaly this is why I would never own a slab home with underground plumbing...

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Every house in this area that has had the water run underslab either has or needs to have the pipes re-routed above the ceiling. As Cass states, even if you fix that problem doesn't mean you won't find another one later.

The other thing to consider is underslab leaks can go on for some time and even create structural issues with the house if left or unnoticed for a while. My old teacher told me about a house that had a leak at the kitchen, when they finally found out about it the water had washed enough fill out that you could almost put a VW in there.

leak

I have repaired lots and lots of underfloor copper leaks. The vast majority of them, like all but two or three, have been because of installation errors and have NOTHING to do with the rest of the system. There is usually only one of these situations in any given house, and I have never had to fix a second one in any of these buildings. Call your homeowner's insurance company. Depending on which company you have, they will probably cover all the expenses, including the leak detection company, minus your deductible and the "plumbing" cost of actually fixing the pipe. They normally will NOT cover the cost of relocating the piping since that is all "plumbing".

hj said:

I have repaired lots and lots of underfloor copper leaks. The vast majority of them, like all but two or three, have been because of installation errors and have NOTHING to do with the rest of the system. There is usually only one of these situations in any given house, and I have never had to fix a second one in any of these buildings. Call your homeowner's insurance company. Depending on which company you have, they will probably cover all the expenses, including the leak detection company, minus your deductible and the "plumbing" cost of actually fixing the pipe. They normally will NOT cover the cost of relocating the piping since that is all "plumbing".

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Yeah but how do you know if there are any other "installation errors" farther away? You don't. Reroute above ground is the best answer.

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You do not know, but the odds are in their favor that the installers only bent one line in the house. As I said, I have NEVER had two failures in the same house, unless there were and someone else repaired it. The least expensive for the customer is to have the insurance company pay for it.