Best Option to Repair Slab Leak in Minimum Cost
We have a very advanced way of living, which is called the urban lifestyle. In this lifestyle we expect to get every comfort in a fraction of seconds and become habituated with worldly pleasures, but this ease of comfort requires proper urban planning and maintenance, any imbalances in this planning can cause various damages to our comfort.
Water supply is a very essential need for mankind, but if we neglect its maintenance of the pipeline and slab, then it can cause us absolutely huge slab leak repair costs.
Slab leaks are very frustrating, and the repair of it is a very time-consuming task. If the damage is very big, we face a slab leak when sewer or pipelines which are located deep underneath the concrete slabs, due to the time our pipes become aged and achieve fractures in various parts.
These leaks are needed to be fixed very early, otherwise the cost of repairing them will increase very high.
WHY DOES SLAB LEAK OCCUR?
A slab leak mainly occurs when we don’t have proper maintenance of the Slab/Pipeline or if our concrete slab becomes old, but there are also some other reasons because of which the slab leak occurs.
The Top 5 reasons for slab leaks are
1. Copper Tubing dimples
Copper tubing is one of the most used tubing systems in the world. Most people have shifted towards PEX tubing due to its low cost and higher freeze-breakage resistance, but still, copper tubing is used widely worldwide, if the plumber doesn’t fix the tubing in the right way, then it creates dimples in it which causes slab leaks.
2. Water Quality
The normal water we get supplied in our home contains cloying. This cloying of water when interacting with some impurities in copper creates a hole in the pipeline that causes a slab leak.
3. Hot water
The hot water is acidic and non-alkaline, which causes damages in copper pipelines, develops cracks in it and leads to slab leaks.
4. Concrete problems
Many concrete slabs are water-resistant, but concrete actually eats the copper, and, therefore, we see red and blue sleeving when it comes up to the slab, and we face slab leaks.
5. Foundation
The foundation is the main part of the slab, if there is a water leak, then it shifts, which is not good for our slab, and the slab leak repair costs will double than the normal repair and can lead us to pay us a very expensive price for it.
DETECTION OF SLAB LEAK
Detecting a slab leak is not a very hard task, you can detect it by removing the tiles and digging inside the slab but sometimes it becomes very difficult to find the leaking point, at this time we should call a professional plumber who detects the leak in a very professional and efficient way, but if the plumber is not available you can use the following steps.
Steps for detecting slab leaks are:
Step 1. Put the gage on the base bib.
Step 2. Determine city water pressure in PSI.
Step 3. Go to the water leak, we will turn it off, soon to check for leaks.
Step 4. Open up the meter.
Step 5. Turn off the meter.
Step 6. Take a picture of the gauge, wait for 15 minutes.
Step 7. Check PSI (Pound-force per square inch)
Step 8. Turn on the water.
WHAT ARE THE METHODS OF REPAIRING SLAB LEAKS?
There are various methods of repairing slab leaks but majorly there are two ways of repairing slab leaks, and the slab leak repair costs depend upon these methods.
The two major methods of repairing slabs are
1. Create a dig at the leak site
We need to create a dig at the leak site of the slab and should fix the crack or replace the leak site with a required size new pipe by joining the pipeline system.
2. Re-Route the water supply
Change the whole pipeline system and re-route it to another place where it will be safe
The slab leak repair costs up to $150 for low-end repairs and up to $400 for heavy repairing.
CONCLUSION
Nowadays, slab leaks have become a very common problem in every home, but it can be avoided with proper planning and maintenance, and we should be aware of locating the leak site if it occurs. The repair costs can be demanded differently by any type of plumber, so it is good to check the local rates of the area for repairing the slab leaks.
