Quick answer
Slab leak detection is a locate-first process: Eco isolates and pressure-tests your lines, then uses acoustic listening and thermal imaging to pinpoint the leak before anyone touches concrete — you get the location marked and repair options with upfront flat-rate pricing before any work begins. The alternative, exploratory jackhammering, turns a plumbing repair into a demolition project, which is exactly what proper detection exists to prevent.
- Detection comes first, always: acoustic, thermal, and pressure testing locate the leak before concrete opens.
- Warning signs: a warm spot on the floor, an unexplained jump in the water bill, the sound of running water with everything off, or the meter spinning at rest.
- Three repair paths — direct repair, reroute above the slab, or repipe — and the pipe's overall condition picks between them.
- Waiting is expensive: a slab leak undermines soil and flooring while it runs, and water damage compounds daily.
Use this guide when
You've noticed a warm patch on the floor, your water bill jumped with no usage change, you can hear water running when everything is off, or your water meter creeps with all fixtures closed. Any one of those on a slab-on-grade home justifies a detection visit — before the flooring buckles or the foundation soil erodes.
How to confirm your suspicion in five minutes
Turn off every fixture and appliance that uses water, then watch the meter. If the low-flow indicator still turns, water is leaving the system somewhere. A hot-water slab leak often announces itself twice: the warm floor spot AND a water heater that suddenly runs constantly, since it's heating water that's draining into the ground.
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Detection steps
Isolate the hot and cold lines and pressure-test each to confirm which is leaking; trace the line paths electronically; listen with acoustic equipment for the pressurized escape; verify with thermal imaging (hot-side leaks glow through the slab). The result is a marked location and a repair plan — not an exploratory dig. Detection typically completes in a single visit.
Repair paths
Direct repair opens the slab at the marked spot and fixes the pipe — right when the line is otherwise healthy. A reroute abandons the leaking under-slab run and routes new pipe overhead through walls and ceilings — often smarter, since it avoids the slab entirely and removes the rest of that vulnerable run from service. A repipe is the answer when this leak is the third symptom of a failing system rather than an isolated event.
Which path fits which situation
One leak on sound copper: direct repair. A leak on a long under-slab run in a home with a history of pinholes: reroute — the next leak in that line was already coming. Multiple leaks across the system, or aging galvanized: repipe, and stop paying for slab openings one at a time. We quote the honest option, not just the biggest one.
Key terms and context
This guide is written for plumbing decisions in the Puget Sound. It uses the same terminology you'll hear from inspectors, technicians, and permit offices.
Random jackhammering
Opening concrete on a guess is the most expensive way to find a pipe: every wrong hole costs demolition, disposal, re-pour, and flooring — before the actual repair starts. If a contractor proposes opening the slab without instrument-based detection first, get a second opinion. Precision is cheaper than concrete, every time.
Fixing the leak and ignoring the pattern
A slab leak on a system that's already produced pinhole leaks elsewhere is a message about the pipe, not the spot. Direct-repairing leak after leak means buying multiple slab openings on a system that needed a reroute or repipe at leak number two. Ask what the pipe condition at the repair says about the rest of the run.
How we build this guidance
- Locate-first is our standard: the leak is marked and verified before repair options are quoted.
- You get all applicable paths priced — repair, reroute, or repipe — with the tradeoffs explained.
- Upfront flat-rate pricing before work begins, on detection and repair alike.
Methodology: Process description from Eco's standard slab-leak operating procedure: isolate and pressure-test, electronically locate, acoustically confirm, thermally verify, then quote repair paths with upfront pricing.
Last updated: 2026-07-05
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Common questions
How do I know if I have a slab leak and not something else?
The classic combination: a warm spot underfoot, a water bill jump, the hiss of running water with everything off, and a meter that moves at rest. Individually each has other explanations; together on a slab-on-grade home they point under the concrete. Detection testing settles it definitively in one visit.
Does insurance cover slab leak repair?
Typically split: most homeowner policies cover the resulting water damage and often the cost of tearing out and restoring the slab to reach the pipe, but not the pipe repair itself or the aging pipe's replacement. Document everything early — detection reports and photos strengthen the claim — and check your policy's language on 'sudden and accidental' leaks.
Is rerouting really better than repairing in place?
Often, yes. A reroute abandons the vulnerable under-slab run entirely and puts the new line where it can be seen and serviced — no concrete opened, and the rest of that aging run retires with the leak. For a single leak on otherwise young pipe, direct repair remains the simpler, cheaper call. Pipe condition and run length decide it.
What happens if I wait?
The leak keeps running 24/7: eroding the soil supporting your slab, wicking moisture into flooring, feeding mold, and inflating every water bill — hot-side leaks also make your water heater run constantly. Slab leaks never get cheaper by waiting; the repair scope only grows with the damage around it.