How To Repair Copper Pipe In Concrete

Do y'all take a high water bill and alive in North Dallas? Do you hear a faint hissing sound similar water running in the wall or underneath a cabinet? Exercise you have a warm spot on your floor? Is the footing most your foundation unusually saturated? All of these tin be symptoms of a slab leak if yous accept a slab foundation. Specifically: a leak on the pressurized fresh water pipes that deliver water to all of the faucets in your firm.

Most houses in the North Dallas, McKinney/Frisco expanse (built before 2010) take copper water lines. If y'all have a concrete slab as the foundation of your house and if your house was plumbed with copper water lines, then those copper pipes run underneath the foundation. Finding and fixing these pipes when they develop a leak can be challenging because they are non easily accessible. This article goes through some of the different ways these leaks are resolved. The best solution for you will depend a lot on the way your house is synthetic and where the leak is located.

The first way you can fix a leak is by jack-hammering the physical slab, excavation downwardly to the pipe, and fixing it. The second way is to dig a tunnel through the dirt under the slab from the outside all the way to where the leak is. The tertiary mode is to abandon the leaking line under the slab and run a new line through the wall/attic. The last style is to utilise the existing copper line as a sleeve by running a new line through the former one. Read on to learn more about each of these methods!

Jack-Hammer the Slab

The key footstep for this blazon of repair is accurately locating the leak. If you lot miss it, yous can end up punching multiple holes through the concrete and making a huge mess inside the firm. In that location are different tools professionals use to pinpoint the leak nether all the dirt and concrete. They use tracing equipment to trace the path that the copper line runs under the slab. They employ listening equipment to "hear their way" to the point where the racket is loudest. They can also use infrared thermometers to narrow down any hot spots from a leak on a hot water line.

Once the convergence of evidence points to a specific spot, the floor and concrete is demolished with a jack-hammer and the clay is excavated until the pipe is accessible. A skilled professional will be able to practise this process with minimal mess and make the flooring repair process as painless every bit possible. A less-skilled plumber can easily make a big mess inside the firm while jack-hammering.

Sometimes this is the best mode to make a slab leak repair. Notwithstanding, information technology is the most invasive method and requires flooring to be redone. Information technology also just repairs the i spot that is leaking. Another leak could develop on that same line in the futurity. Finally, even with the best equipment and skill, there is no guarantee that the leak volition be found on the first endeavor. Factors like insulated lines or concrete foundation beams tin make it very difficult.

Tunnel Under the House

Excavation a tunnel is the least invasive fashion (for the interior of the home) to make the repair. In guild to repair a leak in this style, you must start by pinpointing the leak in the same way that you exercise when you lot are jack-hammering through the slab.

Once the leak is located, you need to discover the nearest exterior wall. At that point, you dig an access pit nearly 3' deep. Then, you tunnel horizontally under the slab until you reach the location of your repair. As you might imagine, this is a huge corporeality of work and is typically done (by manus) by a full earthworks crew. There is no heavy equipment that is suited for this type of task.

An advantage to tunneling is that y'all have the ability to replace a bigger section of the damaged line, if necessary. Just you are still express to what can be exposed in the tunnel. Sometimes, the water leak is coming from a pipe encased in concrete and this physical needs to be chipped out with a pocket-size jack-hammer so that the repair can be made.

It is a lot of work, merely sometimes this is the best method for making the repair. If preventing damage on the inside of the dwelling is a loftier priority and the leak is very close to an outside wall, this becomes a more highly-seasoned pick, peculiarly if re-routing is not easily achieved.

Re-Road Through the Cranium

A re-route doesn't focus on locating and repairing a single leak on a h2o line. Instead, a re-route is concerned with discovering which line is leaking under the slab and where the ends come up upwards above the slab. Once this is washed, the entire old copper line is abandoned under the slab, and a new line is run from "Point A" to "Point B" through the walls and through the attic.

Plumbers utilise a variety of different tools, equipment, and methods to find out which line is the leaking line and where it comes upwardly into the wall. (The points where multiple copper pipes connect together in the wall are called "manifolds"). Tracing equipment and techniques are used to find the manifolds. Force per unit area testing tools and methods are used to determine which line(due south) are leaking one time the manifold is exposed.

Re-routing is a very good option because it eliminates the unabridged line and prevents potential leaks in the future. It does commonly crave cutting open up the sheetrock wall in a few places, so that is one of the disadvantages. Overall, it is by and large considered the best method of repairing a slab leak where practical (especially if the house is one-story).

It tin can be challenging though if the business firm has multiple stories. A lot depends on the framing of your habitation and how the water lines are run. A good knowledge of plumbing systems and house construction is necessary to do the job correctly. Information technology is the nearly technically advanced method of repairing a slab leak, simply the entire process is usually done in less than a day.

Pass-Through the Old Line

One frequently-overlooked method of repairing a slab leak is called pass-through. Information technology is very similar to the reroute arroyo. Information technology still eliminates the entire leaking line. In one case "Point A" and "Point B" of the leaking line are discovered a new, smaller line can sometimes be run through the onetime copper line by using information technology every bit a sleeve. One time the line is passed through from terminate to cease, it can be reconnected and the water restored.

The main disadvantage of this pick is that it reduces the diameter of the old line. You cannot practise a laissez passer-through unless your new line volition be adequately sized to deliver water to the fixtures per plumbing code. It takes experience and knowledge of plumbing lawmaking to know which situation is a good candidate for the pass-through.

Another downside to pass-through is that it has a college likelihood of existence unsuccessful. If the old copper line is kinked, aptitude, or very long, it can be very difficult (or impossible) to run a new line through.

Alternatives

Pipe-lining is one new technology that is advertised every bit being a skilful solution for slab leaks. The basis of the technology is mostly used in big bore sewer lines (that aren't nether pressure) in commercial environments. When information technology is applied to residential pressurized water systems, information technology involves coating the within of your copper water lines with an epoxy that seals upwardly whatsoever leaks or holes… Effectively lining the within of the piping with a new one similar to the pass-through method. Unfortunately, while it works great in theory, many people have been unsatisfied with the longevity of this type of repair and the initial upfront costs. It isn't a method of repair that we recommend and becomes a huge headache when the pipe needs to be serviced in the future.

Conclusion

You will detect many plumbers take a "one-size-fits-all" approach when it comes to slab leak repairs. As you tin can run into, at that place are pros and cons of each method of repairing a slab leak. Most of the time, a reroute is the all-time option that provides the well-nigh value. Withal, the circumstances and your preferences will determine if one of the other options is the better. Hopefully, this article gives yous a better understanding of what is involved in: spot repair by jackhammering, tunneling, rerouting, and sleeving. There is so much more than that tin can be said virtually each one of these methods, though.

Legacy Plumbing specializes in slab leaks. Equally of Autumn 2022, we take 5 technicians who diagnose and repair slab leaks on a regular footing. Right at present we average about two-3 slab leak repairs every calendar week in the DFW surface area. Our reviews bear witness to the skill and precision each one of these professionals bring to the table. We become over all options of repairing the slab leak and pick the best one with you based on your needs and your home.

If you call up you might have a slab leak, requite us a telephone call right now. Our Master Plumber volition go over your situation in depth and help you decide what the next steps are.