SLAB LEAK DETECTION & REPAIR — FIND IT WITHOUT JACKHAMMERING

A slab leak is a leak in a water supply line buried under the concrete slab foundation of a house. Most newer Lehi homes (Traverse Mountain, Holbrook Farms, Skye Estates, Cold Springs Ranch, Spring Creek) are built on slab foundations with PEX or copper supply lines running through the slab. When one of those lines develops a pinhole leak, water seeps into the concrete and eventually shows up as a hot spot on the floor, a damp area, or a mystery water bill.

Slab leaks aren't visible — that's what makes them hard. Without proper detection, the only way to find them is to break concrete in the suspected area, which is destructive and expensive if you guess wrong. We use thermal imaging cameras (which see heat signatures through the slab) and acoustic detection equipment (which hears the leak through the concrete) to locate the leak precisely before any concrete breaks.

Common slab leak signs in Lehi

1. Warm spot on the floor — hot water line leaking under the slab. Most common in Traverse Mountain and Holbrook Farms primary suites where hot water lines run through the slab to bathrooms
2. Sound of running water with everything off — water actively flowing in the slab. Listen at night when the house is quiet
3. Sudden water bill spike with no changes in usage — water lost to a slab leak shows up as 1.5-3x normal bill
4. Damp spot or moisture in carpet over slab — water saturating subfloor and wicking up
5. Mildew smell in a specific area — water in slab causing growth
6. Hairline crack in slab visible (rare, late-stage)
7. Water heater running constantly — slab leak on hot side keeps water cycling through the heater

Why slab leaks happen in Lehi

Most Lehi slab leaks we see are in newer homes (2010+ Traverse Mountain, Holbrook Farms, Skye Estates) on PEX lines. Causes include:

• Builder-grade installation issues — improper PEX support or contact with rebar
• Hard water corrosion — Lehi water is hard enough to scale and erode pipe over time, even PEX fittings
• Settling or movement — Lehi soil can shift, stressing pipes
• Construction damage — pipe nicked during install, fails years later
• Slab pour defects — cement direct contact with copper (where used) causes pinhole leaks

Old Lehi homes with copper lines under slab also see leaks but less frequently — copper is generally more durable than the older galvanized seen in supply lines above ground.

Three repair options

Spot repair — break concrete at the leak location, repair the pipe, repour. Cheapest if the leak is isolated. $1,250-$2,850 depending on access. Doesn't address other potentially failing pipe.

Reroute — abandon the slab pipe, run new pipe through ceiling or attic to bypass the slab. No concrete breaking. $1,850-$4,500. Right for homes where the slab pipe is generally aging and you don't want to fix one leak only to have another in 12 months.

Repipe — full whole-home PEX repipe, abandoning all slab pipes. $4,500-$11,500 (see repiping). Right for homes with multiple recent slab leaks or aging plumbing system.

What Valley does differently

Lehi office at 1490 N 300 E with thermal imaging cameras and acoustic detection equipment on the trucks. Detection-only service available ($295-$485) so you can confirm slab leak before committing to repair. Detection cost is waived if you approve repair work with us. Quality Service Club Plumbing membership ($79/year) includes annual leak detection scan as preventive service.

Honest assessment: slab leaks are stressful, but most are isolated single failures, not whole-system collapse. We tell you straight whether spot repair, reroute, or repipe makes sense based on your specific home and pipe condition.