Mystery slab leak. What should I do?
Question:There is a small water leak coming from underneath the staircase in the house. The leak only appeared 3 times in the past 4 month. And its very little water, at most only half a bucket.
A plumber told us its likely drainage leak since it comes and goes. The water is clear and orderless. I called a leak detection company, and they told me if the leak is not constant, they probably can't find the problem even if they sent someone out. We checked the air conditioner lines, but no water. We flushed a toilet nearby constantly, but it didn't cause the water to come up. And one of the leak happened over a weekend when no one was home.
This leak is so weird, I really don't know what to do. I am especially worried since I just found out my insurance does not cover anything below the slab. I don't know what kind of crappy insurance does that... Please help! Especially if you had similar problem or knowledgable about plumbing. Thanks in adance!!
Answers:
Based on the information you provided I don' t think that it is a plumbing leak or it would be more constant.
As far as the water table (ground water) under the slab it does not seem that rain is causing a fluctuation of water heighth.
I am somewhat hesitant since the source is not clear, but I think that a negative side patch will stop your leak.
Call around or go on line to find Thoro or Xypex products. You are looking for a gallon of either Thoro patch or Xypex concentrate.
Wet the concrete and scrub in an application of material in to the concrete to cover the area where the leak occurs. Use astiff brush and scrub it in hard making sure to cover all the area.
Then you just wait for a while. Since rain does not change things you will just have to wait, but this material forms crystals in the pores of the concrete and shuts off water. It works great on the type of leak you have described. It sounds really simple and it is.
This is easy to use material . Good Luck to you.
If it leaks when it rains it's rain finding a path into your house. When has it happened, what event can you relate it to? That's your first step. Is it coming from the slab underneath the staircase or is it pooling there and coming from somewhere else? If you can't see it coming in there it might be coming from somewhere else. I had to cut a hole in my drywall to find our source. It was a crack in the foundation wall but it was pooling in a low spot in my daughter's closet.
Hi, I had the same problem. Every once in a while, the carpet in the family room would become sopping wet. It didn't smell , or anything,but it was very annoying. The water in the sinks where running fine,and nothing else was giving us problems. Than one day the kitchen sink backed up. We called out a plumber and found a pipe had cracked under the concrete slab.(Tree Roots) What a mess. Once they drilled into the floor, the smell was to bad to even stay in the house! It got fixed, and all is well. Have the plumbers put their little camera down the pipes, that is how they found ours! Good luck to you,Bye
I fix slab leaks all the time. step 1;turn off stops for toilets, make sure no faucets dripping. step2; open meter box, be carefull because black widow spiders love them in my area (atlanta) look at dial on meter,there will be numbers on sides, some have smaller triangle or dial.smaller ones willpretty much tell you if water is passing thru meter, if only big dial, make a mental note where dial is, wait 5 minutes, lookat dial again, has it moved? if so, its a slab leak, if not sing halleluya. Some slab houses have water lines come up in stairwells and to access them you have to open sheetrock which would be my next step, also check any bathrooms on same wall, may be toilet leak or something else
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