Licensed & Insured — FL CFC1434216 · 20+ Years Experience · Upfront Flat-Rate Pricing · 12-Month Workmanship Guarantee · Se Habla Español
Slab Leak Detection & Repair in Davie & Broward County
Water under your floor does not stay put. We prove where the leak is — meter test, pressure testing, acoustic listening, thermal imaging, and line tracing — so we open one spot in the slab instead of hunting through your floor.
A slab leak is a leak in a water line that runs beneath the concrete floor of a slab-on-grade home, which describes most houses in Davie and across Broward County. Water arrives from the street, travels through or just under the slab, and branches up into the walls to reach each fixture. When one of those buried lines fails, there is no cabinet or wall cavity to show you the problem. The water soaks into the soil under the concrete and keeps moving until it finds a way out — the edge of a carpet, the base of a baseboard, or a grout line in a tile floor.
Why it happens so often in South Florida comes down to how our homes are built and what our soil and water do to pipe. Lines laid in direct contact with soil and concrete corrode from the outside in. The ground shifts as the water table rises and falls. Municipal pressure is high. Copper installed in the 1970s and 1980s is now at the age where pinholes open up, and a pinhole under a slab only grows larger. Nothing about a slab leak corrects itself: the water keeps running and the soil under your floor keeps getting wetter.
The single most expensive part of a slab leak is the concrete. Opening the floor in the wrong place means cutting twice, patching twice, and replacing flooring twice. That is why the locating work matters more than the repair itself, and why we measure, isolate, listen, and confirm with more than one method before any concrete comes out. A leak we can point to within a few inches is a repair. A leak we have to hunt for is an excavation.
Once the leak is located, there is usually more than one way to fix it, and the right answer depends on the condition of the pipe rather than on which option is quickest. A single failing spot in otherwise sound pipe can be repaired in place. A line that has failed in several places, or is corroded along much of its length, is usually better served by rerouting the run or replacing it — otherwise you pay for the same access work again the next time it leaks.
Insurance is part of nearly every slab leak conversation, because water under a floor damages flooring, cabinets, baseboards, and sometimes drywall. We document what we find with photos, note where the leak is and what it has reached, and give you a written report and scope of work you can hand to your insurer. Whether your policy covers any part of it is your insurance company's decision, not ours, and we will not promise you an outcome we do not control.
Every slab leak detection and repair is quoted flat-rate before work begins and backed by our 12-month workmanship guarantee. We are a licensed Florida plumbing contractor, license CFC1434216, based in Davie and serving Broward County for more than 20 years. Se habla español.
What It Is and When You Need It
Slab leak detection is the work of proving where water is escaping under your floor before anyone opens the floor. It is not the same as knowing you have a slab leak. The symptoms of a leak in the slab overlap almost exactly with the symptoms of a leaking toilet flapper, a broken irrigation line, a pool fill valve that never shuts off, or a failed fixture supply line. Those are all far cheaper to fix than concrete work, so they get ruled out first — that is what the testing is for.
You need detection when water is leaving the system somewhere you cannot see, and the evidence keeps pointing down instead of sideways: a meter that moves with everything off, a warm patch on a tile or wood floor, a musty smell that returns no matter how often you clean, a water heater that never stops heating, or a flooring edge that stays damp after being dried. Homes here are built on slab, so the supply lines are usually the buried pipe — though drains under a slab can fail too, and a camera inspection is how we look at those.
Hot-side and cold-side leaks behave differently, and the difference is useful. A hot water line runs under continuous pressure and carries heat, so it usually shows up as a warm floor, a constantly running water heater, or a faint ticking or hissing near a wall. A cold-side leak stays quiet, showing up as a cool damp area, a musty smell, or a bill that climbs month after month. Both erode the soil and both get worse.
How We Do It: Finding the Leak Before We Open the Floor
The first step costs nothing but a few minutes. We shut off every fixture and appliance in the house and watch the leak indicator on your water meter. If it moves, water is moving. From there we isolate the system — irrigation shutoff, pool fill, each fixture, then the house as a whole — to establish whether the loss is inside the slab or somewhere on the property outside it.
Next we isolate the hot and cold lines and pressure test them separately. With the water heater valved off, the hot side can be pressurized on its own; the cold side gets tested the same way. The line that will not hold pressure is the one leaking, and that single result narrows the search from dozens of feet of buried pipe to one line running in one direction.
Then we listen. Water being pushed out of a pinhole makes noise — a hiss, a tick, or a steady rush — and that sound travels along the pipe. Amplified acoustic listening puts a sensitive microphone against the floor, the wall, and the exposed ends of the line, and we compare readings point by point until the signal converges on one area. Concrete carries sound well, which is why this method is as effective as it is in slab homes.
Thermal imaging gives us a second, independent view. A hot-side leak warms the floor above it, and an infrared camera shows that temperature difference as a shape on the screen, often long and narrow, following the path of the pipe. A cold-side leak usually shows itself as a cooler, damp patch instead. Then line tracing tells us where the pipe actually runs, so a mark on the floor lines up with the pipe in the ground. When the meter test, pressure testing, acoustic location, thermal imaging, and tracing all point to the same spot, that is where we open — and the opening is a small area rather than a trench.
Your repair options, and what each one means long-term
Spot repair through the slab. We open the floor at the confirmed leak location, cut out the failed section, replace it with new pipe, and pressure test the repair before the patch is finished. It is the least work up front, and it is the right call when the rest of the line is in good shape. The trade-off is real: if that line has more weak spots, another one can fail later, and you would pay for access a second time.
Rerouting the line. Rather than repairing under the floor, we abandon that section and run a new line through the walls or the attic down to the fixtures it served. The slab stays closed, and the new pipe is out of the soil that damaged the old one. The trade-off is that the new route has to be built — usually a modest amount of drywall and framing — and the abandoned line stays under the floor for good.
Repiping. When a line has already failed in more than one place, or the pipe is corroded along much of its length, replacing the run is the better answer than repairing one spot and waiting for the next one. It is more work and more access, but it ends the cycle instead of extending it. We will tell you which of these three fits your pipe and why, including when the honest answer is that a spot repair is enough.
What Affects the Cost
Detection and repair are quoted flat-rate before we start, and the number follows the job rather than a menu. What moves it: how much testing your home needs and how many lines have to be isolated and pressurized; whether the leak is on the hot side or the cold side; how deep the pipe runs and what sits on top of it, since tile, travertine, engineered wood, and carpet each come up and go back differently; the size of the opening needed and what it takes to patch the slab and match the floor; whether the pipe is sound enough for a spot repair or the line needs rerouting or replacing; how much access running new pipe through walls or an attic takes; whether the local jurisdiction requires a permit and inspection for the repair; how much water has already run, because drying, flooring replacement, or mold remediation is separate work from the plumbing; and whether the call is after hours.
We do not quote slab leaks over the phone, because a number given without testing is a guess. We quote your house after we have located your leak. If opening the floor reveals something different from what the testing showed, we stop and explain what we found before doing more work, and you approve the change.
Why Broward Homeowners Call Us
We are a licensed Florida plumbing contractor, license CFC1434216, based in Davie and working across Broward County for more than 20 years. Slab-on-grade construction is the norm in the neighborhoods we work in every week, and we have the equipment to find a buried leak without tearing up a room to do it. You get a flat-rate price before any work begins, a 12-month workmanship guarantee on the repair, and the findings documented in writing for your records or your insurer.
We also tell you when the answer is not a slab leak. If the loss turns out to be a toilet flapper, an irrigation break, or a pool fill valve, you will hear that plainly, and you will pay for that fix instead of a floor cut. Se habla español, and our 24/7 emergency line is answered live by a person rather than a voicemail box.
Book Slab Leak Detection
If your meter is moving with everything shut off, if a patch of floor is warmer than the rest, or if your water bill has climbed with no explanation, book a detection visit and we will find out what is actually happening. If water is actively running into your home right now, call (754) 258-5599 — the emergency line is answered live, day or night.
Slab leak detection is part of our Leak Detection & Repair in Davie, FL service. If the line has failed in several places, see Repiping & Pipe Replacement. If water is entering the house right now, start with Emergency Plumbing.
Common Warning Signs
Don't ignore these signs — they usually mean it's time to call a plumber.
How Scheduling Works
Three simple steps from phone call to fixed.
Call or Book Online
Call (754) 258-5599 or use our online booking tool to schedule a time that works for you.
We Arrive On Time
Your licensed plumber arrives within the scheduled window and diagnoses the issue.
Upfront Price, Then We Work
You get a flat-rate quote before any work begins. You approve, we fix it — no surprises.
Service Area
Based in Davie, FL, we serve homeowners across Broward County and South Florida. Same-day service is available for emergencies throughout our coverage area.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if I have a slab leak and not something else?
Do you have to break up my floor to find the leak?
Will my homeowners insurance cover a slab leak?
Is it better to repair the pipe or reroute the line?
How long does slab leak detection take?
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