Early Slab Leak Detection Can Help Prevent Costly Foundation Repair

Leak detection plays a vital role in keeping your home’s foundation
intact, but you will seldom hear that mentioned in any of the hundreds of TV ads for foundation repair broadcast here every week.

Nearly all homes in Colleyville, Grapevine, Southlake and throughout North Texas are built on concrete slabs because the clay soil is too unstable for basements. That reduces the structural risk, but doesn’t eliminate it.

Plumbing Lines Vulnerable to Soil Shift

Here’s why: Plumbing lines buried beneath slabs are vulnerable to shifting soils. If the soil moves too much, plumbing lines can develop leaks.

A slow leak beneath a home can cause the soil to shift more, which can make the leak worse. That makes early leak detection essential.

In severe cases, the slab and flooring can erupt and flood every room on the ground floor, ruining floor coverings, furniture and appliances. When that happens, foundation repair is only one of several serious problems.

Also, a leak beneath the slab can erode the soil and cause the slab to cave in. When the slab fails, its weight breaks the plumbing lines beneath, causing a rush of water into the home.

We would much rather locate a suspected leak than to do major repair work afterward. But how do you know when to call us?

You may need leak detection if:

• Your water bill increases for no apparent reason
• You hear the sound of water running when no taps are open
• You see foundation cracks
• Grass of foundation plants grow unevenly
• There is a visible shift in the soil around your home
• You have warm spots on slab floors
• You have discolored floor coverings, such as darkened hardwood
• You smell bad odors coming from floors or walls

Even the smallest of leaks can yield devastating results. A leak the size of a pinhead, for example, can waste 360,000 gallons per year, enough to fill 12,000 bathtubs to overflowing.

Preventive Plumbing: the Path to Early Leak Detection

Berkey’s recommends annual plumbing check ups as the best way to spot little problems before they have a chance to become big problems. We feel so strongly about it that we include an annual plumbing inspection in our famous Universal Protection Plan service agreement.

Our licensed plumbers will perform an 11-point inspection of your home’s plumbing system and fixtures, including a water pressure test. Low pressure may indicate a leak. Many people gladly pay us $79 for this service alone, and they more than get their money’s worth.

But we don’t recommend that. Instead, it’s much better to get Berkey’s Universal Protection Plan, which also covers annual tune ups on all the central air conditioning and heating systems in your home (our average customer has more than three of each), as well  as your annual plumbing inspection.

Just the sound of it makes good sense, but we’ve worked out the math for you, so you can see how our customers are savings hundreds of dollars every year on the cost of tune ups alone. 

Leak detection is a vital part of assuring your home’s plumbing system is functioning well and safely. You stand to save a lot of money on needlessly high water bills, and avoid possibly having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on foundation repair and restoring a flooded home.

To have a licensed Berkey’s plumber come to your home, call us today at 817-481-5869 or contact us online.