Our plumbers specialize in leak diagnostics and they provide this service every day for our customers in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Lehigh Acres.
Water leaks can be very difficult to find on your own. Water will travel until it finds a weak spot and then begins to leak through far away from the actual leak. It needs a professional with the correct tools to locate the source of the leak and fix it. Using modern digital tools, we can detect the source of a leak without excavation or cutting into walls. Once located, Van Franey Plumbing can quickly & efficiently repair the leak.
Call Van Franey Plumbing 24/7 service at (239) 851-0207 to solve your water leak problems
Signs of a hidden leak in a Southwest Florida home
Most homes here sit on a concrete slab with the water lines running underneath it or through the attic, so a leak rarely shows up where it starts. What you notice instead is a symptom somewhere else. If any of these sound familiar, a leak diagnostic is the next step.
- A water bill that jumped with no change in how you use water, especially at a seasonal home that sat empty.
- A warm spot on a tile or terrazzo floor, or a patch that stays damp no matter how often it is mopped.
- The water meter dial turning when every faucet, toilet and irrigation zone is off.
- The sound of running water inside a wall when nothing is on.
- Cracks in tile, a door that has started to stick, or baseboard swelling along one wall.
- Mold or a musty smell in a closet, under a vanity, or behind the washing machine.
- Low pressure at one fixture or across the whole house that came on gradually.
How we find a leak without opening walls
The first test is the simplest. With everything in the house off, we watch the meter. If it moves, water is leaving the system somewhere. Then we isolate: closing the valve at the water heater separates hot from cold, and closing the house shutoff separates the house from the service line to the meter. That alone tells us which side of the system to look at.
From there the tools take over. Electronic acoustic listening equipment picks up the sound of water escaping under pressure through the slab, and we can trace a line and mark where the sound is loudest. Thermal imaging shows a hot-water leak as a warm plume across a floor or wall before there is any visible stain. Where the supply lines run in the attic, moisture readings and a look at the insulation usually settle it. On a drain-side problem, a camera goes down the line and shows the break directly.
The point of all of this is a small, deliberate opening in the right place rather than a series of exploratory holes. When we are done you know where the leak is, what kind of pipe it is on, and what the repair options are.
Repair, reroute, or repipe
Once a leak is located, there are three ways to deal with it, and the right one depends on the pipe, the house, and how many leaks there have been. A spot repair opens the slab or wall at the leak, replaces the failed section, and closes it back up. It is the right call for a first leak on otherwise sound pipe.
A reroute abandons the leaking run under the slab and replaces it with a new line through the attic or along a wall, so the slab is never opened. It is common on copper slab leaks, where a second pinhole is likely somewhere along the same buried run, and on homes with expensive flooring that would be hard to match.
A repipe replaces every supply line in the house. It is the honest answer once a home has had three or four leaks on the same material, whether that is polybutylene from the 1980s and 90s, early CPVC that has gone brittle, or pitted copper. We will tell you which of the three we would choose for our own house, and why.
Documentation for your insurance claim
Many slab and hidden leaks turn into insurance claims, and the claim goes better when the leak is documented at the time it is found. We give you a written description of where the leak was, how it was located, what pipe material failed, and what the repair involved, along with photos of the opened area and the failed section. Adjusters ask for exactly that, and it is much easier to collect on the day than to reconstruct later. If a leak detection company or a water mitigation contractor is already involved, we work alongside them.
When a leak is an emergency
A slow drip under a slab can wait for a scheduled visit. Water coming through a ceiling, a floor that is suddenly wet across a room, a hissing sound with a drop in pressure, or a bill that doubled all point to a leak that is getting worse by the hour. Shut off the main valve at the house, usually near the front hose bib or in the garage, and call. A plumber answers 24/7. If you cannot find the shutoff, the valve at the meter box by the street will stop the water too.
Learn more before you call
- Signs of a slab leak in a Florida home, and what happens next
- Why is my water bill so high? Check your toilets first
- I hear dripping or running water but cannot find a leak. Where is it coming from?
- Why copper pipes get pinhole leaks in Southwest Florida
- Are your washing machine hoses rubber? Replace them with braided stainless steel
Common questions about leak detection
How do I know if I have a slab leak?
Check the meter with everything off. If it moves, water is leaving somewhere. Warm spots on the floor, damp patches, a rising bill and the sound of running water in a quiet house are the usual signs. Any one of them is reason to have it looked at.
Will you have to break up my floor?
Not to find the leak. Acoustic and thermal equipment locates it from above. To repair it, we either open the slab at the one marked spot or reroute the line overhead so the floor is left alone. We go over both options with you before any cutting.
Could the leak be a toilet instead of a pipe?
Often, yes. A silent flapper leak can move a great deal of water and looks like a slab leak on the bill. A few drops of food coloring in the tank tells you in ten minutes. We check the toilets first on every high-bill call.
Does a leak repair need a permit?
A like-for-like spot repair usually does not. A reroute or repipe is permitted work in Lee and Collier County, and we handle the permit and inspection as part of the job.