Slab leak
Repairing the Slab Leak
When my foundation repair consultant, Richard Nash, suggested I have a plumber out to check for a slab leak, he made one criteria clear.
“Have them wait at least two hours to see if the water level drops.”
Here is what he meant. A lot of the slab leaks in houses built in the 1970s as mine was occur in the out-going or sewer lines. And that is because the cast iron pipes used under the concrete slab foundations are starting to fail.
The plumbers come in and pull up one of the toilets and set it aside. Then they basically plug up the sewer lines and run water from faucets until they can see water backing up into the line where the toilet was. They let the water come up to just below the floor tile then shut it off.
Then the waiting begins to see if the water level drops. If it does, (more…)
My Foundation Slab Leak-Part One
“I don’t think you need piers. Maybe a few. But I do think you have a slab leak.”
That’s what foundation consultant Richard Rash told me in November. I had run across Mr. Rash’s website while researching foundation repair companies in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
After being in the foundation repair business for 30 years in the Dallas area Richard retired and formed a new business, that of a consultant who goes to bat for the homeowner. In the course of all those years of putting piers under house foundations then having to go back now and then to a job where the slab kept moving despite the underpinning, he figures he knows a lot about what actually goes on with the typical residential foundation in North Texas.
The cost of foundation repair DFW and most other places is based on the price of each pier times the number of piers needed. The average cost of a pier in the Dallas area (more…)
Slab Leaks and Foundation Repair
Some foundation repair companies also include an option of checking for slab leaks as part of the leveling process. It’s not hard to see that if your concrete foundation had to be lifted a number of inches in places to achieve level-hood there just might be some stress on the plumbing joints under the slab.
A check to make sure that the work to make a foundation level has not caused a slab leak due to damaged plumbing is not a bad idea. If your local foundation repair contractor does not offer this service odds are good that a nearby plumbing company does. Just tell them you’ve had a foundation lift and need to check for slab leaks. (more…)