Man, I just got in from helping a plumber friend in a bind. Older 70s house I think.
The old polybute plastic piping was laid under the heating ducts on the first floor with a slab poured over them both. Now the poly is deteriorating and causing all sorts of leak problems but you can’t readily tell where the actual leak is at cause it’s buried and the water is just oozing out beneath the slab. So yesterday they call out a plumbing outfit with a leak detector deal. Some kinda cup mechanism on the slab that picks up the water movement sounds. They were there 1/2 hour. Told them the leak was right here. X . Then they charged the poor homeowner $536. Ya, seemed pretty stiff to me too. But the worst part about it. Yesterday the plumber jack hammered a hole in the homeowners living room and the leak wasn’t there. They call the guy back and he comes out re-does the same deal, and says here is the leak. X. So the plumber jackhammers another hole and it is still not the leak. There outta be a law all pipes like that got to be sleeved in a larger diameter pipe. Now the homeowners house is all chewed up and they had to spend extra bucks for the pro leak detectors who blew it twice, and they still don’t have the hot water. (the plumber did manage to to isolate the leak to a choice of 3 hot water runs.)
Whew! Give me accessible copper any day.
Edited 4/1/2002 12:02:38 AM ET by rez
Replies
"causing all sorts of leak problems"
And after they tear up the whole house to find the leaks and fix them, then what? If "all sorts of leak problems" are occurring, isn't only a matter of time before they occur again?? Instead of tearing up the slab to repair, might it be cheaper to abandon the pipes in the slab and replumb (maybe through the attic, not that I'm a fan of plumbing in the attic, but....what climate are you in?). Or...if you're tearing up slab anyway, then replumb in the slab, at least that would be a permanent fix (and would have saved the cost of the "leak finder" if it had been the original approach).
I'm just thinking out loud here, I'm no plumber and I've no experience with such situations.
Rich Beckman
This is almost exactly what i was working on this wekend. Trying to repair a leaky copper water main under a slab on grade building. I think i have isolated the leak location now a couple of slab holes later. The leak is under the buildings footing right in front of a drive-thru ATM. Thinkin of boring under the driveway and fishing a new pipe to the access i have in front of the ATM on the inside of the building. The electonic leak detection was $200 and pinpointed a spot on the bathroom floor where ther are no supply lines at all. Luckily i tried to access the leak through the ATM room floor instead. That is were the pipe actually was and its not leaking under the buildings floor.
joe d
Edited 4/1/2002 9:55:46 AM ET by joe d
Rich -- yes, repipe thru the attic is what is done a lot out here.
-- J.S.
Be careful giving advice like this. There are many areas you cannot just run them in the attic. Sometimes the advice here blows my mind. People think because it is OK in one climate they are qualified to give advice everywhere. If you do give your thoughts at least qualify them!!! Please!!!
Wet --
I wrote "done a lot out here" -- thinking that by now I've been around long enough that everybody knows that by "out here" I mean Los Angeles. Of course you're right that in places where it gets anywhere close to freezing going thru the attic becomes a bad idea.
-- J.S.
yeah... well... I was unduly harsh... I apologize.
Thanks, Wet.
-- J.S.
Ya, I'm no plumber either and I thought the bandaid fix on replacing one pipe when the rest were of the same junk material wasn't really the way to go but the owner wants one thing and I was called in just to help on the Easter parade so I kept my mouth shut and did what was asked of me. I think inaccessible slab plumbing like that is ludicrous. How much harder would it have been to make a gutter or channel in there when they were pouring the slab back then. Guess it was just how things were done. Myself in that scenario would have investigated putting new lines in a decorative furred out baseboard around the rooms before I'd do the experimental jackhammer routine.
Copper won't always solve the problem... but accessable will!
My house is 2 stories on slab. When I built it the first rule was only drain pipes in the slab. Water pipes are a soffit between floors.
I had heard of too many stories like these.
Edited 4/1/2002 11:26:26 AM ET by Bill Hartmann
In commercial we have a lot of newer toys to help us locate pipes and such.
Here's one product that we're starting to use a lot for conduits and even plastic pipe. We still use cameras and remotes for the larger stuff.
Gabe
http://www.sensoft.on.ca/