When you experience a slab leak in your basement or foundation, you need to find the cause as quickly as possible to prevent extensive damage to your concrete. Dealing with a large concrete slab can seem like a daunting process, but if you have the right tools, you can make small repairs on your own. Major repairs that involve extensive reconstruction should be set aside for professionals.

How Can You Detect a Slab Leak?

Slab leaks occur inside the concrete slab that provides support to your home. It’s quite hard to confirm it visually without having the professional tools and skills. However, stay alert for the signs like sloppy baseboards or flooring, cast, low water pressure, undetermined warm spots on the floor, running water sound or soaring water bills to know when you require a plumber to examine your home.

What are the Ways to Repair Slab Leak?

Read on to know about some of the simple ways to repair your slab leaks.

Epoxy Repairs:
Epoxy can be used to repair a slab leak if you can identify the problem and correct it without disrupting the slab itself. Cracks and fissures that are the result of moisture being trapped under the slab can effectively be sealed with epoxy resins that bind to the cement and harden, securing the area and preventing the crack from spreading.

Gain Access to the Damaged Piping:
The two main ways to repair a slab leak include tunneling beneath the concrete and penetrating the concrete directly over the leak. Tunneling is much less accurate and makes it harder to repair the damage because you can’t see what you’re doing. Penetrating the slab from the top gives you direct access to the broken piping, but involves disrupting the surface of the concrete.

Repair or Re-route Your Piping:
Once you find the leak, you have two choices when it comes to making effective repairs. You can repair the pipe where it is or you can re-route the pipe around the concrete and eliminate problems that may occur in the future. Re-routing places the pipe underground and along the side of the concrete. This shuts down any existing piping that runs under the slab, rerouting it so that it’s much easier for repairs. Any piping that remains under the cement is disconnected from the system and sealed.

If you plan on doing the job yourself, it’s important that you have the right tools and are willing to take the time to carefully remove the cement around the leak. Moving too quickly can cause the cracks in the cement to spread and further compromise the slab. Once the repairs have been made, you can fill the cracks and eliminate any further damage to the surface.

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