Different Types of Slab Leak Repairs | Mansfield, TX
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A slab leak can weaken your foundation and lead to serious damage in your house. Once you’ve detected a slab leak you’ll want to quickly have Mansfield, TX professionals come out and repair it. Waiting to tackle a slab leak is a mistake – if allowed to persist it will cause extensive structural damage and may even lead to your home being condemned!
There are a number of things that can cause a slab leak. The most common cause is improperly installed pipes or pipes of poor quality. If your pipes were kinked, bent or dented when they were installed then they could very easily leak and maybe even burst. Copper pipes are most prone to corrosion and are especially at risk of causing a slab leak, especially in older homes. This is especially likely if the water chemistry and quality are not that great. Both hard and soft water can corrode your pipes more quickly and this will lead to a slab leak sooner or later. Knowing what is in your water and whether your water is too acidic or to alkaline can help you avoid pipe erosion. Discussing options for improving your water quality just requires a quick conversation with your plumber and may be fixed with something as easy as a water softening system.
Soil erosion, shifting water tables and natural disasters such as earthquakes can also cause a leak that will require a slab leak repair. These cause the pressure of your house to shift over your pipes and that change of pressure can cause them to purse. Left unchecked these leaks can quickly cause significant amounts of damage to your foundation and Mansfield, TX home.
Ultimately, however, the biggest culprit that causes leaks needed a slap leak repair is time. All of the causes listed above, given enough time, will work through your pipes and cause a slab leak, especially in older homes that were piped with copper or galvanized steel.
When you need a slab leak repair there are three different options that your plumber may offer you: spot repair, re-piping and re-routing, and pipe lining. Spot repairs are used for small single leaks that are somewhat easy to access. Your plumber will break through your concrete slab foundation to get to the leak and will patch or replace that section of piping. This is a common slab leak repair in commercial properties as in home with their flooring laid on their slab foundation it can lead to a need for expensive re-flooring. Additionally, if your insurance did cover a slab leak repair they will probably require a full re-piping rather than just a small spot repair before they will continue your coverage.
Re-piping or re-routing is a much more intensive option and generally is the preferred slab leak repair of insurance companies. With re-piping, the old plumbing is abandoned while new pipes are run outside the edge of the slab or up through the attic of the home. It creates new lines that are easy to access for both inspections and repairs later one and in many cases can even be cheaper than a spot repair which requires renting a jack hammer and potentially having to replace whole sections of your flooring.
The third option is pipe lining. In pipe lining first, the plumber performs a line cleaning to ensure that all debris are cleared from the line and that any sediment and corrosion are removed. Then one of two methods is used to line the pipe. Either an epoxy coating is used to flood and seal the line. This fills any leaks and prevents water from making its way out of the pipe. Alternatively, a pipe lining may be pulled through the line and inflated until it’s pressed against and adhered to the walls of the pipe. It is then allowed to cure in place.
Some plumbing companies may provide a fourth option known as pipe bursting to provide a leak repair. In pipe bursting a tool is used to burst through an old pipe while dragging new pipe behind it. This is most commonly used on sewage lines, allowing a plumber to re-line the sewage line without too much trouble.
One of the most important parts of slab leak repair in Mansfield, TX is checking to see if it is covered by your insurance. While some insurance policies don’t cover these kinds of leaks, others do. Even if you don’t think your home owner’s policy covers a slab leak and slab leak repair you should call and check; assistance in covering the costs of a leak repair will help to defray the costs. If you have insurance coverage in your home owner’s policy for a slab leak, you’ll want to be sure that your coverage extends to any structural damage your home may suffer from a leak that went unnoticed. Make sure that you speak with your insurance agent to make sure you understand what kind of slab leak repair is allowed and what sorts of inspections, if necessary, will be needed to ensure that your home continues to be covered by your policy after a slab leak repair has been made.
Whether your water lines or your sewage lines have caused a slab leak, there are a variety of methods that your plumber can use to repair the leak and prevent damage to your home. Check with your insurance company to see what kind of repairs they will permit and still provide coverage for, and then make sure you have your home inspected so that you can be sure that you are aware of any structural damage to your home and can reach out to the appropriate repair people to get those repairs made.