★ Key Takeaways
- ✓Slab leak detection starts at your water meter. Turn everything off. If the meter still moves, water is leaking.
- ✓Watch for physical signs: warm spots on tile, a hissing sound in the floor, soft drywall near the baseboard, or a musty smell.
- ✓Older Broward homes are most at risk, because their copper lines run through or under the slab and are decades old.
- ✓Don’t wait. A slab leak never fixes itself, and the longer it runs, the bigger the repair.
Your water bill jumped, and you can’t find a drip anywhere. In a Broward County home, that is one of the most common early signs of a leak under the slab. Slab leak detection starts with a free five-minute test at your water meter. If that test points to a leak, call us at 954-283-0447. We answer 24 hours a day.
This guide covers the checks you can do today, what a professional leak detection visit involves, and how slab leaks get repaired.
ⓘQuick Answer: Turn off every faucet, appliance and the sprinklers. Then watch the small leak indicator on your water meter for two minutes. If it moves, you have an active leak. Add warm tile, a hissing floor or a damp baseboard, and it is very likely under the slab. That is the time to call a licensed plumber.
Why Slab Leaks Are So Common in South Florida
Almost every Broward home sits on a concrete slab, and the water lines run right through or under it.
There is no basement or crawl space here. When your home was built, the water lines were laid before the concrete was poured. So when one of those pipes develops a pinhole, it doesn’t drip where you can see it. It sprays water into the soil under your house.
Many Broward homes built from the 1960s through the 1980s still have their original copper lines. Copper can wear thin from the inside over decades, and tiny pinholes start to form. Homes built from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s may have gray polybutylene pipe instead. Its fittings are known to fail, and when that happens under the slab, the result is the same: water in the soil and a rising bill.
📚Slab Leak: A leak in a water or drain line that runs through or under a home’s concrete foundation. You usually can’t see it, so a high water bill or a warm floor is often the first clue.
The DIY Water Meter Test
Before you call anyone, this test tells you in about five minutes whether you have a leak. It costs nothing.
First, compare your last few bills with the same months last year. Month to month can mislead you, since watering habits change with the seasons. Year over year shows a real trend. If you are on county water, Broward County Water and Wastewater Services shows your usage history in your online account.
- 01.Turn off all faucets, the dishwasher, the washer, the ice maker and the sprinkler controller. Make sure no toilet is running.
- 02.Open the meter cover and find the small triangle or star dial. Watch it for two minutes. Any movement means a leak.
- 03.If it moves, close the main shutoff to the house. If the dial stops, the leak is inside the house. If it keeps moving, the leak is in the line from the meter or the irrigation side.
- 04.Walk the floors slowly. Feel for warm tile, press on drywall near the baseboards and listen for hissing.
If the leak looks like it’s on the irrigation side, check the backflow preventer too. Most Broward irrigation systems need yearly backflow testing, which we handle from test to filing. See our backflow testing page.
Signs of a Slab Leak Inside the Home
The meter tells you a leak exists. Signs in the house tell you where it is and how long it has been running.
A warm spot on the tile is one of the clearest signs of a hot water leak. The heat travels up through the concrete, and you can often feel it before you see anything. Damp or soft carpet with no obvious cause is another warning. So is a new crack in tile that nothing hit.
On the walls, look for soft or stained drywall near the floor. A musty smell with no clear source usually means moisture is trapped behind a wall or under flooring. If that smell built up slowly over weeks, the leak has been running for a while.
⚠Small leaks add up: The EPA estimates that about 10% of homes have leaks wasting 90 gallons or more a day. Under a slab, that water also washes away the soil that supports your foundation. Caught early, it’s a plumbing repair. Left for a year, it can turn into much more.
What Professional Slab Leak Detection Involves
A plumber finds the leak with testing and listening tools, so nobody has to break up your floor to go looking.
First we pressure-test the hot and cold lines separately to see which one is losing water. That narrows the search. Then we use acoustic equipment that picks up the sound of water escaping through concrete. For hot water leaks, a thermal camera can often see the heat spreading through the slab and show us the exact spot.
You get a written estimate before any work starts. When we finish, you get before-and-after photos and a written summary of what we found and fixed. Every qualifying job is covered by our 90-Day Workmanship Warranty.
How a Slab Leak Gets Repaired
There are three main options. The right one depends on the shape of the rest of your pipes.
Spot repair. We open the slab at the leak, fix the pipe and patch the concrete. It costs the least up front. It makes sense when the rest of the pipe is in good shape.
Reroute. We run a new line through the walls or attic and stop using the old one under the slab. There is no jackhammering. For older homes, this often lasts longer than a spot repair, because an old pipe with one pinhole usually has other weak spots.
Repipe. If you’ve had more than one leak, or you have polybutylene, replacing the lines fixes the root cause instead of chasing leaks one at a time. Learn more about our residential plumbing services.
Want a yearly check so problems don’t sneak up on you? Our Home Protection Plan includes a whole-home plumbing inspection each year, with a written report and photos.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you find a water leak under a slab?
A plumber pressure-tests the hot and cold lines to see which one is losing water. Then acoustic equipment listens for water escaping through the concrete. A thermal camera can find hot water leaks by the heat they give off. At home, the water meter test is the first step.
How much does it cost to find a slab leak?
It depends on the home and how hard the leak is to find. At Iron & Oak, you get a written estimate before any work starts. Home Protection Plan members pay no estimate fee; for others it is $99. Call 954-283-0447 and we will explain what the visit involves.
Can a slab leak stop on its own?
No. A pinhole in a pressurized pipe does not seal itself. Minerals may slow it for a while, but the pipe stays under pressure and keeps wearing. If a wet spot dries up, the water has usually just found a new path under the slab.
Iron & Oak Plumbing is a licensed and insured, family-owned plumber (Lic. #CFC056946) based in Southwest Ranches and serving all of Broward County. High water bill with no obvious cause? Call 954-283-0447, answered 24 hours, or reach us through our contact page.
