Hello,

I am in escrow at a house in southern California and I may have a leak in the plumbing. The tile in the bathrooms is warm around the showers in both bathrooms even though the water has not been running. I researched a bit and checked the blue triangle on the outside water meter and it is spinning slowly even though no appliances (except the water heater) are running.

Is this an indication of a leak?

I still have a few days to back out and this was not noted on my home inspection.

Should I be concerned?

Thank you

Hey Brooklyn:

Are your water pipes under the concrete slab? Or are they in a basement? How about your heat pipes? Let me know answers...

I would have you start at the basics here before becoming too concerned.

Start by doing a DYE test in the toilets. Here, drop 10 drops of food coloring into the toilet TANKS only... let the color spread throughout the tank and then don't touch the toilets for an hour. After an hour come back and check on the toilet BOWLS and see if color is present in the bowl. If it is, then the toilet flappers will need to be replaced (or the flush valve... but start with flappers.

The warm tiles are interesting... you sure the tiles aren't heated tiles? A leak at tiles would be showing up in some other way besides just warming the tiles (unless pipes are underground)..?

Anyway, start with the dye test.. pop back and let us know what you find.. ok? Then we can worry about who fixes this.. you or them... ;)

MARK

Massplumber,

I hired a leak detection co and they verified a slab leak in the hot waterpipe to the bathroom. A plumber did a direct fix and said the foundation was sound so we are moving forward. Thank you for your reply!

Thanks for the update. Did your plumber break up the slab and repair the leak or did he cap off the leaky line and loop a new line up through the attic? Just curious, Tom

The plumber busted up a one foot section of concrete underneath the carpet and replaced the faulty section. He did say that with time a full re-route of piping through the attic would be recommended. His estimate was $3,500 so we will wait until it becomes an issue do it through insurance.