Time to Prevent Slab Leaks in Your Home

Precautions to Take to Prevent Slab Leaks

The concrete slab that your San Jose house sits on can be full of plumbing. It likely contains pipes for your first-floor plumbing as well as your outdoor spigots.

Any of these pipes can start leaking, which can cause a huge problem. The good news is, there are some precautions you can take to prevent slab leaks.

Make Sure Your Water Pressure is Good

Water pressure can play a big role in slab leaks. Water pressure that is too high can damage the insides of your pipes and weaken them, which can eventually lead to leaks.

Water pressure that is too low can allow minerals or other particles in your water to settle in your pipes, which can lead to corrosion over time and an eventual leak. Have your water pressure tested periodically to ensure it is the right pressure.

Soften Your Water

Water that is “hard” has a lot of minerals in it, especially calcium and magnesium. Repeated exposure to these minerals can damage your pipes and lead to a leak in your slab.

Installing a water softener in your home will remove these minerals and eliminate the risk of corrosion in your pipes from hard water. Softening your water also has other benefits, including the prevention of spots and film on dishes and shower doors and less harsh conditions for your clothes and skin.

Insulate Your Slab

Extreme temperature conditions can cause havoc on pipes in your slab. Changes back and forth from hot and cold can cause the concrete in your slab to expand and contract, which exerts forces on your pipes that can stress them to the point of cracking and causing leaks. Extreme cold also can freeze pipes and cause them to burst.

To ensure this doesn’t happen, you need proper insulation. You should have insulation in the floor above the slab, and if you have a crawlspace below, you should see if you can safely put insulation there.

While prevention is the best policy, if your efforts fail and you do get a slab leak, you need to find it and repair it as soon as possible. Signs to look for include water spots or dampness on your floor or floorboards, and buckling or bubbling of your San Jose homes floor. If you see any of these signs, you should call a plumber right away to get the problem looked at.

Don’t let a slab leak destroy your San Jose, CA home! Call Genmor Plumbing Inc. at 408-215-4612 to get it fixed.