A slab leak — a plumbing leak underneath a home's concrete foundation — is one of the most damaging plumbing failures possible. It can go undetected for weeks or months, silently soaking the sub-slab and eating your water bill, until a hot spot appears on the floor or a puddle shows up in a hallway. Central Texas has a special slab-leak problem: expansive clay soils under Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock, and Georgetown swell and shrink dramatically between wet and dry cycles, and that soil movement stresses copper supply lines running under the slab until they crack.
Crystal Falls Plumbing runs a slab-leak call two to four times a week in Leander alone. We locate the leak electronically without breaking concrete, then offer you the least invasive repair option: spot repair (open a small area of floor), reroute (run new line through the attic and abandon the slab section), or tunnel (dig a small tunnel underneath the slab from outside).
Symptoms of a Slab Leak
Slab leaks announce themselves in specific patterns. If any of these apply, call for a diagnostic today.
- Warm spot on the tile or wood floor (hot-side leak)
- Wet carpet, baseboard, or edge of flooring with no visible source
- Water bill 25%+ higher with no change in usage
- Cracked or lifting floor tile
- Sound of running water with all fixtures off
- Mildew smell in a room with no windows
- Cracks appearing in interior drywall
How We Repair a Slab Leak
- 1. Electronic Location
We isolate the hot or cold side, listen for the leak with acoustic ground microphones, and confirm the exact location with a thermal camera.
- 2. Written Repair Options
You get 2–3 options: spot repair (open the slab), reroute (run new line overhead), or tunnel (access from outside without breaking the floor).
- 3. Execute the Repair
The chosen repair is completed to code, pressure-tested, and inspected. Rerouted lines are insulated in the attic to prevent freeze damage.
- 4. Restoration Coordination
For jobs with floor or tile damage, we coordinate with a flooring restoration partner. Insurance-ready documentation is included.
What Slab Leak Detection and Repair Includes
- Electronic acoustic leak detection using ground-mic equipment across suspected slab area
- Thermal imaging on hot-water slab leaks to visualize temperature differential without cutting
- Isolation testing to separate hot from cold and confirm the specific line before any concrete work
- Written comparison of repair options: spot repair (cut and repair through slab), tunnel repair (dig under slab from outside), or overhead reroute (abandon slab line, run new PEX-A through attic/wall to same fixture)
- Restoration boundary defined in writing before we start — what we backfill, what we patch, what a tile/flooring contractor takes over
- Pressure test on the repair, isolation-verify the leak is gone, and a written closeout report you keep for insurance and future reference
What Affects the Price
Slab-leak pricing has the biggest spread of any residential plumbing job because access dominates the cost.
- 1Repair method: spot repair, reroute, or tunnel
- 2Location of the leak (near an exterior wall vs. center of home)
- 3Type of pipe (copper, PEX)
- 4Flooring type (tile, hardwood, concrete stain)
- 5Number of slab leaks found (aging copper often has multiple)
- 6Whether homeowner opts for a partial or full repipe instead
Serving Leander & Williamson County
The expansive-clay soils across Williamson County — the Houston Black and Bastrop series — are the underlying reason Leander has a slab-leak problem. When drought cycles hit (as in 2011, 2022, and again in 2023–24), clay shrinks dramatically, sinking foundation edges by inches and pulling on copper supply lines. In older Cedar Park and Round Rock subdivisions with original copper still in the slab, we often see multiple slab leaks within a single year — the point at which a whole-home reroute repipe becomes cheaper than repeat spot repairs.
Why Leander Trusts Us With Slab Leaks
A slab leak in a Leander home mishandled costs thousands more in unnecessary demolition. We locate first, quote every option, then let you decide.
- Electronic + thermal detection on every slab-leak call
- Repair vs. reroute comparison in writing so you see both costs and both lifespans
- Lifetime workmanship warranty on overhead reroutes
- Coordinated tile/flooring finish crew or clean handoff to your GC
- Insurance-ready written cause-and-scope report for your adjuster
Slab Leak Repair Across Williamson County
Expansive clay stresses slab-embedded copper across every Williamson County city. We run slab-leak calls daily on every era of housing from 1980s Brushy Creek starter homes to 2020s Travisso two-stories.
Every slab-leak repair carries a 5-year workmanship warranty. Reroute jobs carry the same lifetime PEX warranty as our whole-home repipes.
Related plumbing services
Electronic and acoustic leak detection in Leander — we find hidden supply and sewer leaks in slabs, walls, ceilings, and yards without tearing anything up until we know exactly where the problem is.
Learn moreWhole-home repipes in Leander using PEX-A or Type L copper — 1 to 2 days of on-site work, minimal wall damage, all drywall patched and painted, code-compliant permit and inspection included.
Learn moreWhen a Leander home floods from a plumbing failure, we stop the water, identify the exact cause, coordinate water-damage extraction, and write an insurance-ready damage report with photos and part-failure evidence.
Learn more