Slab Leak Cleanup & Water Damage Repair
A slab leak releases water under the concrete, and by the time it appears at the edge of a room it has usually been running for weeks. Concrete stores that moisture and gives it back slowly, so slab losses need a genuinely different drying approach from a surface spill — and the flooring assembly above almost always has to come up to get at it.
Common causes we see
- Corrosion of copper supply lines cast directly into the slab
- Soil movement in expansive clay shearing a line at a joint
- Abrasion where a pipe rubs against concrete or rebar over decades
- Poor original installation with unsleeved pipe in direct contact with the slab
Signs you need Slab Leak Cleanup now
- A warm spot on the floor, typical of a hot-water side leak
- The sound of running water with every fixture closed
- Unexplained spikes in the water bill month over month
- Flooring lifting, tile popping loose or damp perimeter carpet
Situations we handle every week
- The plumber tunnelled and repaired the line and left you with a wet slab
- Tile in one room keeps coming loose and the grout stays dark
- You need documentation showing the leak was sudden, not decades of seepage
What happens if it is left alone
- Moisture in the slab migrates outward and wicks into bottom plates and drywall well beyond the visible area
- Adhesive under vinyl, LVP and engineered flooring fails, so the finish floor delaminates months after the repair
- Persistent slab moisture blisters paint and pushes efflorescence through baseboards
- Continuous leaking under a foundation erodes supporting soil and contributes to differential movement
How we handle slab leak cleanup
- 1Confirm the repair and isolateWe verify with your plumber that the line has been repaired and pressure-tested. Drying a slab while the leak is live is wasted equipment time.
- 2Remove the flooring assemblyVinyl, LVP, engineered wood and glued carpet trap slab moisture underneath. They come up so the concrete can actually release water, and adhesive residue is scraped back.
- 3Measure moisture in the concrete itselfNon-destructive slab meters and, where needed, calcium chloride or in-situ RH testing establish how wet the concrete is — surface dryness means nothing on a slab.
- 4Drive drying with heat and airflowConcrete releases bound moisture slowly. Directed heat, high airflow across the slab surface and heavy dehumidification are what shorten a slab dry-out from weeks to days.
- 5Treat the wall base and rebuildBottom plates, baseboard and the lower drywall are checked, dried or replaced, then flooring is reinstalled once the slab meets the flooring manufacturer's moisture tolerance.
What's included
- Post-repair verification with your plumber
- Flooring and adhesive removal over the affected slab
- Slab moisture testing including in-situ RH where required
- Directed heat drying and high-capacity dehumidification
- Bottom plate and lower drywall treatment
- Flooring reinstallation to manufacturer moisture specification
How this differs from similar services
Slab Leak Cleanup vs Plumbing Leak Cleanup
An above-slab plumbing leak damages accessible walls and floors. A slab leak sits under concrete, so the drying physics and the flooring scope are completely different.
Slab Leak Cleanup vs Moisture Detection
If you suspect a slab leak but cannot prove it, start with detection — that page covers the diagnostic work on its own.
Read before you decide
Slab Leak Cleanup — frequently asked
No — that is a licensed plumber's work, usually by tunnelling under the slab or rerouting the line overhead. We coordinate with them and handle everything after: flooring removal, slab drying, wall base repair and reinstallation.
Related services
Plumbing Leak Cleanup
Slow plumbing leaks are the opposite problem to a burst line. The volume is tiny, the damage is concentrated, and the material has usually been wet long enough that the question is not just drying but whether growth has already started. Most of the work here is diagnostic: finding every place the drip landed before deciding what can be dried and what has to come out.
Moisture Detection
Moisture detection is diagnostic work: finding water you cannot see and proving how far it has spread, without demolishing the building to look. Thermal imaging shows temperature anomalies, meters confirm whether those anomalies are actually wet, and the combination produces a moisture map you can act on — or use to show an adjuster exactly what is affected.
Structural Drying
Structural drying is the science half of restoration: removing bound moisture from framing, subfloor, plaster and concrete after the free water is gone. It is not a matter of putting fans in a room — equipment counts are calculated from cubic volume, class of loss and material type, then adjusted daily against psychrometric readings until the building matches its own unaffected baseline.
Water Damage Inspection
An inspection answers three questions in writing: what is damaged, what caused it, and what it will take to put right. It is the right first step when you are not in an emergency — buying a property, disputing a claim scope, checking work another contractor did, or deciding whether a stain is worth worrying about.