How to Find a Slab Leak?
Do you have water leaking under a concrete slab in Santa Barbara? We’re here to help. In this leak detection video, we will show you how we will find your leak making Slab leak detection a breeze.
Step 1 – Thermal Imaging With FLIR Camera
Using a FLIR camera, we will look for thermal irregularities in the concrete. When pointed at any surface, this tool produces a video image based on temperature instead of light. From this image, we will determine any problem areas. Anything this camera registers as particularly hot or cold will give us a good place to start our slab leak detection.
In this video, we are looking at a hot-water leak that presents itself as orange while the cooler surrounding temperatures are blue-purple.
Step 2 – Pipe Locating
If nothing shows up on the camera, you’re going to need to locate the pipe. This requires some professional equipment but gives you a better idea of where to look. In this video, we’re using a Radio Detection RDL7000 pipe locator and a TX-3 signal generator. We are using a frequency of 512 Hz to track a copper water line.
Step 3 – Listen For The Leak
Our preferred microphone set up is the LD18 by Sub Surface. This microphone has some very sophisticated filters and noise canceling abilities for working in noisy environments. These are especially handy when working in apartment buildings or busy street as they easily allow you to blackout the neighbors dog barking or stereos being played down the hall.
Step 4 – Injecting Air Into The System…
For this, we usually use a dive tank. We inject air into the system at very low pressures and listen along the path of the pipe. When the air exits the pipe through the hole, it produces a a loud bubbling noise which makes it easier to dial in on the exact location of the leak.
Other Methods
For outdoor leaks, we can also use hydrogen gas and use special sniffers. This is often the case when the pipe is too deep to hear the actual leak or was run in pvc and cannot be located.
Thanks for watching! We hope these tips will help you find your next Santa Barbara Water Leak!
Gary Fuller
ACME Detection
Santa Barbara, California
(805) 565 LEAK
(805) 565 5325
Leak detection tools we use
- LD 18 Sub Surface microphone
- Metrotech Vivax HL 5000-4 microphone
- Radio Detection RD 7000 locator
