Mesa Verde Slab Reroute

I got a call from a homeowner in a 1972 tract house over on Arbor Street in Mesa Verde. He had just opened his mail and found out his water bill had jumped from a normal around eighty dollars up to over two hundred dollars in a single month. He hadn't noticed any warm spots or heard any running water, which is common with slow leaks that run straight down into the dirt.

I went out the same day and set up my acoustic detection equipment. I picked up the sound of a leak on the hot water line, pinpointing it to a spot about 14 feet under the main living room. The problem was the floor setup. This house had a solid 5-inch thick concrete slab, and the owners had laid down new tile the year before.

I gave the homeowner a Written Estimate covering his options. Instead of firing up the jackhammer, breaking through that new tile, and dealing with the dust and structural mess, I recommended rerouting the compromised line up through the attic. It bypasses the leaking copper underneath entirely.

The homeowner signed off, and we got to work. We capped the old line below the slab and ran new piping through the walls and across the attic space to reconnect the fixtures. The entire job took one day from start to finish. We didn't break a single tile in the living room. I rerouted the line through the attic instead of opening the slab. You're welcome, tile floor.

He called me a month later to tell me his water bill went right back down to normal.