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Australian Leak Repair

1K views 21 replies 5 participants last post by  Tommy plumber 
#1 ·
#8 ·
I can charge more period, I set my own rates. I don’t need to justify, I just need success.

I understand what you’re saying, but ultimately I don’t subscribe to having to list equipment charges on a bottom line.

The equipment is useful in certain situations, those situations are very uncommon for me in my service area.

Like yours, most of our service lines are shallow. I do mostly residential. Slab leaks are almost always bypassed so I rarely have to pinpoint where the actual leak is.

I feel the tool would sit around a lot and it costs a couple grand. I don’t want that…..
How do you find the manifolds for rerouting?
 
#9 ·
How do you find the manifolds for rerouting?
They’re typically next to the drain or directly behind and under the fixture. They dig one ditch and put the water to the side of the drain.

I have ran a 5/16” cable through pipes coming up from the slab to see where they go. You can hear it with your naked ear, it’ll stop at the next header location. Once I find one, I can find them all.

You can also use a cheap stethoscope from habor freight and just listen. You have to have good ears and experience looking for the headers is a plus.
 
#4 ·
Often when I can't find a leak on a waterline and occasionally a drain, I will drain all the water and hook up my air compressor. Ideally you put the compressor where you can't hear it or you just let it run a cycle, then shut the power and open the air a little. Listen for leaks with the compressor off using the tank capacity.

If you can't hear the air leak, have fun.
 
#11 ·
I’ve also drilled or poked a hole and inserted a Ridgid handheld camera. I do this under the vanity cabinet or wherever.

I’m not saying I’ve never cut a hole for nothing but it’s not typical. I surprise myself sometimes how accurate I can be. Lucky too…..

I’ve made a lot of money doing slab bypasses. I like it……

I’m not knocking the equipment. I know it works.
 
#12 ·
Here’s an example of how things can go to ****. This guy destroys this house……

The leak detector guy missed the target.

Then the next leak detector guy did hit the target but once the plumber accessed the pipe it wasn’t repairable.

Then it’s it’s amateur hour with him trying to locate the correct pipe.

The leaking pipes are the ones that don’t hold water…….I just rebuild the manifold after I’m done.
This video is a prime example of why I almost always prefer to bypass overhead. I would’ve located the manifolds, found the leaker, then bypassed. Probably without any damage visible without opening a cabinet or a closet. Of course it depends on where the headers are.
 
#15 ·
Here’s an example of how things can go to ****. This guy destroys this house……

The leak detector guy missed the target.

Then the next leak detector guy did hit the target but once the plumber accessed the pipe it wasn’t repairable.

Then it’s it’s amateur hour with him trying to locate the correct pipe.

The leaking pipes are the ones that don’t hold water…….I just rebuild the manifold after I’m done.
This video is a prime example of why I almost always prefer to bypass overhead. I would’ve located the manifolds, found the leaker, then bypassed. Probably without any damage visible without opening a cabinet or a closet. Of course it depends on where the headers are.
Ignorant question:

Why doesn’t the water service come in the front wall of the home, then brought up into the attic to be distributed to each fixture vs under the slab?

Is it that the labor and material cost is cheaper to come up from the slab vs down from the attic?
 
#13 ·
My father use to like breaking the slab and repairing the leak. Then if the pipe wasn’t repairable he would bypass it.

He liked that approach because it made more money most of the time and insurance paid more as they were involved a lot when we broke the slab. Simple as that, Businessman first.

insurance would pay us to break the slab and repair. Insurance rarely paid for a bypass or it wasn’t enough damage caused by the bypass to make it worth involving insurance.
 
#14 ·
Looks like leak detection is hit and miss, if you don’t know what you’re doing, I’ve never seen this done it looks interesting.
99% homes here have basements, for the most part, the water service is brought into the building at the front wall of the home/building, into a shut off valve then into the water meter.

Our leak detection is simply behind “soaked”walls and or ceilings.
 
#20 ·
When the electronic leak detection is not accurate, it can be a minor nightmare.


At 7:30 the gentleman states that the manifold could not look worse. I disagree 100%. There is enough soft copper stubbed up above the slab to work with. As opposed to having fittings soldered 1" above the slab. I hate that. I have actually cut the fittings out when they are too low and soldered couplings with hard copper to raise the manifold; easier to work with this way.

With a re-route overhead {or around a wall in some cases} we cut into and add a tee somewhere convenient. The old line becomes defunct and remains in the slab.
 
#22 · (Edited)
When looking at a manifold with many pipes, it takes some experience to determine which line goes where.

For example, I was re-routing a line to bypass a slab leak and the house had 3/4" hose spigots on it. So when I saw 3/4" copper in the manifold that I was working with {and it was a cold manifold} , I determined that they fed the hose spigots and the leaking line was a 1/2" copper one feeding the kitchen sink with cold water.

But yeah, sometimes you can cut a few copper pipes to find which one feeds what fixtures.
Then you have to solder back the good lines that you had to cut.
 
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