I came home after a month of traveling for work. I was going through the mail and ran into my water bill. It appeared that the bill has increased even if I wasn’t at home. I looked for copies of my previous bills and found that my water bill has increased largely. I checked to see if there was a rate change but there was not any.
I then walked around my home to check for any leaks. I first checked the bathrooms then the kitchen. I went outside to check the faucets outside as well. I did not see anything dripping. I also checked my flow meter I got from flowmeters.com. I turned off the main water supply then walked over to my water meter. “Strange!” I thought. The meter kept running even though the water was turned off. I went inside to listen for any water noise. There was, in fact, a trickling noise coming from somewhere in the house. I walked towards my kitchen and listened. The sound was coming from the floor. I looked around but did not see any leaks. I haven’t used the kitchen sink, so it couldn’t be anything draining from it. It was alarming. I decided to search for an expert in my city. I can handle average plumbing issues, but this was something else. I can hear the water but cannot see it. I quickly searched for “ft worth under slab plumbing” on my laptop. I browsed the pages to see if the symptoms matched with what I thought it may be.
Consistently, word for word, it indicated that was the problem. I potentially had a busted pipe that is buried underneath the cement slab of my home. That is something quite alarming! I was fortunate enough that the search results came up with many experts and professionals in my area. I called a few of them and pursued about three of them for an estimate. I called my insurance company for a list of licensed professionals they worked with and scheduled an emergency appointment. This was in fact, an emergency, literally money going down the drain every minute that I don’t get the issue resolved. The next day, the plumbers came. They inspected every inch of my house and finally pinpointed the exact location of the leak. He pointed to the floor to show me that there was a build-up of moisture there. After his assessment, he said that I was lucky that I detected it early. He went on about the process and how long it may take. He said there will be damage to the cement floor because he had to break it to get to the pipe. I said that it would be best to get started right away. He agreed, and his team began the work. I moved the kitchen furniture to the living room while they worked. They pounded at the floor and removed a piece of the cement slab. Then they dug their way to the damaged pipe.
I sat there watching them work. Dirt and cement piled near the kitchen sink. The plumbers assured me that they will fix the problem and clean up afterward. “I certainly hope so!” I thought. Eventually, I went for a quick walk to clear my anxiety while they continued their work.