Fremont is slab leak country
Most of Fremont was built from the 1950s to the 1980s, and a great many of those homes sit on concrete slab floors, from Glenmoor and Centerville to Irvington, Warm Springs and Ardenwood. In a slab home the copper water lines usually run under the concrete. After forty or fifty years, copper can wear thin and pinhole.
You will not see that leak. You will notice a warm strip of floor, a damp carpet edge, the water heater running all the time, or a bill from the Alameda County Water District that is far higher than last time.
Finding the leak
We start with what you have noticed. Then we test the lines to confirm a leak and work out whether it is on the hot or cold side and where along the line it sits. The goal is to find the spot without breaking up floor to look for it. You see the result before we talk about repair.
Three ways to fix a slab leak
- Open and repair. Go through the slab at the leak and replace that piece of pipe. Direct, but the floor has to be opened and patched.
- Reroute. Abandon the line under the slab and run a new one through the walls or attic. No broken floor.
- Repipe. If the home has had more than one slab leak, the rest of the copper is the same age. A full repipe takes every water line out of the slab for good.
We explain what each would mean in your house and what it costs. Then you choose.
Older Fremont homes
Niles and the older parts of Centerville and Irvington have houses on raised foundations with galvanized steel pipe. Those leak in a different way: rust eats through from inside, and the leak shows up in the crawl space or a wall. We find and repair those too.
About us
Friendly Services is a family-owned Hayward company, in business for over 20 years. License CSLB #1156315 (C-36 plumbing). $1M general liability and workers' comp. Five-year workmanship warranty on our own work. 100+ five-star reviews online. If water is showing right now, our Fremont emergency line is open 24/7.