A Longmont slab leak is a pressurized water line leaking beneath a concrete floor, usually copper that has worn through or a joint that has failed. Longmont homes run from the old Main Street core to recent neighborhoods, and the plumbing in and under the house is the owner's to fix. Call the number on this page to be connected with a local plumber in Longmont.
Which Longmont homes see slab leaks?
Any house with supply pipe under concrete can have one, but age raises the odds. Census survey figures put the median Longmont home at 1991, with about 37.1% built before 1980. The older share is concentrated around the downtown Main Street area and the neighborhoods that grew out from it; places like Prospect New Town are far newer. In a 1960s or 1970s house, buried copper has had decades to wear against gravel or concrete. In a newer one, a leak is more likely to come from a fitting or a pipe damaged during construction. Basement floors count as slabs too, so a leak can show up under a finished lower level as easily as under a kitchen.
Does Longmont's water play a part?
Longmont's water is soft. The city's report puts it at roughly 1 to 2 grains per gallon, disinfected with chlorine, with no violations reported. Its service line inventory classified every water service line in the city as non-lead. Nothing in the city's reporting points to the supply as a cause of buried leaks, so a plumber will focus on the age, material and routing of your pipe. Soft water does mean less scale, which can make it easier to read a pipe's condition once it is exposed.
What will the repair involve?
First the leak has to be confirmed and located. A plumber typically isolates hot from cold, pressure tests each side, and listens through the slab with acoustic equipment; thermal imaging helps with hot lines. Then you choose between opening the slab at the leak or abandoning the buried run and installing new pipe through walls or ceilings. Longmont requires a permit for any change to a plumbing system, so a reroute or replacement will go through Building Services at the Development Services Center on Kimbark Street.
A Longmont tip
Read your meter before and after an hour with no water running, irrigation included. If it moved and nothing in the yard is soggy, tell the plumber; that result is the fastest way to steer the visit toward the slab instead of the service line.
Slab Leak Repair questions in Longmont
Could the local water be wearing out the pipe under my floor?
Does slab leak work need a permit here?
Are older homes here more likely to have a slab leak?
Can a cold snap cause a leak under the slab?
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