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Leak under concrete slab-pics+update

14 years ago

Below I have added a link to my original post.

Update - no fresh water leak, leak detector at outside meter is not spinning at all. Soil on outside perimeter of house looks good. DH chipped away more concrete at stain site and located what looks like the main sewer pipe.

Lots of very wet, sometimes saturated mud. No tree roots. A rock/ chunk of concrete was noticed embedded to the side and slightly under this sewer pipe. Dug it out, felt around the pipe with bare hands and cannot feel a dent or a hole. In the last picture you can see a copper pipe (not warm to the touch)near the top of the picture. We have filled the sink in the kitchen, then let it drain to listen and see what happens. Also did this with upstairs bathroom, shower & sink.

Still don't know where this leak is located.

Stain on dining room concrete

Cut open and see damp sand on top of a plastic barrier

Concrete chunk at tip of small shovel

Chunk after getting it out

At the top you can see a copper pipe. It's not perpendicular to the drain pipe..more of a 45 degree angle.

Here is a link that might be useful: My original post in June

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Comments (2)

floorguy
14 years ago
I don't see any rebar in that slab, just wire!!!

That pipe is leaking somewhere.
Laurie
Original Author
14 years ago
floorguy- you are correct. There is no rebar, just some thick wire in a mesh/grid pattern. DH was concerned when he first cut open the concrete. He believes the wire should have been embedded somewhat into the concrete. After removing more of the concrete to widen the opening, we discovered the wires are embeded into the concrete, now, in this new wider area.

I forgot to mention..along with finding the large chunk of concrete, there is a piece of wood (looks like a 2 x 4) lodged below the drain pipe. We don't know why that's there.
This area must have been a dumping site during construction & stuff just got left there?

It's been 4 days since we dug out the sopping wet soil and exposed this drain pipe. We have been using all sinks, bathrooms, dishwasher, & laundry. There has been absolutely no water showing up anywhere in that hole. We have also had the backyard sprinkler system turned off for the past 3 weeks. This dining room is adjacent to our backyard that's mostly grass with a row of boxwood plants near the wall. It will be interesting to see what happens when we turn the sprinklers back on. The sprinkler system (installed many years ago by DH) includes pipes & risers along the area by the wall for the boxwood plants. There's also a hose/spigot connection there on that wall as well.
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I went through the same thing, in my case the drain line was leaking. The location of the leak was identified and they fixed it by tunneling under the slab. I know of other individuals that had jack hammering done, key to jack hammerting is to seal off the area and get very good professionals to repair afterwards. The source of the leak has to be identified first, it may not be under the slab but a leak in say the tub, shower etc.
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