Not all plumbing problems make themselves obvious.
Some don’t start with a puddle on the floor or a burst pipe. Instead, they hide quietly — under concrete, beneath tile, behind walls. They grow slowly, silently racking up water loss, structural damage, and unexpected spikes in your water bill. And by the time you realize what’s happening, the cost of repair has tripled.
That’s the reality of a slab leak.
A slab leak is a water leak that occurs in the pipes running beneath your home’s concrete foundation. These pipes — usually copper or PEX lines for water supply — are buried underneath the slab during construction. If they corrode, crack, or shift due to soil movement, they can begin leaking into the ground below your house. You won’t see it right away. You won’t always hear it. But it will show up in other ways.
"A slab leak doesn’t flood your home overnight. It damages it from below — slowly, silently, and expensively."
Here in Tempe, slab leaks are more common than most people realize. Our soil composition, combined with aging homes and decades of Arizona’s intense summer heat cycles, puts pressure on buried plumbing systems. Older neighborhoods like Hudson Manor, Mitchell Park, and areas near Broadmor Elementary are full of slab-on-grade homes with original piping — many of which are now 30, 40, even 50 years old. We’ve worked in dozens of them.
The challenge with slab leaks is that they rarely announce themselves with dramatic symptoms at first. What you might notice instead are subtle clues: a warm spot on the floor, a soft humming noise when no water is running, or a Tempe water bill that suddenly jumps for no reason. These are the warning signs that often go ignored — until the damage becomes visible.
We’ve seen homeowners ignore signs for months, assuming it was a minor plumbing issue, only to find out the water had been leaking into the ground beneath their home for weeks. By that point, foundation cracks had formed, moisture had crept into the flooring, and the cost of repair had grown by thousands of dollars.
This guide is here to help you catch it before that happens.
In the next section, we’ll walk through the exact symptoms of a hidden slab leak — from subtle to serious — and how to tell if your Tempe home is showing the signs.
Not every plumbing issue makes a scene.
Slab leaks don’t come with bursting pipes or water pooling under the sink. They develop slowly, underneath the concrete foundation of your home — silent, hidden, and expensive. By the time you realize something’s wrong, the damage has already started. Moisture is working its way into the flooring. The water bill is rising. Cracks may be forming in the foundation. And you're left with a problem you didn’t see coming.
Slab leaks happen when water supply lines, usually copper or PEX, begin to leak under the concrete pad your home is built on. These lines can fail due to corrosion, shifting soil, poor installation, or just time. The leak itself doesn’t usually stop the water from flowing through your system. That’s why the symptoms are easy to miss — water still comes out of your faucets, your toilet still flushes, and life continues as normal… until it doesn’t.
In Tempe, slab leaks are more common than many homeowners realize. Much of the city’s housing stock was built decades ago, and many homes still have their original plumbing. Add Arizona’s extreme temperature swings, soil expansion and contraction, and mineral-rich water supply, and it’s a recipe for stress on buried pipes. Older neighborhoods like Mitchell Park, Broadmor, and sections around University Drive have seen rising slab leak cases, especially where no repiping has ever been done.
Slab leaks don’t need much time to cause damage. As the soil underneath the concrete becomes saturated, it can cause the foundation to shift or settle unevenly. This can lead to cracks in the slab, lifting tile or hardwood, or even structural issues if the leak is extensive enough. And because the leak is underground, many homeowners spend weeks or months troubleshooting surface-level symptoms — a warm spot here, a smell there — without realizing the issue lies beneath them.
The longer the water runs, the more expensive the repair becomes. Water damage restoration, foundation stabilization, flooring replacement — none of these are cheap. That’s why identifying a slab leak early is so important. Catching it before it causes visible damage can save thousands.
Understanding what to watch for — and what a slab leak actually looks like in a Tempe home — is the first step. A slab leak doesn’t flood your house in one day. It slowly breaks it from the bottom up. Knowing the signs means knowing when to act, and that can make all the difference.
Finding a slab leak isn’t like spotting a dripping faucet or a clogged sink. There’s no obvious puddle to point at, and the source of the problem is usually buried several inches beneath solid concrete. That’s what makes slab leaks so frustrating for homeowners — they can cause significant damage while staying completely out of view.
Slab leak detection requires both specialized tools and experience. At Peoples Choice Plumbing, we use a combination of acoustic listening devices, thermal imaging, and static pressure testing to pinpoint the location of a leak with minimal disruption. These tools allow us to isolate the sound of water escaping from a pipe beneath the slab, even if it’s just a slow spray or drip.
Acoustic detection is especially effective for copper lines, which are common in many older Tempe homes. By placing sensitive microphones on the floor and amplifying specific frequencies, we can identify the exact location of escaping water. We’ll also use infrared cameras to look for temperature variations in the slab. These show up clearly if a hot water line is leaking, creating a distinct heat signature beneath the surface. In cases where those methods aren’t conclusive, we may perform a pressure test to confirm whether a pipe has failed.
For the homeowner, the benefit of this process is accuracy. Without it, you'd be guessing — and that often means breaking open multiple sections of flooring to “explore.” That’s the last thing you want in a finished home. By using professional-grade leak detection equipment, we can target the problem with surgical precision. In most cases, we can identify the slab leak without removing a single tile until we know exactly where the pipe has failed.
Not every plumber in Tempe offers this kind of non-invasive detection. Some rely on outdated methods or rough estimates that lead to unnecessary demolition. That’s not how we work. We want to protect your floors, your foundation, and your budget. The goal is to find the leak, confirm it, and present a clear solution — all without turning your home into a construction zone.
Accurate diagnosis is the difference between a $500 repair and a $5,000 restoration job. It's not just about finding the leak. It's about finding it early, finding it right, and preventing the kind of collateral damage that drives up cost and stress.
Slab leaks don’t announce themselves — they hide. But with the right tools and training, they can be found quickly, and fixed just as efficiently. That’s how real slab leak detection is done.
Once a slab leak is detected, the next question is always the same: What’s it going to take to fix it?
The short answer is — it depends on the location of the leak, the age of your pipes, and how much of the system has been compromised. But in nearly every case, you’re looking at one of three repair methods: spot repair, pipe rerouting, or full repiping.
Spot repair is the most direct fix. It involves breaking through the slab exactly where the leak is located, cutting out the damaged section of pipe, and replacing it with new material. This is usually the most cost-effective option if the leak is isolated and the rest of your plumbing system is in good shape. In some Tempe homes, especially those built in the last 20–30 years, spot repairs are quick, clean, and permanent. But if the home has older copper piping or a history of leaks, patching one section might just be delaying the next failure.
The second approach is rerouting. Instead of accessing the broken pipe under the slab, we cap it off entirely and run new piping through walls or ceilings to bypass the damaged section. This is often the preferred method for homes with multiple prior slab leaks, or when the location of the leak makes direct access difficult. Rerouting avoids breaking up floors and reduces the chance of future slab problems — especially in homes with brittle or poorly installed piping under the foundation.
Then there’s full repiping, which is only necessary in more severe cases. If your entire water supply line system is outdated, showing signs of multiple failures, or made from pipe materials that are no longer up to code, replacing the whole network may be the most reliable and long-term solution. It’s a bigger project, but it protects the home against future leaks, water quality issues, and structural damage.
Every home is different. In Tempe, we’ve rerouted lines in single-story homes near Baseline, done spot repairs on slab leaks in college rentals around ASU, and completed full repipes in 1960s ranch houses with original copper that had already leaked twice. The right solution depends on your plumbing history, your goals, and your budget.
What matters most is making the right repair the first time. Quick fixes without diagnosis usually lead to repeat problems. But when the repair is tailored to your specific situation, slab leaks can be handled cleanly — and permanently.
Most homeowners aren’t thinking about what’s happening underneath their foundation. And that’s exactly why slab leaks are so damaging — they hide until it’s too late. But if you’ve started to notice signs like rising water bills, warm spots on the floor, or water sounds when no fixtures are running, now is the time to act.
Don’t wait for visible damage. Don’t wait for mold. And don’t guess.
The right move is to bring in a licensed, experienced plumber who can confirm the problem without tearing up your floors. Professional slab leak detection equipment allows us to find the source quickly and accurately, minimizing disruption to your home. Once we know exactly where the leak is — and what kind of piping system you have — we can give you a clear recommendation and fixed pricing to resolve it.
At Peoples Choice Plumbing, we’ve handled slab leak repairs in every corner of Tempe. Whether you live in a mid-century build near College Avenue, a newer home in South Tempe, or a rental near the university, we’ve seen your plumbing layout before — and we know what works. We don’t guess, we don’t patch the wrong pipe, and we don’t overcharge. We diagnose. We explain. And we fix it right.
Slab leaks aren’t a problem you fix by watching a tutorial. You fix them by understanding the system, spotting the failure early, and applying the right solution — whether that’s a small repair or a full reroute. Most of our slab leak repairs take less than a day. Many are completed without removing any visible flooring. And all are done with long-term protection in mind.
“The best time to fix a slab leak is the day it starts. The second best time is today.”
If you even suspect you might have a slab leak, don’t wait. The damage won’t slow down on its own. Let our team inspect it now, walk you through your options, and give you real peace of mind.
For trusted slab leak detection and repair in Tempe, contact Peoples Choice Plumbing today — and protect your home from the ground up.
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