Plumbing Problem

[Vince, Pt. II]

Anyone here have experience with a slab leak? We noticed a few days ago that a section of our hardwood floor was noticeably warm, and we definitely do not have radiant heating. Today I checked the water meter, and it's moving (very slowly...0.016 Cubic Feet per Hour) even with no water running in the house. Just trying to see what we're in for, because my brain is telling me that this will probably be a huge job that we will probably not want to be home for.

It's a townhome built in the 70s. My mother-in-law owns it, and has homeowner's insurance. We've reached out to the HOA to see what their stance is on it as well. Despite it being my mother-in-law's home, we plan on paying for the liability portion (we live here, for crying out loud).

Any ideas on how long this will take and what it might cost? We're reaching out to various plumbers today.

[Vince, Pt. II]

It looks as though we're going to be in about $400 to have the leak identified and located, and another estimated $1,600 or so to chip into the slab, uncover the piping, and have it repaired. Insurance will cover the identification, the slab work, and any water damage, but repairing the pipe is most likely going to be on us as "normal wear and tear." No idea how much of that $1,600 is the pipe work, but we'll find out once the identification process is done.

Ugh.

[Ksyrup]

When they examine the pipe, make sure they check to see whether it could have been caused by something other than wear and tear. We had an indoor leak that was caused by a nail that had gone through a pipe when the house was built and eventually rusted and leaked, and insurance paid for the whole thing,

Of course, the following renewal, they attempted to cancel our insurance so...

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

When they examine the pipe, make sure they check to see whether it could have been caused by something other than wear and tear. We had an indoor leak that was caused by a nail that had gone through a pipe when the house was built and eventually rusted and leaked, and insurance paid for the whole thing,

Of course, the following renewal, they attempted to cancel our insurance so...

Oof. We've already been warned by friends that an attempted cancellation of policy after making a claim was a possibility. I'm definitely going to grill the person doing the repairs to learn everything I can about cause. Our adjustor mentioned that "construction defects" from when the house was built are not covered either, so I think your situation would still screw us.

[Vince, Pt. II]

So it looks like it's going to end up being a $14,000 re-pipe the entire house job. Turns out the piping in the slab is galvanized steel, not copper (built in the 70s), and we've been told by multiple people that fixing this leak would only result in another leak from somewhere else in a year or two at most. The cost difference between repairing the issue now and re-plumbing the house is small enough that we are going to bite the bullet now.

We have all sorts of fans and dehumidifiers running right now; they're loud as hell and should run constantly over the entire weekend - which is going to be super fun to deal with on account of our nine-month-old baby. She sleeps with a white noise machine normally, so hopefully it isn't a huge nightmare getting her to sleep - and keeping her there.

Insurance has been far less frustrating to deal with than expected, and looks to be footing a good portion of the bill - even with the re-pipe instead of the repair. But even with that being the case this is a real bummer.

[QuikSand]

cant wait for all the blue pill troll bots to settle in here