A slab leak is one of the most common — and most misunderstood — water problems in San Bernardino. When a supply line running through or under your concrete slab springs a pinhole leak, the water has nowhere obvious to go. It spreads across the slab, wicks up into your flooring, and soaks the bottom of your walls, often for weeks before you notice a warm spot on the floor, a spike in the water bill, or the faint sound of running water when everything is turned off.
This city is built for slab leaks. Block after block of mid-century homes sit on concrete foundations, and a huge number of them still run the original galvanized steel or polybutylene supply lines. After decades in the Inland Empire's hard, mineral-heavy water, that plumbing corrodes and fails. We specialize in the water-damage side of these leaks — pinpointing where the moisture has spread, drying the slab and structure properly, and stopping the mold that a slow slab leak almost always starts.
What's included
- Thermal-imaging & moisture mapping of the slab
- Coordination with your plumber on the repair
- Concrete-slab drying systems
- Wall-base & framing drying
- Mold inspection & remediation
- Flooring dried or removed as needed
- Verified-dry confirmation before rebuild
- Insurance documentation & direct billing
How we find and confirm a slab leak's damage
By the time most homeowners call, they know something is wrong but not where. We use moisture meters and thermal imaging to map exactly how far the water has traveled through the slab and into flooring and walls — the wet footprint is almost always bigger than the visible spot. That map tells us what needs drying and helps you and your plumber zero in on the leak itself.
We coordinate with your plumber on the repair. Once the leak is fixed — whether that's a spot repair, a reroute, or a repipe — we take over the water-damage recovery: drying the slab, the framing, and any wall cavities the water reached.
Why aging Inland Empire plumbing fails
The galvanized steel pipe used in older San Bernardino homes rusts from the inside out, and polybutylene — installed widely in the 1980s before it was pulled from the market — becomes brittle and cracks over time. Both were never meant to last as long as they've been in service. Add our hard water, which is rough on pipe interiors, and slab leaks become less a question of if than when for a lot of these homes.
That's why a single slab leak is often a warning sign. If your home still has its original plumbing, the damage we dry today may not be the last leak — and we'll flag what we see so you can plan ahead with your plumber.
Drying a slab leak so it stays fixed
A slab leak fed water into your structure slowly, which means the materials are thoroughly saturated by the time it's found. We dry the concrete slab with equipment made for it, pull moisture out of the wall bases and framing, and — critically — verify the slab is genuinely dry before any flooring is reinstalled. Skip that step and mold grows under brand-new floors.
Because slab leaks run for weeks, we also inspect for mold that may already have started in the wall cavities and under cabinets, and we remediate it as part of the job so you're not calling us back in a month.