When it comes to slab leaks in your home, detecting the leak as early as possible is vitally important to get the leak fixed. If the leak in your foundation’s slab is left undetected or found and not repaired, then it can lead to thousands of dollars worth of water damage and structural damage to your home.

Homeowners are typically not experts in home plumbing repair, and may not even know that their foundational slabs are leaking. There are several telltale signs that will indicate that you have a slab leak and should get them repaired as soon as possible so as not to incur more expenses than are necessary.

1.) Your water bill suddenly gets insanely expensive

If you have any type of leak in your home’s plumbing system, then you will experience an increase in your water bill at some point, this is due to the fact that a leak means there is water constantly running somewhere instead of only when you turn the water on.

If the water leak is minor, then the water bill will more than likely not go up much, however if you open up your water bill one month and find that it is excessively higher than it has ever been before without any known reason for it being so, then that is usually a good sign that there is a slab leak somewhere in your foundation.

2.) Water making puddles where there shouldn’t be any

Water leaks in your foundational slabs will cause water to puddle up underneath the foundation until it can find a crack from which to start leaking out. If you see water coming out of the slab foundation when you are outside of your home, and there is no reasonable explanation for it to be there, then the most likely culprit is a slab leak.

3.) Flooring that is damp or warped

When the slab foundation is leaking the water builds up eventually has to go somewhere else. In a lot of cases, that means that there is nowhere for the water to go except to start rising, which means that over time it is going to reach your flooring and start to cause damage.

If you have carpet flooring in your home and find areas that are damp and darker than other areas, then that is a sign of water rising from your foundation caused by slab leaks. On the other hand, water damage caused by a leak in your slab foundation with damage your hardwood floors by causing it to distort and warp.

4.) Does your house smell like mold or mildew?

Once the water coming from a slab leak gets into the flooring of your home, not only will you see and feel then damage, you will also start having mold and mildew build-up under the flooring if it is not fixed quickly. The walls in your home can also start to absorb the water which is impossible to cleanout.

When water gets into these materials, mold, and mildew will start to grow which will not be able to be seen without tearing up the carpet or taking down the walls, but you will be able to smell the mold and mildew start to grow. If you start smelling mold and mildew inside the home, especially around your walls and flooring, look around for other signs of a slab leak.

If you have seen a few signs of a slab leak in your home, call in a professional to look for a leak and get it fixed as fast as possible so as not to sustain any further damage to your home.