Leak under slab that cannot be located?

[CollieMan]

Is everyone clear on the fact that the "under slab" part is complete speculation?

[turf3]

Originally Posted by CollieMan

Is everyone clear on the fact that the "under slab" part is complete speculation?

True: but they don't own the house yet, so the discussion really comes down to three options.


1) walk now, without bothering to spend more time and money figuring out where the leak really is.


2) Spend more time and money, and find out where the leak is, with two outcomes:

2a) Under the slab, in which case you should walk away anyway
2b) Accessible, in which case you get it fixed and declare victory

3) Spend more time and money, but you still can't find out where the leak is (within the time constraints of trying to decide whether to make an offer on a house), in which case you should walk away anyway.


So all told there are 4 possible short term outcomes (remember, this is about deciding whether to offer on a house, not about how to solve a problem when you already live there and have all the time you need to figure it out) only one of which isn't "walk away".


Given that the OP is trying to buy a generic house in a generic subdivision in a generic suburb (believe me, it's maximum generica out there), of which there are hundreds of similar units for sale at any given time, it doesn't seem to me that continuing to chase down this fugitive water leak is worth additional time, money, trouble, and uncertainty.

[CollieMan]

Originally Posted by turf3

True: but they don't own the house yet, so the discussion really comes down to three options.


1) walk now, without bothering to spend more time and money figuring out where the leak really is.


2) Spend more time and money, and find out where the leak is, with two outcomes:

2a) Under the slab, in which case you should walk away anyway
2b) Accessible, in which case you get it fixed and declare victory

3) Spend more time and money, but you still can't find out where the leak is (within the time constraints of trying to decide whether to make an offer on a house), in which case you should walk away anyway.


So all told there are 4 possible short term outcomes (remember, this is about deciding whether to offer on a house, not about how to solve a problem when you already live there and have all the time you need to figure it out) only one of which isn't "walk away".


Given that the OP is trying to buy a generic house in a generic subdivision in a generic suburb (believe me, it's maximum generica out there), of which there are hundreds of similar units for sale at any given time, it doesn't seem to me that continuing to chase down this fugitive water leak is worth additional time, money, trouble, and uncertainty.

All true, I'm just genuinely curious how the inspector (not a plumbing professional) located an under-slab leak, while the actual plumbing professional could not... or did the sky start falling somewhere?

In my experience, inspectors will often greatly magnify "issues" with items that they are not experts on in order to justify their report.

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by CollieMan

Is everyone clear on the fact that the "under slab" part is complete speculation?

How did you come to this as "fact"?

Originally Posted by CollieMan

All true, I'm just genuinely curious how the inspector (not a plumbing professional) located an under-slab leak, while the actual plumbing professional could not... or did the sky start falling somewhere?

In my experience, inspectors will often greatly magnify "issues" with items that they are not experts on in order to justify their report.

How did you come to the conclusion that the Inspector was reporting on an "under-slab leak" when the OP never claimed the Inspector stated that it was "under-slab"? The OP's posts below are clear of that.


Did you have a bad experience with an Inspector that you would care to share and get off your chest?

Originally Posted by aljka

We found a house and did inspection. We found that there is a small leak and requested to fix it prior closing. Seller called plumber and plumber could not locate a leak. Their answer is "the leak is so small that it cannot be located. Advice is to wait until leak is bigger so it can be located and then fix it". This sounds a bit scary. We never had a house on slab before, so trying to google and everyone says that leak cannot be left untreated. Please advice if anyone had problems like this?
Thank you!

Originally Posted by aljka

It was found during inspection. Water meter is still moving when all water is shut off. They called plumber to locate the leak and plumber could not "because it is too small"

[1AngryTaxPayer]

We had this happen and we just rerouted the plumbing through the outside and attic. Much cheaper than ripping up the slab or trying to tunnel under. You can get a quote just in case if you decide you might want the house.

[CollieMan]

Originally Posted by escanlan

How did you come to this as "fact"?





How did you come to the conclusion that the Inspector was reporting on an "under-slab leak" when the OP never claimed the Inspector stated that it was "under-slab"? The OP's posts below are clear of that.


Did you have a bad experience with an Inspector that you would care to share and get off your chest?

Basic logic on the first point. Title of the thread is slab leak, which was based on the inspector’s report. No leak was found. Therefore, there is no visible or detected leak under the slab.

As for the second, many - particularly during this latest RE boom in Texas, but that’s for another thread.

[elan]

Originally Posted by EcoDeb

Run Run Run unless you want to buy a problem and pay $ $ $. Try to find a pier and beam with access to plumbing. IMO plumbing in slabs with very expansive soils can be a Big Problem. Our soil report came back and strongly recommended a pier and beam, that is what we built. The crawl space, is also great for a Tornado shelter.

Good thing you built. I said that I would never live in a slab home, but pier and beam are hard to find. When we were looking, the flippers had ruined all those homes. And yes, when the tornado sirens went off at our old house I went into the crawl space a couple of times. Seemed like a good time to check things out, lol. This season, in our new home, I just looked at the bathtub and said really? Anyway, OP, I'd walk.

[ea0337]

Originally Posted by NP78

Overall they are a very small percentage of the housing stock since most of DFW has been developed over the last few decades.

I'd guessed as much. Probably all the northern suburbs would have to be excluded entirely if one were to look for housing stock with pier & beam foundations only.

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by CollieMan

Basic logic on the first point. Title of the thread is slab leak, which was based on the inspector’s report. No leak was found. Therefore, there is no visible or detected leak under the slab.



Actually the OP stated a Plumber was called and could not locate the leak stating it was to small at this point. Anything other than a sub-slab leak would most likely have displayed itself in whetted materials, staining, etc. That was why I asked the OP if the Plumber identified it as sub-slab.


As for the second, many - particularly during this latest RE boom in Texas, but that’s for another thread.


I think you should get it off your chest since you brought it up. Might make you feel better.

See blue above.


I fully expect that a Plumber would have identified the leak as either sub-slab or otherwise since they are the "plumbing professional" don't you?

[Scrat335]

Leak under a slab?

Just run.