Water Bill Up and No Idea Why.
Most calls we get for leak detection don't start with the word leak at all. It's a water bill that climbed for no obvious reason, a water meter that keeps spinning with every fixture in the house shut off, or the sound of running water somewhere behind a wall when nothing is turned on. That's a hidden leak, and in Bellflower's older slab-on-grade homes, it's usually a supply line under the concrete or behind a wall that's been leaking quietly for weeks before it shows on the surface.
Water Bill Climbing
A steady, unexplained increase is the single most common trigger for our calls.
Meter Spinning With Everything Off
The clearest sign of a leak somewhere between the meter and the house.
Warm Spot or Sound in the Floor
Often the first physical sign of a slab leak specifically.
Damp Drywall or Baseboard
A wall leak that's been running long enough to reach the surface.
None of these symptoms tell you exactly where the leak is on their own, which is the actual reason detection exists as its own step before repair. Guessing and opening a wall in the wrong spot costs more than the detection visit would have.
Water Bill Doesn't Add Up?
We can usually pinpoint it without opening a wall or breaking concrete.
A leak traced to a slab-supported supply line becomes a slab leak repair rather than a simple fixture fix. A leak near a pool equipment pad is handled under pool leak detection instead, since the testing method differs for each.
How We Find It Without Guessing.
We start by isolating whether the leak is on your side of the meter or the utility's, then use acoustic listening equipment to trace the sound of the leak through the pipe. For a suspected slab leak, we add thermal imaging to spot the temperature difference a hot-water leak leaves in the concrete.
Isolating the meter side first matters because a leak between the street and your meter is the water provider's responsibility, not yours, and there's no reason to pay for detection or repair on a line you don't own.
This finds the leak's actual location before any wall or slab gets opened, which is the difference between a small, targeted repair and a much bigger one.
Copper pipe pitting from decades of moderately hard groundwater is a common finding once we're tracing a leak in an older Bellflower home, especially on runs installed during the 1960s through 80s repipe wave. Knowing that ahead of time changes how thoroughly we check the rest of the line, not just the one spot that's currently leaking.
What Leak Detection Costs
Detection visit. Repair quoted separately once the leak is located.
Common Questions
It depends on the cause. Sudden, accidental leaks are often covered as damage, while a slow leak that developed gradually over time is typically treated as wear and usually excluded. Coverage details vary by policy, so it's worth confirming with your insurer.
Acoustic equipment picks up the sound of water escaping under pressure, and thermal imaging shows the heat signature of a hot-water leak, both without opening a wall first.
Almost always, yes. That's the clearest single sign we see, and it's worth calling before the bill climbs any further.
Same-day in most cases across Bellflower.
We'll walk you through the repair options on the spot. See our slab leak page for what that involves.
Yes, and it's one of the more common calls we get. A leak inside a shower or bathroom wall can run for weeks before staining shows on the surface, which is exactly the case acoustic detection is built for.
No. The detection visit has a flat price up front, and any repair is quoted separately once the leak is actually found.
It's rare, but a leak that's genuinely intermittent or very small can take a second visit with different equipment to pin down. We won't bill you twice to keep chasing the same problem.