This underground water pipe leak was showing above ground on a slope. The referring contractor made a good call to have this leak verified before excavating. The area where this water leak was showing is between two houses. One homeowner had landscaped the area with brick and the other had an asphalt walk way. The contractor didn’t want to begin digging with obvious risks. These risks are in the form of questions that include; What if the water leak is up the hill and both landscapes are unearthed in search of it? What if the pipe is leaking because the pipe its self is failing? Where does this pipe enter the basement slab if after digging the leak, the pipe material its self is revealed as a poor quality and the whole pipe needed replacement? These are good questions that most plumbing contractors ask themselves and the only way to begin finding answers is to have the leak professionally located. During the leak locating process the highly sensitive microphones can in most cases be used to find the areas of the buried pipe. As pictured you can see that this leak was located in the area of water showing and not up the hill (which as in most cases the leak is higher up the hill and only showing several yards below). The pipe entrance to the house basement slab was additionally located and marked. Fortunately, this leak was not beneath the asphalt walkway and in a location offering minimal disturbance to either properties to unearth. It’s unknown to me if this pipe was replaced or not however adding the location to where this pipe entered the house slab offered this contractor all the information needed “just in case”. It was a pleasure to help this homeowner and referring contractor.

Michael Fend