Leak Detection and Repair in Port Orchard, Kitsap, Pierce and Mason Counties

The kinds of leaks that hide in West Sound homes

Supply leaks are under pressure, so they run all the time and show up on the meter. Pinholes in copper from aggressive water or electrolysis, cracked fittings, a failed compression stop under a sink, a nail through a PEX line from a picture-hanging project, and freeze splits that opened in January and stayed quiet until the thaw are the common ones. The 1950s to 70s homes around Bremerton and Port Orchard have original copper that is reaching the pinhole stage.

Drain leaks only run when the fixture is used, so they do not register on the meter and they are easier to miss. A failed wax ring under a toilet, a cracked tub drain shoe, a slip joint that was hand-tightened twenty years ago, or a cast iron hub that has rusted through will stain the ceiling below a bathroom a little at a time. The water often travels along a joist before it drips, so the stain is rarely under the leak.

Slab leaks are supply or drain lines buried in or under a concrete floor, common in the slab-on-grade ranch homes of Tacoma, Lakewood and parts of Gig Harbor and in the daylight basements that step down hillsides in Bremerton. A warm spot underfoot, a hot water heater that runs constantly, or a crack in the slab that stays damp are the giveaways. Finding the exact spot before cutting concrete is the whole game.

How we find a leak without guessing

Everything starts with the meter and the shutoffs. With all fixtures off, a moving meter dial confirms a supply leak. Closing the main at the house tells us if it is inside or in the service line. Closing the cold inlet to the water heater tells us whether it is on the hot side, which is where most slab leaks and most pinholes turn up. Those three steps take ten minutes and cut the search area in half each time.

Next we isolate and pressurize. A gauge on a hose bib or a laundry valve shows pressure dropping over time, and how fast it drops tells us roughly how big the leak is. On drain lines we fill fixtures and watch, or run the camera, because a drain leak needs water flowing through it to show. On a suspected slab leak we may use thermal imaging to see the warm stripe of a hot line under the floor.

Then we listen. Acoustic leak detection amplifies the sound of water escaping under pressure, and by moving the sensor along the pipe route we can pinpoint a supply leak to within a foot or so even through drywall or concrete. For walls we combine that with a moisture meter to find the wettest point, which is usually directly below the leak and not where the stain shows.

Repairing with the smallest opening we can

Once a leak is located, we open the wall, ceiling or floor at that one spot with a clean, square cut sized to the repair. A pinhole in a copper line gets the bad section cut out and new copper soldered in, or a PEX splice with proper fittings where that makes more sense. A failed fitting is replaced with a new one. A drain leak gets the bad joint or section replaced and tested by running the fixture, not just by looking at it.

We leave the opening for the drywall patch rather than closing it ourselves. That is deliberate: a repair should dry out and be looked at once more before it disappears behind paint. We can recommend a drywall contractor, and the square cut we leave is the easiest kind to patch.

Slab leaks get a different conversation. Breaking concrete to repair one hot line under a kitchen floor makes sense if the rest of the system is sound. If the house has had two slab leaks already, rerouting the line overhead through the attic or along a wall, or repiping the hot side entirely, is often the better answer, and we lay out both prices so you can decide.

• Single access opening at the located leak, not exploratory holes
• Copper repaired in copper; PEX repaired with proper expansion or crimp fittings
• Drain repairs tested with running water, supply repairs tested under full pressure
• Photos of the leak before and after for your insurance file
• Reroute or repipe quoted when a slab leak is one of several

Leaks that are not plumbing, and leaks caused by weather

The rainy season from October through April produces a lot of calls that are water intrusion rather than pipe failure. A stain that shows only after a storm, grows from a corner of the ceiling near an exterior wall, or follows the line of a chimney is a roof or flashing problem. A damp crawlspace with no meter movement is groundwater, common on the clay soils of South Kitsap and Belfair, and that is a drainage or sump pump conversation.

Condensation fools people too. Cold water lines sweating in a warm, humid crawlspace in June drip onto insulation and look exactly like a leak. Insulating the lines solves it. We check for this before we quote a repair, because nobody should pay to fix a pipe that is not leaking.

The other weather leak is the freeze split. Copper and PEX lines in garages, crawlspaces and exterior walls froze during the December 2022 and January 2024 cold snaps, and some of the resulting cracks did not leak until the water thawed days later. If you have a leak that appeared right after a hard freeze, tell us; it narrows the search to the lines that are exposed to outside air.

Working with your insurance and a restoration company

When a hidden leak has damaged drywall, flooring or cabinets, your homeowner's policy may cover the damage even though it usually will not cover the pipe repair itself. Adjusters want to see the cause, so we document the leak with photos before the repair, describe it plainly on the invoice, and have written short letters for claims when a customer asked.

We do not do water damage restoration, drying or mold remediation, and we will not pretend to. When a leak has soaked a floor or ceiling, we stop the water, make the repair, and give you the names of restoration companies that work in the area. Getting the drying started quickly matters more than most people realize, and we say so on every call where it applies.