Noticing a higher water bill or an unexplained wet spot? Bothell Plumber can help find hidden leaks in your home, including slab and water line leaks. We locate the source and recommend the right repair to prevent further water damage. Call Bothell Plumber today for leak detection.
A hidden leak is water escaping somewhere you can’t see it — behind drywall, under a slab, beneath the lawn. By the time it shows up as a stain or a soft spot, it’s usually been running for a while already.
We check for leaks in water lines, slab foundations, yard and irrigation lines, and sewer lines. Plumbing is the only thing we do in Bothell — we’re not splitting our attention across HVAC or electrical work too — so tracking down a hard-to-find leak is something we deal with regularly, not occasionally.
We check more than just the pipes inside your home. Bothell properties can have pools, large yards, and older sewer lines, all of which can develop hidden leaks.
Water lines running under a concrete foundation can crack or wear through over time. We find the exact point before anyone breaks into the floor.
A pipe behind drywall or above a ceiling doesn't announce itself right away — usually a stain or a soft patch shows up long after the leak started.
A camera makes its way down the pipe looking for anything that would let waste seep out before it reaches where it's supposed to go — a crack, a root that's punched through, a joint that's shifted.
If part of your lawn stays wetter than the rest, or your water meter is still spinning with every fixture off, something outside is losing water — could be the main supply line or your sprinkler setup.
If you smell gas, get out of the house first and call from somewhere safe. Once you're clear, we can locate and address the leak.
A leak usually works quietly in the background before you notice anything. Here’s what tends to give it away, sooner or later:
The EPA estimates the average home loses over 9,000 gallons a year to leaks that go unnoticed. Catching one early saves your water bill — and your foundation.
Leak detection is something we handle often, not a once-in-a-while service call.
We use non-invasive methods first — no cutting into walls or slabs until we know exactly where to look.
You know the number before we start — nothing tacked on partway through.
We know Bothell’s housing stock, from older copper-plumbed homes near downtown to newer construction further out.
Clear pricing upfront means no surprises once the work starts.
Hard water isn’t the issue here the way it is in a lot of other cities — Bothell’s water runs the opposite direction, and that comes with its own problem.
Soft, Lower-pH Water Water on the softer, more acidic side can slowly wear away at the inside of copper pipe. It works differently than mineral buildup, but the end result is the same: small pinhole leaks that show up years down the line, often in homes with the original copper still installed.
Aging Copper in Older Homes Homes near downtown Bothell built decades ago often still run on their original copper lines. Copper doesn’t last forever — most of it starts showing real wear somewhere between 25 and 50 years in, depending on the water running through it.
Slab Foundations Plenty of homes here were built with the plumbing running underneath a poured concrete floor. Once a leak starts down there, there’s no visible sign of it until the water finally works its way up.
Wet Ground Bothell’s rainy season keeps the ground soaked for long stretches, which puts steady pressure on buried pipe and fittings — a slow, constant stress rather than a sudden one.
Step 1: You Tell Us What’s Going On A wet spot, a rising bill, a sound you can’t explain — that starting point tells us where to focus first.
Step 2: We Look at the Full Picture Before any equipment comes out, we check the meter, look at how your plumbing is laid out, and note anything visible.
Step 3: We Test With the Right Equipment Depending on where we suspect the leak is, that might mean pressure testing, listening with sound equipment, or scanning with a thermal camera — whatever narrows things down fastest.
Step 4: We Mark the Spot Once the equipment points us to a specific spot, we mark it clearly. Nothing gets opened up before that point.
Step 5: We Walk You Through the Options You’ll see what we found and get a straightforward price for fixing it.
Step 6: We Fix It and Clean Up The actual repair, done properly, with the work area left tidy when we leave.
Leaks don’t check the calendar before they start, and we don’t either. Bothell Plumber takes calls on weekends and holidays, with most visits happening that same day.
We come equipped to find the source on the first stop — not schedule a follow-up appointment for later in the week. It’s an actual local crew answering, not a booking line that pushes you out days.
Most inspections land somewhere in the $150 to $600 range — it varies based on how easy or hard the leak is to access. A pinhole leak repair typically runs $150 to $800, a slab leak repair runs $1,500 to $4,500, and a full repipe runs $4,000 to $15,000. Either way, we tell you the exact number up front, before touching anything
Sound equipment, thermal imaging, and pressure testing narrow the search down to a specific spot before anyone touches the slab.
Yes, in most cases — including evenings and weekends.
It depends on your policy and the cause. Sudden damage is more likely covered than a slow leak from age. We provide documentation either way.
Yes — if your water meter won't stop moving even with everything shut off, or one part of your yard just won't dry out, that's usually an outdoor line worth tracing.
Most inspections take a couple of hours, depending on how hard the leak is to pin down.