I think I have a leak

Good day all.

I believe I have a hot water leak but no idea where it is. Here is the story. New water heater installed late last year. All was fine. This WH is at one end of the house; the kitchen sink is about halfway to the other side of the house. It usually takes 30 seconds or so for the water at the kitchen sink to get hot. The last couple of weeks the water is almost instantly hot leading me to believe there is a leak close to the kitchen that is causing hot water to be constantly close to the sink.

The master shower is at the other end of the house and upstairs; it does not get hot nearly so quickly so I suspect the leak is around the kitchen. Problem is, I do not see any wet spots anywhere. I am not sure where to look.

What happens when a leak develops within the slab foundation, if that is even possible? My next step is to start removing kitchen cabinetry around the faucets to see if water is pouring in there. Any other ideas?

Any plumbing students want to come fix it and use the details for their Master's Thesis?

That sounds like you have a leak under the slab. Not to uncommon in my area. In many cases you won't see any sign of a water leak. The way to check this out is to turn the water off at the heater. What for about 5 min. and in that time be sure no one uses any water. Then turn the water back on. If you here it filling the hot water tank you have a leak. To find the leak you may be able to find a hot spot in the floor between the water heater and the kitchen faucet. If you can't find the leak yourself there a company's that can do it for you. Look them up in the yellow pages under leak detection. If they work the same way the do around here they will locate and expose the leak. They will cut a small hole in the slab so the leak can be repaired. At that point around here it's up to you to call a plumber to make the repair.

John

I'm new here , nice thread!

ilakassaa said:

I'm new here , nice thread!

Click to expand...

Welcome my friend from the Black Sea. How is Romania?