Call King for emergency leak detection services here in Chicago

When it comes to your home’s upkeep and repairs, there’s a lot you can procrastinate on, especially during the busiest times of the year. Fixing the blinds? Sure, it can wait. Cleaning the baseboards? Not a rush! However, there are some emergencies that require your immediate attention and action. A leaking pipe is one of them. In this article, we’ll review what you should do if you have a hidden leak in your home, and how your fast action can help limit water damage.

If you suspect that your home has a leak hidden behind its walls or underneath its foundation, call us for a free VIP plumbing inspection here in Chicago and Northwest Indiana. We’ll send out one of our experienced plumbers to take a look and provide you with a detailed, professional assessment of what’s going on with your pipes.

What is professional leak detection?

Not every household water leak has an obvious point of origin. In fact, considering the amount of pipe that travels behind your walls, underneath your foundation, or inside interior walls, it’s actually far more likely that a leak will start somewhere out of your sight.

It’s not as easy as just cutting into drywall and accessing the pipe, either. It’s difficult for any homeowner to pinpoint the exact location of a leak under ideal circumstances. However, in many cases, the moisture from the leak actually travels—typically, due to gravity—away from the source before manifesting as an obvious sign of water damage. For instance, a leak in a pipe in the upstairs master bathroom may cause water to drip down to the living room wall.

So, how do you go about finding these leaks? This is where a professional plumber enters the picture. Our plumbers use advanced, professional-grade equipment designed specifically for locating leaks. This is what “leak detection” is. Here’s how we do it.

How does leak detection work?

Sound is one of the most effective tools our plumbers use to find leaks. The ever-so-slight sound of water exiting a pipe is far beyond human hearing, but our advanced acoustic sensors can pick it up due to the differences in frequency. The device then traces the sound back to its origin point: the leak itself. Our plumber will then identify the least-intrusive and simplest means of accessing the pipe for repairs.

In certain scenarios, our team will also make use of other tools to find leaks in pipes. This includes endoscopic cameras—snake tools with a tiny video camera at the end that can be fed into the line—and static pressure testing.

Why should I call a professional for leak detection?

Have a hidden leak in your home? Here are just three reasons why you should call King for a free VIP plumbing inspection:

• Effectiveness: As mentioned earlier, finding a hidden leak on your own can be akin to playing a game of whack-a-mole with your drywall. Without being able to pinpoint exactly where the leak is coming from, you might be cutting into the wrong spot.
• Costs: Professional-grade acoustic leak detection equipment costs thousands of dollars, and isn’t a feasible investment for a single homeowner or even a property manager. You could hire a plumber for leak detection many times over before your costs even approached that of buying equipment.
• Expertise: Once the leak is located, it takes experience to know the best way to access and fix it. Our plumbers have that, in spades. Call us and we’ll handle it—no mess, no stress.

At King, we offer 24/7 emergency kitchen and bathroom plumbing repair in the Chicago metropolitan area and Northwest Indiana. To get started with your free VIP plumbing inspection, call us now.