Below the slab
Underslab plumbing repair
Leak detection equipment finds the line under the slab, hydro-tunneling gets us to it, and old cracked Orangeburg and cast iron come out for new pipe. Lifetime warranty on underslab repairs.
What goes wrong below the floor
Most people find out from the floor or from the bill. A warm spot on the tile, water seeping at a wall seam, a meter that keeps moving with every faucet shut, a water bill that jumps for no reason. In a Kenner or Metairie house built on a slab, the water lines run in the fill under the concrete, so a leak down there has nowhere obvious to go. It soaks the sand, softens the soil and shows up somewhere else, a long way from the actual break.
Old pipe is usually the cause. Orangeburg, the fiber and pitch sewer pipe that went into a lot of older homes, does not last. It softens, flattens and cracks, and then roots find the cracks. Cast iron rusts through from the inside. Either way the failure sits below the floor you walk on, out of sight, and hunting for it by tearing into rooms is how a small repair becomes a big mess.
Open trench cut through a parking-lot slab beside a brick apartment building, vac hoses running into it
How we reach the pipe under the slab
We start with leak detection equipment to locate the underslab leak, so nobody opens a floor on a hunch. Once the problem is pinpointed, our licensed technicians dig under the slab and repair the water lines underneath it. Owner Mark Peterson is on every job and holds Louisiana Master Plumber #1416, which means the person who sizes up the problem is the same person standing over the hole while the work gets done.
For old sewer and water lines we use hydro-tunneling to locate, remove and replace cracked Orangeburg pipe from underneath, with vac trucks pulling the loosened soil out of the way. Where cast iron has rusted through, the replacement is heavy duty PVC on stainless steel hangers, the same work one repeat customer described after his second job with us. The same crews and the same equipment cover Kenner, Metairie, New Orleans, Houma and Thibodaux.
Why a leak under the house will not wait
A leak under the house does not stay a plumbing problem. Water washes fine sand and soil out from beneath the concrete, voids open up, and the floor above can settle or crack. The water bill keeps climbing the whole time. Waiting for the leak to show itself at the surface usually means the damage underneath has already grown bigger than the broken pipe that started it.
We offer a lifetime warranty on underslab repairs, and insurance claims are our specialty, so if your leak is a covered loss we are used to the paperwork and the adjuster's questions. Insurance work and small out of pocket jobs get the same urgency here. Emergency service runs 24/7, estimates are free and same-day, and the office phone is (504) 461-5193 whenever a floor starts telling you something is wrong.
Underslab repairs from Peterson Plumbing & Sand Pumping carry a lifetime warranty. Louisiana Master Plumber #1416, owner on every job, free same-day estimates and emergency service 24/7.