Getting the water shut off
If the leak is still running, isolate it at the fixture or the main so the drying can start against a closed source.
Burst Pipe and Leak Cleanup
A split supply line, a failed water heater or a pinhole in a line under the slab can put water through half a house before anyone notices. Tempe Water Damage Pros connects you with an independent provider to clean up the water and dry what it reached.
- Restoration Referrals
- Independent Pros
- Drying & Repairs
Signs of a Plumbing Leak Behind the Scenes
- A water bill that jumps with no change in how you use water
- A warm spot on the floor, or the sound of running water with every tap closed
- A damp patch at the base of a wall or on the carpet near a closet
- Rust, scale or a puddle around the base of the water heater in the garage
- A cabinet floor under the kitchen sink that has gone soft and dark
Older parts of Tempe, Mesa and South Scottsdale have copper supply lines routed under the slab, and Arizona water is hard enough that pinhole corrosion is a real everyday cause of leaks. Homes built between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s may have polybutylene supply piping, which gets brittle and fails at the fittings.
Newer subdivisions are not immune either. Flexible connectors under sinks, refrigerator ice-maker lines, reverse-osmosis tubing and softener lines all fail quietly, usually into a cabinet where nobody looks.
What the Service Includes
Cleanup is the same whatever the pipe was made of; the difference is how much material the water reached before it was caught. Ask the provider to quote the work after the wet area is mapped.
Extraction and cabinet work
Water that has run into a kick space or a cabinet base has to be reached directly. Toe kicks and cabinet bottoms are opened only where the readings say water got in.
Drying the wall and floor assembly
Wet insulation and bottom plates are dried or removed, and the wall cavity is dried from the inside instead of just from the surface.
A record for the repair
Photos, readings and a written scope describe where the water went, which is what a plumbing repair or an insurance file needs later.
After the Cleanup
Restoration work and the plumbing repair are two separate jobs. A restoration provider handles the water, the drying and the damaged materials; the pipe itself is repaired by a plumbing contractor, and it is worth getting that lined up while the wall is still open.
Water under pressure travels a long way, so the first step is usually emergency extraction, followed by structural drying of everything the water reached. When the source turns out to be a machine rather than a pipe, see appliance leak cleanup.
If the leak had been running for weeks before you found it, ask about mold remediation as well. For a leak in a rental or a commercial suite, see commercial restoration, or call about the leak to reach a provider.
Burst Pipe Cleanup Questions
Where is the main water shutoff in an Arizona home?
In most homes here it is a valve on the supply line where it enters the house at the front, often near a hose bib, or inside the garage near the water softener loop. There is also a meter box near the street with a shutoff inside it. Find yours now, before you need it.
The leak is fixed, so why do I still need drying?
Fixing the pipe stops new water arriving; it does nothing about the water already in the drywall, the insulation and the flooring. A restoration provider measures how far that water traveled and dries it, which is what prevents the smell and staining that show up weeks later.
Can a slab leak be dried without breaking the floor?
The cleanup and drying are separate from the plumbing repair. A restoration provider dries the flooring and walls the water reached; whether the line under the slab is rerouted or opened up is decided by the plumbing contractor. Compare the material decisions on the restore versus replace page.
My water heater is in the garage and it leaked. Is that different?
Only in where the water goes. Garage water heaters take a beating in Arizona summer heat, and when one lets go the water usually runs under the wall into the house. The rooms on the other side of that wall should be checked, not just the garage slab.
Get water damage help in Tempe
Call and describe where the water is coming from and how far it has spread to reach an independent provider.