Plumbing leaks cause progressive water damage. If left unchecked, they can significantly decrease the value and marketability of your Lafayette, LA home. Fortunately, you can find and fix plumbing leaks before they spiral out of control. At Benjamin Franklin Plumbing®, we're sharing proven strategies to protect your plumbing system and property.

Faulty Appliances

Among the most likely places for slow and hidden leaks are your plumbing-connected appliances. Garbage disposals, dishwashers, and washing machines can develop leaks that add moisture to your air, saturate building materials, and cause considerable water waste. Worse still, these leaks can fester unnoticed for months on end.

Clogged Garbage Disposals

If your kitchen sink drain has a pungent odor, a leaky garbage disposal could be to blame. Several factors can cause garbage disposals to leak:

  • Faulty seals
  • Loose or faulty connections
  • Drain line clogs
  • Cracked housing

Leaky garbage disposals create foul-smelling pools of standing water just beneath sinks. This water can attract pests. It creates favorable conditions for drain flies and provides an accessible water source for rodents and other critters.

If you have pest problems, frequent drain clogs, or a perpetually wet undersink area, contact a plumber. Your garbage disposal's drain line might have a heavy buildup of grease, food waste, and other debris. A plumber will check for and address leaky connections and worn seals. If the problem is cracked disposal housing, you'll need a garbage disposal replacement.

Leaky Appliance Connections

Dishwashers and washing machines can develop leaks in their water lines that bring fresh water in and carry rinse water out. Unfortunately, these leaks often develop beneath appliances or just behind them.

Be on the lookout for pooling water around these and other plumbing-connected appliances. The sudden presence of silverfish, ants, cockroaches, or termites can indicate leaky connections as well.

Sprinkler System Leaks

If you have large puddles or perpetually muddy spots in your yard, you may have a leaky sprinkler system. Pay attention to the flow of water when your sprinklers are on. Sprinklerheads with geyser-like spurts are often the culprit.

Other signs of sprinkler leaks include sudden increases in your water bill, patches of lawn that are especially verdant, and soil erosion. A leaky sprinkler can flush away loose soils, cause soil compaction in low-lying areas, and create other adverse changes in your grading.

Sewer Line Backups

The worst plumbing leak to catch you off guard is a sewer line leak. Cracked, offset, and corroded sewer pipes spew raw sewage into nearby soils. This wastewater can attract aggressive weed and tree roots. It can also cause soil and groundwater contamination, adverse grading changes, and even foundation issues if ignored. Sometimes, sewer line leaks can also lead to messy whole-house backups.

Tree Root Intrusion

Tree root intrusion is a top cause of sewer line cracks. When tree roots gain access to the nutrient-dense waste that flows through sewer pipes, they grow rapidly. As these roots increasingly block pipe interiors, the movement of wastewater slows down.

Every drain in your home converges onto your sewer pipe. Although it's fairly common to have a single dirty or slow-moving drain, be wary of multi-drain issues. If all your drains emit foul odors, move slowly, or clog simultaneously, you probably have a whole-house backup.

As wastewater slowly clears invasive tree roots, you might hear bubbling and gurgling noises in your toilets and drains. These are often followed by soft sucking or hissing sounds. They typically occur when no one is actively using plumbing systems and wastewater finally clears sewer pipes.

Cracked Sewer Lines

When wastewater saturates the soil that covers and surrounds your sewer pipe, the overlying terrain could take on a soggy and slightly sunken appearance. Standing pools of water that never fully dry are a strong indication of sewer line leaks.

The area just above your sewer line can also have a rank sewer gas odor. Sewer gas smells a lot like rotten cabbage or rotten eggs.

Offset Pipe Sections

Offset sewer pipe sections deposit waste into nearby soils, too. Soil shifting, settling, and compaction can offset your sewer pipe. To avoid these problems, never place heavy machinery, such as a stump grinder, on the soil that covers your sewer line. If you think your sewer line has cracks or offset sections, schedule a sewer line camera inspection.

Slab Leaks

A portion of your sewer pipe may travel beneath your home's foundation. Shifting soils beneath the building and settlement issues can cause sewer line cracks. Aging, corrosion, and heavy buildups of hard water scale or other debris can crack sewer lines, too.

You might have a slab leak if your home's concrete slab is wet or develops a white, powdery coating. Damp crawlspaces, mold, mildew, and increased humidity in lower areas of the home are all indications of a slab leak. To protect your home's value, schedule professional leak detection service right away.

4 Signs of Hidden Plumbing Leaks

Plumbing leaks can develop behind your drywall and other building materials. Plumbers can find and repair these hidden leaks with minimal cutting. To do so, they can use video pipe inspection cameras, thermal imaging cameras, or acoustic leak detectors. You can identify them by looking for the following developments.

1. Rising Water Bills

Any sudden and unexplained increase in your water bill may signify a leaky water supply line. You can turn all your taps off and check your water meter. If your water meter continues to register water use, call a plumber. Leaky water supply lines waste massive amounts of water and, in some cases, can allow outside contaminants into your home's water supply.

2. Changes in Water Quality

If you have a leaky water supply line, you may notice changes in your water quality. Schedule leak detection and water quality testing if your tap water is:

  • Foul-smelling
  • Off-tasting
  • Discolored
  • Filled with visible particulates

3. Changes in Water Pressure

When turning your tap on, you should get a steady, even stream. If your taps emit thin, guttering streams, a leaky water supply is a likely culprit.

4. Persistent Dripping Sounds

Leaky water supply lines make constant dripping sounds behind drywall. They add humidity to the indoor air, too, and can leave drywall, baseboards, and other nearby building materials soft and sagging. Dripping sounds are often accompanied by damp, musty odors and visible patches of mold.

Proactive Water Damage Prevention

In addition to checking for changes like decreased water pressure and poor water quality, you can schedule several plumbing services to ensure early leak identification.

Whole-House Plumbing Inspections

Schedule a whole-house plumbing inspection at least once each year. During these services, plumbers check for slow and hidden leaks, loose appliance connections, drain and sewer line blockages, and more.

Sewer Line Inspection and Cleaning Service

You should have your sewer line professionally inspected and, if needed, cleaned about every 18 to 24 months. Homes with older plumbing, a history of backups, or lots of trees near the sewer line may benefit from more frequent service. If your sewer line is nearing the end of its lifespan or if you've had a whole-house backup in the past, ask your plumber whether annual inspections are a good idea. To keep your drains clean, fresh-smelling, and functioning as they should, schedule regular drain cleaning service as well.

Backflow Testing and Prevention

Keep your home's water supply protected from faulty sprinkler connections, adverse changes in water pressure, and other backflow issues by scheduling regular backflow testing when you have a backflow prevention assembly, such as on an irrigation system. In Lafayette, backflow protection is required on all irrigation systems, and local utilities require annual testing of backflow prevention assemblies to ensure they’re working properly.

Backflow prevention devices contain internal parts that wear out over time. A licensed plumber familiar with Lafayette’s cross-connection and backflow rules can help you confirm that you have the correct devices in place and recommend repair or replacement when testing shows they’re no longer performing as designed.

Our Experts

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing® is a top choice for plumbing services in Lafayette and the surrounding communities. We offer expert leak detection services, whole-house plumbing inspections, and leak repairs. At Benjamin Franklin Plumbing®, we leverage the latest and least invasive leak-detecting tools for fast and accurate diagnoses and timely interventions. For help protecting your home from plumbing-related water damage, give us a call today. If there's any delay, it's you we pay!