Leak detection and repiping for West Covina homes (91790)

West Covina stretches along the 10 in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, with flat tract neighborhoods north of the freeway and the rolling south hills rising behind them. Most homes are single-family houses built from the 1950s into the 1970s, with newer hillside developments and some townhomes and apartments mixed in. We work here on the same routes that cover El Monte to the west.

The flat tracts and the hills bring different plumbing problems. Houses on the valley floor are mostly on slabs with copper lines underneath, so leaks hide under the floor. Hillside homes often have long sewer laterals running downhill to the street and irrigation lines spread across terraced yards.

Start with the meter. Turn off every faucet, the ice maker and the irrigation, then look at the leak indicator on the meter dial. If it turns, water is going somewhere. Closing the cold supply to the water heater next tells you whether the leak is on the hot side, a common place for slab leaks in these homes.

Our plumber confirms with a pressure test on each side, listens through the slab with acoustic gear, and uses thermal imaging to follow warm water under tile or carpet. That lets us mark a small area instead of guessing. If the copper looks sound elsewhere, a spot repair can make sense; if the house has leaked before, a whole-house reroute usually costs less over time.

On hillside lots, add a sewer check to the visit if drains have been slow. Long laterals on a slope can separate at joints as soil moves, and roots follow the moisture. A camera run down the lateral shows offsets and roots, and our piece on clay pipe and roots explains what those findings mean. Permits go through West Covina's building department, not LADBS.