A warm floor
is a location, not a theory.
Water under a slab does not announce itself as a puddle. It announces itself as a bill, a sound, or a patch of floor that should not be warm.
If every faucet is off and you can still hear water, the meter is the honest witness. Most Los Angeles meters have a small triangle or a dial that turns when water is moving. Watch it for a few quiet minutes with the irrigation off and the ice maker idle. If it moves, water is leaving the system somewhere you cannot see. That is not yet a slab leak. It is a reason to look, starting with toilets that refill themselves, hose bibs, and the heater pan.
What the floor is telling you
A hot-water line under concrete can heat a patch of tile or a hallway. A cold line will not. The warm spot is useful because it narrows the search. It is not a map of the pipe. Older houses here often have copper or galvanized lines that were laid in the slab, then forgotten until a fitting thinned. The repair is not “open the floor where it feels warm.” The repair starts by confirming the leak is under the slab, not in a wall, a yard, or a recirculation loop above it.
Listening equipment and a pressure test do that without a jackhammer. A camera does not, because there is no drain to swim through. Once the line is isolated, the estimate should say whether we are repairing that section, rerouting above the slab, or both, and what the floor finish has to survive. Opening concrete is part of the scope. It should not be a surprise after the pipe is already replaced.
The meter test, done properly
Turn off every fixture, the irrigation, and the ice maker. If there is a softener or a filter with an automatic flush, know whether it can run while you are watching. Mark the meter. Wait twenty minutes without using water. If the dial moved, water left. The next cut is to close the valve on the house side of the meter, if you have one, and watch again. Movement with the house valve open and stillness with it closed puts the leak on your side of that valve. Movement that continues with the house valve closed is between the meter and that valve, or the valve itself is not holding. Do not skip the irrigation clock. A zone that sticks is a very convincing imitation of a slab leak, and it is in the yard.
Repair the line, or leave the slab
A pinpoint leak under a hallway can be opened and repaired when the pipe on either side is still sound. A hot line that has pinholed once in a slab often has more thin spots, and opening one of them does not promise the next ten feet. Rerouting that run through the attic or the walls abandons the concrete and puts a new line where it can be reached the next time. That is a larger job the day you do it and a smaller crisis later. The estimate should say which choice you are being offered, what floor finish is assumed, and whether the rest of the buried hot or cold system was tested or only the spot that showed itself.
Do not jackhammer the warm tile as a first step. The warm patch is where heat arrived, not always where the copper failed. Locating comes before the concrete. If the water bill jumped and the meter moves with the house quiet, call before the stain or the warm spot has to convince you. The pipe is already spending water.
Related service: Leaks and burst pipes. For the visit itself, call 818-631-7296 or send the address.