Finding slow leaks inside walls, under floors and behind cabinets with moisture meters and a thermal camera, across Wichita and Sedgwick County.
Fastest: call (833) 490-5225. Or send this and we call you back.
Hidden water leak detection is the process of finding a leak that is inside a wall, under a floor or behind a cabinet, where the water is not visible. In Wichita a crew uses moisture meters and a thermal camera to map the wet area, then opens the smallest area needed to find the source. Calls are answered 24/7.
A hidden leak shows its effects long before it shows itself. A floor that feels soft, a baseboard that has begun to lift, a cabinet base that is darker than the others or a water bill that keeps climbing are all signs of water that is somewhere the eye cannot reach. The leak can run for weeks before any stain appears on a surface.
Hidden leaks come from supply lines inside walls, drain lines under floors, fittings behind cabinets, and the joints where a shower, a tub or a toilet meets the floor. Water from these sources runs along framing and down through floors, so the place where the damage shows is often not the place where the water is coming from. The search starts from the damage and works back toward the source.
Call (833) 490-5225 at any hour. Tell the phone team where the damage is, how long you have noticed it, and whether the water bill or the meter has changed. Do not start opening walls or lifting floors yourself, because a cut or a pry bar can damage a line or a cable. A technician reads the building and explains the search before any opening is made.
Do not cut into walls, lift floors or pull up tiles to look for a leak, because electrical cables and pipes run through them. Do not pry at a cabinet or tile with a bar while water is present. If a floor feels unsafe to stand on, keep off it. Keep children and pets away from openings and from the area where the search is being done. If you smell gas, leave the house and call the gas utility from outside.
The crew checks the water meter with every fixture shut, and it notes any movement. A meter that turns with no water in use points to a leak somewhere in the supply, and the search is planned around that.
Moisture meters are run across walls, floors and cabinets, and a thermal camera shows where wet material is cooler than the dry material around it. The picture is checked against the meter readings, because a camera can show a pattern that is not water.
Water runs along framing, down through floors and along pipe runs, so the wet area is traced back to the highest or nearest point where it could have entered. The likely route narrows the search to a few places rather than the whole house.
A small access opening is made only where the route and the readings point. The opening is photographed, the fitting or line is found, and the crew checks it for the leak before the opening is closed or the repair is planned.
The source is written in the log, with photographs and the readings that led to it. The repair of the line or fitting is a plumber's job, and the crew says which parts of the damage will need drying, opening and rebuilding after the repair.
No. A thermal camera shows temperature differences, which can point to wet material, but it does not confirm a leak on its own. The camera's picture is checked against moisture readings and against what is found when an opening is made.
Wet material can look cool on a camera, but so can a draught, a cold wall or an insulated cavity. The crew reads the picture with care, and it does not call a leak from a camera image alone.
The most useful result of a camera is that it narrows the search. It shows where to look, so the crew can make the smallest opening necessary rather than opening a wall in several places.
No. A wall or a floor can hide electrical cables and pipes, and a tool can cut them without warning. A small opening made by the crew is planned around what is inside the wall, and it is photographed and recorded.
Opening a wall also changes its condition. An opening that is larger than needed weakens the framing and makes the repair more costly. The crew opens only where the readings and the route say the leak is.
If an opening has already been made, keep it covered and tell the crew about it. A cavity left open can collect dust, and a cable exposed to damp may need to be checked by an electrician.
Have a plumber repair the line or fitting, then have the drying finished before the wall or floor is closed. Ask the plumber to write the repair up, and keep the crew's log with the plumber's report for your insurer.
The order of work matters. A wall that is closed before the line is repaired and the cavity is dried will trap water inside it. The crew and the plumber should agree the sequence before any wall is closed.
Keep a record of the time the leak was first suspected, the time it was found and the time it was repaired. Those dates help an insurer understand how long the water was in the building.
A supply or drain line inside a wall is the hardest to find. The crew reads both faces of the wall and follows the wet area up and down the cavity, then opens the wall where the readings are highest. Once the line is repaired, the cavity is dried before it is closed.
A leak under a floor can wet the subfloor, the joists and the ceiling below. The crew reads the floor from above and below where access allows, and it checks the slab with a meter if the leak is under a concrete floor. The repair is planned with a plumber once the line is found.
Leaks at a shower pan, a tub surround or a toilet seal often wet the floor and the wall beside the fixture. The water runs down the framing into the room below, so the ceiling beneath the bathroom is checked as well as the bathroom itself.
A fitting or a line behind a cabinet can wet the cabinet base and the floor beneath it for a long time without showing. The cabinet is opened and read, and the wall behind it is checked along the water's likely route.
Hidden leaks in Wichita are found in the same places they are found anywhere else: supply lines in walls, drain lines under floors and fittings behind cabinets. The house's age, layout and finishes decide where the search begins, and the crew asks about those on the phone so the first visit is well planned.
A slow leak can run through a wet season without being noticed, and rain and river flooding in the area's history mean a damp subfloor is not always the result of a pipe. The crew separates a leak from a supply line from water that came in from outside, by reading the materials and the timing.
Wichita's water meter readings are the first clue many homeowners get. A meter that keeps turning when the house is quiet is the best early warning a homeowner has, and it is worth checking after a storm as well as after a repair.
Call any hour and explain what is going on. You get a clear price before any work starts.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Extracting and drying the water a burst or split supply line leaves in floors, walls and cabinets across Wichita and Sedgwick County.
Pumping water out of crawl spaces, and reading and drying moisture under slabs and floors, across Wichita and Sedgwick County.
Checking and drying water-stained ceilings and soft drywall, with the insulation and framing above them, across Wichita and Sedgwick County.
Dated drying logs, moisture readings, photographs and written scopes that support a water damage insurance claim across Wichita and Sedgwick County.
A building is dry when its materials read at the dry level for each material, not when the surface looks dry.
No figure is given here, because the cost depends on how big the search is and how many openings are needed. The search is explained and approved before any opening is made, and a repair is quoted separately once the source is found.
Sometimes the meter, the readings and the camera are enough to narrow the search, and then the opening is kept small. Some leaks cannot be found without a small opening, and the crew explains where that is needed and why.
The crew finds the leak and dries the area around it. The repair to the line or fitting is a plumber's job, and the crew tells you at the start which trade is needed for the source it finds.
It can, but a higher bill can have other causes, such as a change in use or a meter reading error. A crew can check the meter with every fixture shut, and the result tells you whether water is moving through the supply when nothing is running.
A soft floor can remain while the subfloor and joists dry out. The crew checks the readings after the repair and keeps the drying going until the structure reads dry, so the floor can be judged on the readings rather than on feel.
That depends on your policy and on the cause, and the insurer decides the claim. Keep the readings, the photographs and the plumber's report, because they show when the leak was found and what was repaired. The Kansas Insurance Department is the state regulator to contact about a claim you cannot settle with your insurer.