A water bill that jumped, a warm spot on the floor, the sound of running water when nothing's on — found precisely, fixed once.
The five-minute test first: turn off every fixture and appliance that uses water, then watch your meter. If the dial or leak indicator still moves, water is leaving the system somewhere — and the game becomes finding where without opening walls and floors at random. Modern leak location uses listening equipment, tracer methods, and pressure isolation to put an X on the spot before anyone cuts anything, which is precisely why the locate fee earns its keep: one accurate hole is cheaper than three exploratory ones.
If your home sits on a concrete slab — common in this county's post-war and newer construction alike — a supply line under the slab can fail where you'll never see it. The tells: a warm patch on the floor from a hot-side leak, the sound of water in the quiet of night, a bill that climbed for no reason. The fix is a genuine judgment call between spot repair (open the slab at the X and fix that section) and a reroute (abandon the buried run and bring a new line overhead). Which one wins depends on the pipe's age and condition — repairing one spot on a line that's failing generally just schedules the next leak. An honest professional prices both paths and tells you which they'd choose in your house.
And a note for the older streets: where a house still carries its original supply pipe, one pinhole is often the first vote in an election. If leaks start arriving in series, the conversation is repiping, and having it early is cheaper than having it after the third drywall repair.
| Job | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Leak location (acoustic / tracer methods) | $150 – $500 |
| Slab leak repair — spot repair vs reroute | Quoted after location |
These ranges are a researched starting point for coastal Mississippi — compiled from regional and industry pricing surveys, not a quote. Access, age of the plumbing, and what the problem turns out to be move every job up or down, which is why the real number is free and only lands after a local professional has laid eyes on the problem — on site, or through your photos and description. One Mississippi-specific note: the state taxes plumbing work at 7% of the contractor's gross income — labor and materials together, not materials alone — so expect sales tax on top of a quoted range unless the quote says it is included.
Do the meter test with everything off. If it moves, the likeliest hidden paths are under the slab, in the yard between meter and house, or a silently running toilet — that last one is the cheap surprise, and worth checking with dye tabs before anything else.
Policies commonly treat the water damage and the plumbing repair differently, and wording varies enough that only your policy answers it. Document everything, call your insurer early, and get the leak located and stopped — the paperwork from the locate and repair is what the adjuster will want either way. No coverage promises from anyone but them.
As a water bill, minor. As a cabinet-floor-and-mold matter, more than it looks — slow leaks do their damage quietly. Put a pan under it today and get it on the schedule this week; it's a small job while it's small.
Meter moving with everything off? Get the leak found before it finds the drywall.
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