Mon–Sat 7am–6pm · 24/7 Emergency Line
Serving Santa Ana & Central OC
Nobody enjoys booking a trade without knowing what they are agreeing to. This is the whole visit, start to finish: what we do, in what order, what it costs, what you get at the end, and the outcomes where the answer is that your plumbing is fine.
| Situation | Typical |
|---|---|
| Straightforward slab leak, clear symptoms | About an hour |
| Whole-house search, no obvious starting point | One to two hours |
| Mystery leak, somebody has already looked | Two hours or more, by design |
| Pool leak with pressure testing | Two to three hours |
| Shower pan flood test | Half a day, the waiting is the test |
| Sewer camera inspection | Usually under an hour |
The flat fee is what makes the longer ones possible without the clock changing what gets done. An hourly rate would charge the most for exactly the searches that are hardest, which is the situation you are most likely in if you have called a specialist.
Detection is a flat $150 to $500, credited toward the repair if you go ahead, and there is no detection fee if we cannot locate the leak during your paid visit. After-hours pricing is given on the call, before anybody is dispatched.
Everything we price is on the pricing page.
All four, whether or not you go ahead with the repair, and whether or not the answer turns out to be plumbing.
None of that is required. All of it helps, and the quiet-system point in particular is the difference between a clean acoustic read and an ambiguous one.
People ask why a technician reached for one tool and not another. The choice is not preference, each method has a specific blind spot, and the situation decides.
| Where the leak is | First tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under a slab, hot-water line | Thermal | The concrete above a hot line warms measurably |
| Under a slab, cold-water line | Acoustic | No thermal contrast to read |
| Inside a wall | Thermal and moisture | Both work through drywall without opening it |
| Under the yard | Acoustic | Sound carries through soil once the run is traced |
| Very deep, or very quiet | Tracer gas | Finds what acoustic cannot hear |
| A drain or sewer | Camera | Not pressurised, nothing for acoustic to hear |
| A pool | Pressure testing | Isolates plumbing from shell before anything else |
Reading that table sideways explains why a single-method company misses things. An acoustic-only search will struggle with a cold-water pinhole under a quiet slab, and a thermal-only search will miss it too. Together, they usually do not.
| Not this | Instead |
|---|---|
| Cut into a wall or floor to look | Locate non-invasively, then open once, precisely |
| Quote a repair before finding the leak | Locate first, price second, in writing |
| Recommend a repipe by default | Say which of repair, reroute or repipe fits, and why |
| Take the failed part away | Leave it with you. It is claim evidence |
| Give you a price verbally and start | Written quote, agreed, before anything begins |
| Pressure you to decide today | The report and quote are yours to sit on |
The last row matters more than it sounds. A written quote you can take away and compare is the normal standard, and urgency applied to a decision rather than to the leak itself is worth noticing.
We are licensed and insured plumbers, and this site is about leaks — finding the ones you cannot see and repairing them properly. Roughly half of what looks like a plumbing leak turns out not to be one, so the boundary is worth stating plainly.
Roof leaks are a roofer. Water under an air handler is an HVAC technician clearing a condensate drain. Water under an appliance is appliance repair. Drying, restoration and mold are separate trades again, and gas line repair is SoCalGas or a licensed gas fitter. We detect gas leaks, we do not repair gas lines.
The full list, with the trade to call for each, is on what we don’t do.
It happens on a meaningful share of visits, and it is a result rather than a failure.
A company paid the same either way has little reason to keep testing once a convenient explanation appears. No-find-no-fee is what makes the thoroughness credible rather than claimed.
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on what was found.
| Finding | Same day? |
|---|---|
| Accessible supply line, common materials | Usually yes |
| Fixture, valve or connector | Usually yes |
| Slab leak needing a reroute | No — scheduled, one to two days |
| Buried main line | No — needs locating, marking and often a permit |
| Sewer fault found on camera | No — options priced first |
| Shower pan replacement | No — about a week, with tile |
| Whole-house repipe | No — scheduled properly |
Where it is a same-day repair, you still get the written quote first. Where it is not, you get the schedule in writing alongside the price.
Flat fee, credited toward the repair, and no detection fee if we cannot find it.
(714) 386-7923Call or text, day or nightSchedule a VisitAbout an hour for a straightforward slab leak with clear symptoms, one to two hours for a whole-house search, and longer for a mystery leak — by design. A shower pan flood test is half a day because the waiting is the test.
Not to find the leak. Acoustic listening, thermal imaging and tracer gas are all non-invasive, and that is deliberately the order they are used in. Anything gets opened only after the leak is located and you have agreed a written quote.
Somebody needs to let us in and point us at what you have noticed. That first conversation genuinely shortens the search. Anything beyond that is worth settling when you book.
A flat $150 to $500, credited toward the repair if you go ahead. Flat rather than hourly on purpose: the leaks that take longest to find are exactly the ones an hourly rate would punish you for.
No detection fee. You also still get the written record of every system that was tested and ruled out, which has real value. It is what the next trade starts from instead of starting over.
Often, for an accessible supply line, a fixture or a valve. A reroute, a buried main line, a sewer repair or a shower pan is scheduled work, and you get the schedule in writing alongside the price.
Run the meter test, avoid running water for about an hour beforehand, know where your main shut-off is, and clear access to the suspected area. Having the last year of water bills to hand helps too. They often say when this started.
Always, in writing, itemised, with the exclusions named. A verbal number followed by work starting is not how this should go, and a quote you can take away and compare is the normal standard.
You get it in writing: what was tested, what was ruled out, what we think it is, and which trade to call. And no detection fee, because there was no leak to locate.
Calls are answered 24/7 and a technician is dispatched 24/7, in English and Spanish. We do not publish a response-time window because we have not established an honest one. You get a real estimate on the phone.