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LEAK GUIDE · SANTA ANA & CENTRAL ORANGE COUNTY

What We Don’t Do, and Who to Call Instead

We are licensed and insured plumbers who work on one thing: leaks. Finding the ones you cannot see, and repairing them properly. That is a deliberate choice about scope, and the useful part of it for you is that we will tell you when your problem belongs to a different trade, before you pay us to look at it.

What We Don’t Do, and Who to Call Instead

Why a Plumber Would Narrow Their Own Scope

Most plumbing companies do everything: water heaters, remodels, fixtures, drains, repipes, service calls. That is a perfectly good business. It is just a different one from this.

  • Leak detection is equipment-heavy and experience-heavy. Acoustic listening in particular is a skill that only develops with volume
  • The leaks that need a specialist are the ones a generalist finds hardest, quiet, deep, intermittent, or already searched for once
  • Doing one thing constantly means the second opinion is genuinely a second opinion rather than the same approach repeated
  • It also means we are not trying to sell you a water heater while we are here
Worth knowing None of this means the work is beyond us. It means the calls come to a crew that does this every day rather than to whoever is free. Where the answer is a different trade entirely, you get told, in writing, with the trade named.

Water That Is Not a Plumbing Leak

Roughly half of what looks like a plumbing leak turns out not to be one. These are the recurring cases and who handles each.

What you haveWho to call
Water coming in after rain, top floorRoofer
Water around a window or door after rainWindow, door or siding contractor
Water when the air conditioning runsHVAC technician, condensate line
Water under or behind an applianceAppliance repair
Water at the base of an exterior wallDrainage and grading, landscaping
Water on the outside of a cold pipeNobody. That is condensation
Standing water in a crawl space after rainOften drainage rather than plumbing

If your situation is on that list, calling the named trade first will cost you less than calling us. If you are not sure which row you are on, this page walks the decision.

Gas: We Detect, We Do Not Repair

Worth being completely unambiguous, because it is a safety matter rather than a scope preference.

If you smell gas right now
Leave the building. Do not touch a light switch, a garage door or a phone until you are outside. Call SoCalGas on 1-800-427-2200, answered 24 hours.
What we do
Gas leak detection, locating a suspected leak so you know what you are dealing with. See gas leak detection.
What we do not do
Gas line repair, replacement or reconnection. That is SoCalGas or a licensed gas fitter, and we will refer rather than take it on.
Why the split
Detection and repair are different competencies on gas in a way they are not on water. Being clear about it is the whole point.

Full guidance is on what to do if you smell gas.

Drying, Mold and Restoration

After a leak is stopped, the building often needs drying and sometimes needs remediation. Both are separate licensed specialties with their own equipment, and we refer rather than dabble.

WorkWhose it is
Stopping the water and repairing the pipeUs
Structural drying and dehumidificationRestoration contractor
Removing wet drywall, insulation and flooringRestoration contractor
Mold testingIndependent testing, ideally not the remediator
Mold remediationLicensed remediation specialist
Rebuilding what came outGeneral contractor
Painting, tile, finish carpentryFinish trades

We will tell you plainly when drying is needed, and we would rather say so than let a wall dry out slowly behind a repair we made. Taking that work on ourselves to keep the invoice in one place would mean doing it badly.

General Plumbing We Point Elsewhere

We are licensed for this work. We simply do not build the business around it, and a company that does it every day will do it better and often cheaper.

JobBetter handled by
Water heater replacementA general plumbing service
Fixture installation and remodelsA general plumber or remodel contractor
Routine drain cleaningA drain service
New construction rough-inA construction plumbing contractor
Septic systemsA septic specialist
Sewer ejector and lift pumpsA pump specialist
Backflow certification and testingA certified backflow tester

The exceptions are where the work is part of a leak job. A valve replaced while a wall is already open, a water heater connection repaired because that is where the leak is, a section of drain replaced because the camera found it. Those are ours.

Off-Site and Out of Area

  • We work Santa Ana and central Orange County. Outside that, we will say so on the call rather than dispatching somebody an hour away
  • We do not sell or install leak sensors, smart shut-off valves or monitoring devices. That is a product business, not a service one
  • We do not do remote or phone diagnosis in place of a visit. We will happily talk through what you are seeing, but nobody diagnoses a hidden leak over the phone
  • We do not take on work we would need to subcontract entirely, if the whole job belongs to somebody else, you should be hiring them directly

The service area in full is on service areas.

What Happens When It Is Not Ours

The practical question is what you actually get for the visit when the answer turns out to be a different trade. It is more than a shrug, and it is deliberately more.

1
Every system gets tested anyway
We do not stop at the first plausible non-plumbing explanation. Supply, drains, irrigation and fixtures all get eliminated properly, because “probably the roof” is not a finding.
2
What was ruled out goes in writing
Named system by system, with the method used on each. That list is worth real money to whoever comes next, because it is work they do not have to repeat.
3
The hypothesis is named as a hypothesis
We will say we think it is the condensate line and why. We will not say we diagnosed it, because we do not work on air handlers and pretending otherwise helps nobody.
4
You get the trade to call
Specifically — roofer, HVAC, appliance repair, drainage — rather than a general suggestion to try somebody else.
5
And no detection fee
If we could not locate a leak during your paid visit, there is nothing to charge for locating.

That last point is what makes the rest of it credible. A company paid the same either way has no particular reason to keep looking once a convenient explanation appears.

What We Will Never Do

A shorter list, and a more important one.

Quote a repair before finding the leak
A number given before the problem is located is a guess with a decimal point on it. Locate first, price second, in writing.
Cut into anything to go looking
Acoustic, thermal and tracer gas exist precisely so that nothing is opened as a search method. Anything gets opened after the leak is located and you have agreed a quote.
Recommend a repipe when a repair will do
Or the reverse. If one leak on sound copper is what you have, that is what we will tell you, even though the other answer is a bigger invoice.
Charge you for a leak we did not find
No find, no detection fee. And if the answer is that your plumbing is sound, you get that in writing rather than an invoice and a shrug.

What We Do Do

For completeness, since a page of boundaries is a strange place to leave it.

ServicePage
Water leak detectionWater leak detection
Slab leaks — finding and repairingSlab leak detection
Main water line repairMain water line repair
Sewer and drain diagnosisSewer camera inspection
Pool and spa leaksPool leak detection
Gas leak detection onlyGas leak detection
Repipes and reroutesWhole house repipe
Commercial buildingsCommercial leak detection

The full list is on our services.

If It Turns Out to Be Ours

Detection visit
$150 – $500
Flat, credited toward the repair
Spot repair
$1,500 – $3,500
Accessible, or under finished floor
Reroute
$2,000 – $4,500
Per line
Whole-house repipe
$6,000 – $15,000
PEX or copper

Detection is flat rather than hourly, credited toward the repair, with no detection fee if we cannot locate the leak during your paid visit. Repairs carry a two-year workmanship warranty — full terms on guarantees and warranties.

Not sure whose problem it is? Tell us what you are seeing and we will say honestly.
Get a written quote
David Herrera, Founder & Lead Leak Detection Technician
About the Author
David Herrera, Founder & Lead Leak Detection Technician
David founded Leak Detection Santa Ana in 2026 after more than 15 years finding and repairing leaks across Orange County. He leads the crew that does the work, and the judgement calls on this page are the ones he uses in the field. Meet the team.

Get a Free On-Site Quote

Tell us what you are seeing. If it is not ours, we will say so and name the trade it is.

(714) 386-7923Call or text, day or nightSchedule a Visit

What’s Included

  • Acoustic, thermal & tracer-gas location
  • Plain-language explanation of what we found
  • Firm written quote, on-site
  • No-find-no-fee guarantee

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes — licensed and insured, and the licence is verifiable at cslb.ca.gov. What is deliberate is the scope: this business is built around leaks rather than around general plumbing, because detection is a skill that develops with volume.

We detect them; we do not repair gas lines. Gas line repair is SoCalGas or a licensed gas fitter. If you smell gas right now, leave the building, touch nothing electrical, and call SoCalGas on 1-800-427-2200 from outside.

Not as a standalone job, a general plumbing service will do it better and usually cheaper. If a water heater connection is where your leak is, that repair is ours.

No. Structural drying and mold remediation are separate licensed specialties with their own equipment. We stop the water and repair the plumbing, and we will tell you plainly when drying is needed rather than letting a wall dry slowly behind our repair.

You get that in writing, with what was tested, what was ruled out, and the trade to call. That is a real result rather than a failed visit. It stops you paying three trades to guess in turn.

No. Sensors, smart shut-off valves and monitoring systems are a product business rather than a service one. We find leaks that already exist in buildings.

We will happily talk through what you are seeing, and that conversation often narrows it usefully. What nobody can do honestly is diagnose a hidden leak without being there — anyone who offers to is selling confidence rather than information.

Central Orange County — Tustin, Orange, Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Irvine, Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Outside that we will say so on the call rather than sending somebody an hour away.

Because the alternative is you paying us to look at something that was never ours. Half of what looks like a plumbing leak is not one, and a page that pretends otherwise would cost you money and cost us the call twice.

Not as a routine service. If a drain has to be cleared so a camera can pass, that is part of the diagnostic and it is priced before we do it. Recurring clogs are worth a camera rather than another snaking. See why a drain keeps clogging.