On Mar 5, 6:50 am, wrote:
My in-laws are hearing running water when inside their shower. I
turned off the main and bled the lines and it stops. When the main is
back on, the sound is back. So I'm sure it is a water leak either in
the wall or under the slab. Unfortunately, both sides of the wall
where the sound is coming from are tiled. If I remove the shower
faucet, that will give me a small access to the inside of the wall,
but it is too small to see very well. Is there any way I can probe
down to determine if the leak is in the copper ging from the slab up?

What I want to do is make certain it is an under slab leak before I
have someone come out and re plumb the entire house.

Thanks in advance.


First of all do they have a hot water re-circ loop? Maybe there is
no leak, just the hot water loop making noise.


You might be able to locate the leak by using the hot water......

I was at a friend's house & they said "there's a warm spot in the
family room floor".

The floor had a warm spot about 12" in diameter. I told them unless
they had hot water loop that they had a leak in the hot water pipe
running from the WH to the kitchen.....sure enough when the plumber (I
have more than enough projects at home to keep me busy) broke through
the tiled floor & slab he found a leak in the hot water supply line.

Check to see if the noise goes away when you shut off only the hot
water. If not, then you have a cold water leak.

Here's where it gets a little tricky, if you feel comfortable doing
this....plumb the hot water into the cold water serving the bathroom,
crank up the water heater temp a little. Turn the water back on, the
leaking hot water will warm up the wall or floor in the vicinity of
the leak.

Your other alternative is to hire a leak finding service.


cheers
Bob