- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Leak Detection in Gainesville, Florida
$375 flat to find your leak. If we do not find it, you do not pay.
Rather text? Send a photo of the problem to 352-377-9447 and we’ll tell you what it sounds like.
Licensed Florida Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748
Locally owned, owner on the job. We answer at 2 a.m. Emergency leak calls
Flat rate to find your leak. One price, no hourly meter running.
$
375
What you pay if we do not find it. That is the guarantee.
$
0
A real local plumber on the line, day or night.
24
/7
The short version. Leak detection in Gainesville, FL from First Choice Plumbing is $375 flat. A licensed plumber uses acoustic listening equipment, thermal imaging and pressure testing to locate a hidden water leak under a slab, in a wall, or in an underground line, without tearing up your house first. We mark the spot, hand you a written report for your insurer or for GRU, and quote the repair before we touch anything. If we do not find it, you do not pay.
- Hidden leak signs
How do I know if I have a hidden water leak?
Most hidden leaks give you a few of these before they give you a puddle:
- Your water bill jumps and nothing about your household changed.
- GRU calls or messages you about possible continuous usage on your meter.
- You hear running water with every faucet, toilet and appliance shut off.
- A spot on the floor is warm, or a patch of tile or carpet stays damp.
- Water pressure drops for no reason you can point to.
- A wall or baseboard has a stain that keeps coming back after you paint it.
- The yard has a soft, green, always wet patch in the dry season.
- You smell something musty in a closet or a corner of a room.
Here is the part that wears people down. You know something is wrong. You cannot see it, so you cannot price it, and every day you wait the number gets bigger. Meanwhile the internet tells you to break out your floor and start looking.You should not have to guess, and you should not have to pay for water you never used. A leak is a locating problem before it is a plumbing problem. Get the location right and the repair is usually smaller, cheaper and faster than anyone expected. Get it wrong and you are paying to open up a floor for nothing.
Try this first, free: turn off every fixture in the house, then look at your water meter. If the dial is still moving, water is leaving your system somewhere. That is a leak.
Not sure it is a leak? Call and describe what you are seeing. We will tell you honestly whether it sounds like one.- Straight answers on price
How much does leak detection cost in Gainesville?
$375 flat. Find it or it is free.
That is the whole price to come out and locate the leak. Not a starting point, not an estimate, not a per hour rate that grows while you watch. Around the country this work usually lands somewhere between $150 and $900 depending on who you call and how hard the leak is to chase, and almost nobody will tell you the number until they are standing in your kitchen. We would rather you know before you call.
The guarantee is the important half. You are paying us to find it. If we work your house and we cannot locate the leak, you do not pay the $375. That is not a coupon, it is how we price the job.
A regular plumbing service call, the kind where you already know what is broken, is $69 to come out, and that fee gets waived on larger jobs. Leak detection is its own thing because it takes different equipment and a lot more patience.
Once we find it, you get the repair price before any work starts. If the repair is a bigger one, financing through Wisetack starts at around $500.
- $ 375 leak detection
- Flat rate to come out and locate it. If we cannot find it, you do not pay.
- Meet the owner
Who is actually coming to your house?
First Choice Plumbing is locally owned. Will Harrod owns it and holds the Florida plumbing contractor license, CFC1430748. He still runs estimates himself, which is unusual once a shop gets to a certain size, and it is on purpose.
Mike handles service and drain calls. Ben is coming up behind him. Kim answers the phone and dispatches, and she groups the day by area so a Hawthorne customer is not waiting while the truck drives back across the county.
Small crew, on purpose. It means the person who quotes your leak is the person accountable for it.
- Will Harrod, owner. FL License CFC1430748.
- Big Mike runs service and drain calls. Background checked.
- Kim answers the phone and runs dispatch.
- Why here
Why are hidden leaks so common in Gainesville and Alachua County?
Three local reasons, and they stack.
We build on slabs.
Almost no house around here has a basement. Supply lines run through or under the concrete, which means a failing line is out of sight from day one. Sandy soil that shifts and a high water table do the rest. That is why so much of our work is slab related.
Our housing stock is at the age where pipe fails.
Gainesville grew hard through the 1960s and 1970s, so a lot of homes here still have their original cast iron drains. Homes built or repiped between 1978 and 1995 fall in the polybutylene window, and polybutylene tends to fail at the fittings rather than in the middle of a run. Neither one announces itself. They just start leaking.
Our water is hard and our aquifer is loaded.
GRU water runs around 140 mg/L as calcium carbonate, roughly 8 grains per gallon, drawn from the Floridan Aquifer. Out in the county on well water, the same aquifer brings iron and sulfur with it. Mineral heavy water is rough on water heaters, valves and older metal pipe over time.
GRU already contacted you about unusual usage?
Take it seriously. Their leak adjustment program can help with a bill spike, but it works on a repaired leak with documentation, which is exactly what we hand you when we are done.
- What we find
What kinds of leaks do we find?
Slab leaks
A supply line under the concrete gives out and the water has nowhere to go but sideways. Warm floor, high bill, sound of running water. Very common in Florida because most homes here sit on a slab.
Underground and main water line leaks
The line from the meter to the house is buried, so a leak there can run for months and only show up on the bill or as a wet patch in the yard.
Wall and ceiling leaks
A pinhole in a supply line inside a wall, or a drain line above a ceiling. We find it before the drywall comes down, not after.
Drain and sewer line leaks
Cracked, separated or root damaged lines under the house or the yard. We camera the line and show you the video.
Pool, irrigation and outdoor leaks
An irrigation zone that never fully shuts off, or a hose bib that drips day and night, can quietly run your usage up.
Repeat leaks in old pipe
If we are finding your third pinhole this year, the honest answer is that you have a pipe problem, not a leak problem, and we will tell you that instead of selling you a fourth repair.
Not sure which one you have? That is exactly what the $375 visit is for. All residential plumbing services · Commercial plumbing
- How we find it
How do plumbers find a leak without tearing up the floor?
We listen to the house.
We isolate the plumbing and pressure test it so we know whether the leak is on the supply side, the drain side, the irrigation, or the pool. Then we go over the floor with acoustic listening gear. Pressurized water escaping a pipe makes a sound. Under concrete, that sound is the strongest clue there is.
We confirm it a second way.
Sound alone can bounce and fool you. We back it up with thermal imaging, which shows a hot water line under tile or wood as a bright line and shows the spread where the water is pooling. Where it makes sense we add a camera on the drain line or tracer equipment on a buried line. We do not mark a spot until two things agree.
We mark it and write it up.
You get the location marked on the floor or the ground, an explanation of what is leaking and why, a written report with photos you can hand to your insurance company or to GRU, and a firm price for the repair. Then it is your call. No jackhammer comes out on a guess. Insurance claim leak detection
- Why it matters
The difference is in the details
One call, one flat price, and a plumber who tells you the truth about what he finds.
| What matters | First Choice Plumbing | Typical plumber or big name brand |
|---|---|---|
| Price to find the leak | $375 flat, published on this page | "We will have to look at it first" |
| If they cannot find it | You do not pay | You still get a bill for the time |
| Who shows up | A licensed local crew, owner still on jobs | Whoever the call center dispatched that day |
| Method | Pressure test, acoustic, thermal imaging, camera. Two methods must agree before we mark a spot | One method, then start opening the floor |
| Documentation | Written report with photos for your insurer or GRU | A verbal answer and an invoice |
| After the repair | We patch every hole we cut, professionally | Patching is "not part of plumbing" |
| Warranty | Two year parts and labor, plus the manufacturer warranty | Varies, often 30 days to a year |
| Answering at 2 a.m. | A real local plumber | An after hours answering service |
- Insurance claims
Does homeowners insurance cover leak detection in Florida?
Usually not the detection itself. Most policies treat finding the leak as a diagnostic cost the homeowner pays, the same way you pay for a diagnosis before a repair. What many Florida policies do consider is the resulting water damage and the cost of getting to the leak, which can be the far bigger number. Your policy and your adjuster decide, not us.
What we can tell you is that claims live or die on documentation. Adjusters want to know where the leak was, what failed, when it was found, and what it damaged. So we write it up: the location, photos, what we found, and the repair scope. You hand that to your adjuster and you are not arguing from memory.
We work with insurance companies on this all the time, and we will talk to your adjuster directly if that makes your life easier. Insurance claim leak detection. What your adjuster will ask for is listed below.
- What is at stake
What happens if you wait?
A leak does not hold still. Water under a slab keeps moving, softening the ground under your foundation and wicking into the flooring and the baseboards. Drywall stays damp, and damp drywall in Florida grows things. The meter keeps running the whole time, so you are buying every gallon.
There is a paperwork cost too. The longer a leak goes unreported, the easier it is for a claim to be argued as a long term problem rather than a sudden one.
Now the other version. You call this morning. We find it today, mark the exact spot, and quote a repair that touches one small area instead of half your floor. We patch what we cut. You get a report for your insurer, and GRU has what they need for a bill adjustment. By the weekend the only proof it ever happened is a patched square of drywall and a normal water bill.
Where the leak was, exactly
Marked on the floor or the ground, with the location in the written report.
What failed, and photos of it
The pipe, the fitting, the crack. Photographed before anything is repaired.
The date it was found and what got wet
When it was located, and how far the water spread.
A licensed plumber's written repair scope
You get all five from us in writing. Your adjuster gets what they asked for.
- FAQ
Leak detection questions we get every week
$375 flat with First Choice Plumbing, and if we do not find the leak you do not pay. Nationally this service commonly runs anywhere from about $150 to $900 depending on the method and the difficulty, which is why most companies will not quote it over the phone. We publish ours.
Most residential leaks are located in one visit. Simple ones go quickly. A buried line across a big yard, or a slab leak in a house with several zones, takes longer because we isolate section by section. You are not paying by the hour either way.
No. Locating is non invasive. We pressure test, listen acoustically and confirm with thermal imaging, and only then do we open one small area, at the marked spot, if you decide to repair. Opening concrete to search is exactly what detection exists to prevent.
Then you do not pay the $375. We will also tell you honestly what we ruled out, which is worth something on its own, because it narrows the problem for whatever comes next.
Often, yes. We are a licensed plumbing contractor, not a detection only outfit, so once the leak is located we can usually repair it on the same visit. You get the repair price before any work starts, and every hole we cut gets professionally patched.
Detection itself is usually treated as the homeowner's cost. Resulting water damage and the cost of accessing the leak are often a different story, and that is where the coverage question really lives. Your policy decides. We give you the written documentation your adjuster will ask for. Insurance claim leak detection
GRU has a leak adjustment process, and it generally requires that the leak be repaired and documented before they will review it. Get it found, get it fixed, keep the paperwork. We provide a written report with the repair so you have what you need to submit.
Yes. If a line is actively flooding the house, shut the water off at the main and call us. You get a real local plumber, not a call center in another state. Emergency plumbing
- FAQ
Leak detection questions we get every week
$375 flat with First Choice Plumbing, and if we do not find the leak you do not pay. Nationally this service commonly runs anywhere from about $150 to $900 depending on the method and the difficulty, which is why most companies will not quote it over the phone. We publish ours.
Most residential leaks are located in one visit. Simple ones go quickly. A buried line across a big yard, or a slab leak in a house with several zones, takes longer because we isolate section by section. You are not paying by the hour either way.
No. Locating is non invasive. We pressure test, listen acoustically and confirm with thermal imaging, and only then do we open one small area, at the marked spot, if you decide to repair. Opening concrete to search is exactly what detection exists to prevent.
Then you do not pay the $375. We will also tell you honestly what we ruled out, which is worth something on its own, because it narrows the problem for whatever comes next.
Often, yes. We are a licensed plumbing contractor, not a detection only outfit, so once the leak is located we can usually repair it on the same visit. You get the repair price before any work starts, and every hole we cut gets professionally patched.
Detection itself is usually treated as the homeowner's cost. Resulting water damage and the cost of accessing the leak are often a different story, and that is where the coverage question really lives. Your policy decides. We give you the written documentation your adjuster will ask for. Insurance claim leak detection
GRU has a leak adjustment process, and it generally requires that the leak be repaired and documented before they will review it. Get it found, get it fixed, keep the paperwork. We provide a written report with the repair so you have what you need to submit.
Yes. If a line is actively flooding the house, shut the water off at the main and call us. You get a real local plumber, not a call center in another state. Emergency plumbing
Where the leak was, exactly
Marked on the floor or the ground, with the location in the written report.
What failed, and photos of it
The pipe, the fitting, the crack. Photographed before anything is repaired.
The date it was found and what got wet
When it was located, and how far the water spread.
A licensed plumber's written repair scope
You get all five from us in writing. Your adjuster gets what they asked for.
- Service area
Where do we find leaks?
We are based in Hawthorne and we run leak calls across Gainesville and the whole county, city water and well water alike. Gainesville, Hawthorne, Alachua, High Springs, Newberry, Archer, Jonesville, Micanopy, Waldo, Melrose, Keystone Heights, Interlachen, Starke, Williston and the rural stretches in between. If you are not sure whether we come to you, call and ask. It is a short answer. All service areas
- Service area
Where do we find leaks?
We are based in Hawthorne and we run leak calls across Gainesville and the whole county, city water and well water alike. Gainesville, Hawthorne, Alachua, High Springs, Newberry, Archer, Jonesville, Micanopy, Waldo, Melrose, Keystone Heights, Interlachen, Starke, Williston and the rural stretches in between. If you are not sure whether we come to you, call and ask. It is a short answer. All service areas
Don’t see your town? We likely still come out — call 352-377-9447
- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Tell us what's going on and we'll take it from there
You get a real person, a $69 visit, a flat price before we start, and a company that patches what it cuts and answers the phone when you call back. If a smaller fix is the right call, we’ll tell you that too.
First Choice Plumbing is a locally owned, owner led plumbing company working Gainesville, Hawthorne and Greater Alachua County. Leak detection, repipes, water heaters, drains, trenchless lining, well water filtration and septic. We find it, we fix it, we guarantee it.
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748
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First Choice Plumbing
6940 SE 221st St
Hawthorne, FL 32640 - Office Mon to Fri, 8 to 5. Emergency line 24/7.
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