We first noticed the small pool of water in the corner of our garage on Thursday evening, and upon investigating we could see the damp drywall and hear the running water sounds coming from behind the adjacent wall. I shut the water main off & checked the upstairs bathroom & toilets for any possible leaks, but could not find anything other than the noise behind the wall and the puddle of water had stopped. It sounded like a burst pipe to me, but we hadn't hammered anything into the wall, and it's rare for a pipe to spring a leak without any help.
So, I sign up for Angie's List, and proceed to look for a plumber in the area with some decent reviews hoping not to overpay for necessary services. I see Bruce's Plumbing Service has only two reviews, but they were good so I decided to call the contact number. Bruce answers, attentively listens to me explain my problem, solicits some additional information then proceeds to deduce a slab leak problem, however, he said, he would stop by to see for himself. Being already Thursday evening and a non-emergency situation in my opinion, we agreed to the following morning at 9am. Bruce calls at 9am the next morning and asks if we can meet in the afternoon, then calls again a few more times to again push out the appointment. No problem, but I would've preferred a more productive Friday. Finally at 6:30pm he arrives and greets me in a calm and friendly manner, apologizes for his tardiness, and asks that I show him the problem. Again, after finding all the information, he opines a slab leak and quotes me $700 after explaining his conclusion to me. Actually I am quite relieved that a slab leak quote is so low since I've heard many horror stories costing in the multiple thousands, so I agree to employ his services. He then says that his schedule is tight, but that he will outsource the job to a "partner" service and that he will call me back with what eventually became a Monday morning appointment, and an estimated completion time of ~2pm.
Monday morning arrives, and we are tired of turning the water on for 10 minutes twice a day for our necessary hygiene, and the water noise behind the wall had grown more severe & frayed my nerves. However, one friendly guy & one quiet guy show up to fix the "slab leak" at 9am, and proceed to verify the diagnosis with their leak detection equipment. After a short while, he cuts open the drywall in front of the "noise" I had mentioned previously and discovers that it is indeed a burst pipe and not a slab leak after all. However, he continues, it was difficult to tell since the copper pipes can throw the leak sound to obscure places, and the "most likely" cause is a slab leak. Anyway, they call Bruce to get a revised quote, and I am elated to now be paying only $275 so I employ them to replace the two outside faucets that were corroded but were welded on and had thwarted my previous attempts to replace them myself. So in total I paid $455, and I am completely satisfied with Bruce and his "partner" company for a job well done, and for their resourcefulness in using each other to cover jobs they cannot make. They were straightforward, fair , honest, friendly, and did a good professional job on my leak. I will definitely use Bruce for all my future plumbing needs and I highly recommend his services.