Until fairly recently, leak detection in the plumbing field was regarded as a specialty unto itself populated by people wearing wizard hats who possessed The Mystical Knowledge. Today, the knowledge is knowledge is available to anyone who wants to seek it, but the leak detection pros—the ones who do it right—still seem to carry a magical aura around with them. Even as the equipment has reached new levels of sophistication, leak detection in the plumbing milieu isn’t quite as simple as strapping on the headphones, probing around listening for a gurgle. 
   Helping us out with this month’s look at leak detection are specialists Joe Dan Parson, general manager of ARS/Rescue Rooter in Ft. Worth, Mike Collins, president of The Locator, Inc., in Phoenix and Randall Chard, president and owner of Pipe Pros in Concord, Calif.

RJ: How long have you been in the leak detection business?

Parson: I’ve been involved with it personally for more than 20 years. My father was a plumbing inspector.

Collins: We started in 1992 as a leak- and utility-locating company. I had been a service plumber for almost 8 years and had always wanted my own business. I got a job with a company that does leak detection and, after a few years with them, I ventured out on my own.

Chard: The company has been in business a little over 15 years. I bought it last year. I was in the lighting and electronics industry. The deeper I got into examining the company, the more I realized the technology consisted of things I was familiar with from my background. Even though it seems the leap from lighting and electronics to leak detection was a big one, it wasn’t really, in terms of the technology.

RJ: How has leak detection changed since you have been involved?

Parson: It’s still pretty much the same—listening with some type of device is still what’s happening. Back in the day it was pretty much geophones, the devices that look like a doctor’s stethoscope. Now everything has gone electronic and is more thorough. 
   Now they’re starting to put in a lot of PEX and that’s probably the biggest change in leak detection. You don’t see a lot of leaks in PEX. Most of the sub-slab repairs we do are still copper systems.

Collins: When I started we had electronic listeners and geophones and people would use regular stethoscopes. We were using equipment that was considered state-of-the-art back then and it worked really well for us. 
   Over the years there has been equipment that has come out with better sound amplification and clearer sound and we have equipment now that we can listen through a carpeted floor. The newer equipment is just incredible compared too where it was in 1992.

RJ: Does the new technology require more or less training than before?

Parson: One of the major things in leak detecting is to have a very good understanding of the plumbing system. You see guys who really don’t have any rough-in experience and they don’t have any way to really tell how the plumbing is more than likely going to be laid out just by looking at the home. That’s what sets people back the most.
   Most good leak detectors understand plumbing layout so, when they get there and find a leak, they have a pretty good understanding of what part of the system the leak may be in. Then you have to start going through a methodical process of isolating it. There is a lot of detective work. One thing a lot of people won’t do is shut off the water and charge the system with air. That will give you a different sound.

Collins: The equipment we have now can filter out some of the background noises and you can tune them in to different circumstances. What you do is you try and manipulate the leak to make a sound you’re familiar with. We do that by injecting CO2 into the line sometimes when we can’t actually hear the water running out of the leak. 
   Most guys have a way they set their equipment that works best for them. The thing that’s most advantageous is that it’s a clearer sound and a much more sensitive piece of equipment, so you can hear things now you couldn’t with the older stuff.

RJ: How long does it take to become competent at detecting leaks?

Parson: There is a very methodical process to doing it, especially before you break ground or make a commitment affecting the surface. 
   People just need to be exposed to enough jobs to be confident in their equipment and abilities and to retain the step-by-step procedures well enough so they’re correct when they’re about to break ground. This is all potable water. Finding leaks in drains and sewers is a completely different side of things and I think that takes more work than a potable water system.

Chard: It’s a relatively slow process. It can take a couple of years for a field technician to become an expert. And, of course, the time in the field varies on how many and what types of jobs a person works on.
About half of our customers are residential through insurance adjusters and that’s fairly simple—those are generally water leaks. The rest is commercial and that’s more involved. 
   [Leak detection is] half subjectivity and half science. It uses sophisticated listening equipment and it takes a while to develop the ear that’s required to tell the difference in tone and sounds. It’s a question of training your ear; maybe you could liken it to a musician who trains his ear to recognize different tones.

Collins: A lot of people will say there’s an art to it, but it’s like anything else—the more you do it the better you get. In leak detection there are so many different variables and sounds to listen for that it takes a while. I was in the field after two months. Then I had a couple of guys that took three months to become trained and then I’ve had guys who have trained more than a year. 
   In order to get good at leak detection you almost have to do it every day. I’ve seen some plumbers who do an adequate job at leak detection but they’re not doing it all day long. They’ll go in, locate leak and then they’ll do their plumbing duties in-between. The repetition isn’t there so the learning curve is extended a lot farther. I think the motivation is there for a plumber to have leak detection equipment because if I were still a plumber I’d want to have it.

RJ: Do you have any advice to other contractors who may be thinking about adding leak detection services?

Parson: Try to do your homework on the types of equipment that are out there. I would suggest teaming with someone you trust who’s doing a good job with leak detection so that you can see the equipment they’re using and get some feedback from people who are doing it on a daily basis. Most people in the industry are willing to help. Do as the masters before you have done and you, too, can be a master.

Chard: My advice would be to not do it unless you have dedicated personnel who are going to do nothing but leak detection. It’s the type of thing a technician needs to do on a daily basis to retain his edge and to keep his ear sharp. It’s not the type of thing you can pick up once or twice a quarter and expect to be hugely successful. It’s easy to miss a leak and it’s expensive when you do.

Collins: One of the most important things is to check and re-check and not get stuck on a sound in one spot. What can trip up a leak locator is he’ll hear a sound in one place and won’t continue on, follow-through and listen to the rest of the line. What they’re hearing may be some sort of sound transference carrying along the pipe.
   Follow through and do a complete leak detection over the entire system or line and don’t get hung up on any one spot. If somebody wanted my opinion or to help explain things to them they can certainly call me and ask. That’s how I learned service plumbing when I was younger—I’d get hung up and I’d ask the older guy who’d have several different techniques of things to do at that point. 
   I think it’s important to have a relationship with somebody who could give you a little tutoring over the phone once in a while.