Water, gas, and slab leak detection across Sebastopol, from downtown and the apple-country roads to the rural properties on wells and long service lines.
Sebastopol runs rural fast, with older farmhouses, private wells, and long buried service lines where a leak can waste water for a long time before anyone notices. Left alone, hidden water, gas, and slab leaks drive up utility bills, cause costly structural repairs, invite mold, erode soil, and, in the case of a gas leak, create a real explosion hazard.
John Owens Services has operated professional leak-detection equipment for more than 30 years. We run the FAST Aqua M300, a premium leak-detection system used by water-utility operators and municipal contractors, and our technician trained in person at the FAST factory in Southern Germany to run it right. That means we can trace a long service line between a well and an apple-country farmhouse accurately, without trenching the whole run to look.
Usually yes. We are stocked and based nearby, so when you call early we can often get the FAST Aqua M300 out and locate the leak the same day, including urgent water and gas calls.
We run the FAST Aqua M300, a premium, professional-grade leak-detection system that water-utility operators, leak-detection technicians, and municipal contractors rely on. It works as a 3-in-1 tool, an acoustic geophone, a tracer-gas detector for hydrogen, and a pipe locator when paired with a pulse-wave generator, with 256 adjustable filters and a Pyramid Mode that cuts through heavy street traffic and background noise. Our technician trained in person at the FAST factory in Southern Germany, so we run this equipment the way it is meant to be run, not guessing at settings in the field.
Some Sebastopol homes are built on a concrete slab, which means the plumbing runs underneath it, and many of those slabs have radiant heating built in. A radiant slab leak happens when the slab cracks and the embedded pipe expands and contracts until it fails, and you lose both water and heat. Copper water lines under a slab corrode over time from minerals in the groundwater, and older drain or sewer piping under a slab can corrode too, which lets sewage leak under the home, a real health hazard. Finding a leak under a slab takes the right equipment and a trained technician, which is exactly what the FAST Aqua M300 and our factory training are built for.
A high water bill, or a well pump that cycles more than it used to, is usually the first sign of a hidden water leak, whether it is along a buried service line, under a slab, or inside the house. Some Sebastopol homes now have automatic water-leak detection systems that track flow and shut the water off on their own if something is wrong, then alert you by phone. Even something as simple as a leaky toilet flapper can waste 200 to 4,000 gallons a day, which is not dangerous but adds up fast on your bill.
Gas leaks are one of the most dangerous things that can happen to your home. If a leak is present, the house will start to smell like rotten eggs, and it is noticeable fast. If you smell that, get everyone out of the house immediately and call your gas company and 911 before doing anything else. Gas leaks are often caused by misfitted, damaged, or corroded pipes. Shutting off the gas is the first step, but the leak still needs to be located and the line repaired before gas service can be safely restored, which is exactly the kind of work John Owens Services handles.
From the Marin coast to Sonoma wine country, we bring honest plumbing, heating & cooling to homeowners across both counties — based locally since 1986.