Housing in Lynwood is packed tight and largely of the post-war era, sitting on slab, and a great deal of it has grown over the years through additions and garage conversions.
Additions are where the plumbing gets complicated. New fixtures on old lines, tied in at whatever point was convenient at the time, running under a slab that nobody wants to open.
What goes wrong in Lynwood homes
Slab leaks and drain line failures lead, and the symptoms are the same indirect ones: warm floors, moving water meters, swelling baseboards and a musty smell with nothing visible.
Water heaters in garages are the other frequent source, and a garage failure spreads across a level slab into the house before anybody is aware of it.
My water bill jumped with no change in use.
That is a leak until proven otherwise. Close every fixture and watch the meter; any movement means water is escaping somewhere between the meter and a tap.
How quickly do I need to act on a slab leak?
Quickly. The water is under the house continuously, it saturates the soil the foundation sits on, and the longer it runs the more of the flooring and the walls it takes with it.