Lake neighbourhood · Tempe
The Lakes: where the leaks are
A south Tempe neighbourhood built in the 1970s around man-made water, where homes back onto the lake and the ground is expected to be wet — which removes the clue most people start from.
The Lakes is a 1970s man-made lake neighbourhood in Tempe, built in the era of copper supply under the slab, which means a leak here is usually aged copper and never something you can find by looking for damp ground.
The Lakes is a south Tempe neighbourhood organised around man-made water, with homes that back directly onto it. Housing-data sources consistently place its homes in the 1970s, and we have not found a city or developer record that fixes the years any more precisely than that — so the 1970s is what this page claims and nothing beyond it.
That decade is enough to work with, because it puts the neighbourhood squarely in the copper era. Combine fifty-year-old copper under the slab with a setting where damp soil is the normal condition, and you have the two things that most often lead a homeowner to dig in precisely the wrong place.
What is under the slab in The Lakes?
Copper, on a 1970s slab, which is the working assumption for this neighbourhood and changes everything about how a leak is found.
Copper of this age does not usually split. It wears through at a single point, most often where the tube was bent during installation or where it has spent five decades resting against a rebar chair or a stone. The resulting hole is small, so the water takes the easiest path it can find — along the trench, under the footing, up through a crack — and surfaces wherever that path allows. Which is why the damp carpet is almost never over the leak.
Related: slab leak detection and thermal imaging leak detection.
| What we go on | In The Lakes |
|---|---|
| Build window | the 1970s; exact years not verified |
| City or jurisdiction | Tempe, Arizona |
| Likely supply material | copper supply under the slab |
| What tends to fail first | copper at a bend or a rub point, and the hot side before the cold |
| What we check first | a thermal sweep of the floor, because a hot-line escape warms the slab before it surfaces |
Is The Lakes older than the rest of Tempe?
Yes, though by less than you might expect, because Tempe as a whole is one of the older cities we work in.
The figures show how much older housing the city holds. The American Community Survey gives Tempe a median year of construction of 1983, with more than four in ten homes built before 1980.
| Housing across Tempe city, Arizona | Share |
|---|---|
| Median year built | 1983 |
| Built before 1980 | 43 percent |
| Built since 2000 | 22 percent |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2023). Geography: Census place.
How do you look for a leak on a waterfront lot?
By discarding every visual clue and working from pressure and temperature instead. On a lot with a lake at the end of it, the soil is moist as a matter of course, so damp ground carries no information whatsoever.
The tests that do work are indifferent to how wet the surface is. Shut everything down and read the meter twice: a moving dial proves a loss exists. Sweep the floor with a thermal camera: a warm line proves where the hot supply is escaping. Pressurise an isolated section: a pressure drop proves which line. None of those cares about the lake, which is exactly why they are the right tools here.
Related: acoustic leak detection and a bill that climbed.
Asked and answered
What do people in The Lakes ask us?
What kind of pipe is under a home in The Lakes?
Copper. Housing-data sources place the neighbourhood's homes in the 1970s, which is the copper era for slab construction in Phoenix. Copper of that age wears through at a single point rather than bursting, usually at a bend or where it rubs something set into the slab, and the hot side tends to fail before the cold.
My lot backs onto the water and the ground is always damp. How do you find anything?
By not relying on the ground at all. Where there is standing water at the end of the lot, moist soil is the normal condition and proves nothing either way. The tests that decide the question are a meter reading with the property still, a thermal sweep of the floor to find a warm hot-water line, and a pressure test on an isolated section.
The carpet is wet in one room. Is that where the leak is?
Usually not. Water from a slab leak follows the easiest path it can find, along the trench or under a footing, and surfaces wherever a crack lets it through. The wet carpet proves there is a leak and says very little about where. Cutting the floor at the wet spot is how people end up opening concrete twice.
Warm floor or wet carpet in The Lakes?
Tell us which room and what the meter does with everything off, and we will say what it sounds like.
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What customers in the Phoenix valley have written. The words are theirs, on listings we cannot edit.
“Humberto has been amazing! Prompt, professional, and patient. He has gone above and beyond, taking the time to show me how to operate the water valves and educating me so I can continue to monitor for future leaks. He identified multiple leaks and made thoughtful recommendations.”
“Beto was very professional, thorough and patient in explaining everything he was doing and why. It was an excellent and well worth it experience, and this is saying something for an architect who had a hundred questions!”
“The owner and operator of this company is everything a contractor should be. On time, honest, competent, reachable, comprehensive. Hope to work with him again in the future.”