OT: broken hot H2O line under house, I R a plumber now I guess Options

[Sammy]

I noticed a couple of strange things yesterday, my hot water heater wasn't keeping up as well as it used to, and the flower bed in front of the house is flooded.
Duh, I finally put them together today, I have a broken hot water line under the slab.

It looked comical, my whole family walking around on the tile floor barefooted trying to find the warmest spot.
i have it nailed down to a 6 square foot area, I'm going to shoot it with an infra-red heat gun tomorrow to nail it down better before I start ripping up 5 year old (expensive) ceramic tile that i may or may not be able to match. I have a few squares left over from when I installed it, hopefully that will be enough.

Luckily it looks like it's in the middle of an open area and not under a cabinet or something. I figure with a little luck and an electric jack hammer I can find and fix the leak. I'm waaaay too much of a CSOB to hire a real plumber, prolly cost me more in the long run but that's who I am.

Any BTDT stories or advice before I rip into it?
Tanks.

[scotty914]

are you sure it is not easier to run a new line in the ceiling or walls to bypass the break, i mean drywall is easy to patch, and you would not have to damage tiles. also do you know if the pipe is in the slab or under the slab. i would think that finding this if it is under the slab might be real hard, it might be like a roof leak ie the water can run 30 feet before it drips on the the ceiling.

good luck