Master-planned community · Mesa
Leak detection in Dobson Ranch
Built between 1973 and 1999 around man-made lakes and a golf course, Dobson Ranch is the oldest community on this list and the one where wet ground is least likely to mean what people think it means.
Dobson Ranch is a master-planned community in Mesa, built between 1973 and 1999 around several man-made lakes and a golf course, which means copper supply lines under most slabs and a great deal of irrigated common ground over them.
Dobson Ranch is where the argument behind this whole page set is easiest to see. It was built between 1973 and 1999, in the same city as communities finished in the last few years, and the two have essentially nothing in common below ground level.
It also carries a complication that most communities do not. It was laid out around man-made lakes and a golf course, which means large parts of it are permanently irrigated and permanently damp. In a place like that, the ordinary homeowner test — look for the wettest ground — is not just unhelpful, it actively misleads.
What is under a Dobson Ranch slab?
Copper, on the great majority of homes, because the community started building in 1973 and most of it was in the ground well before the material changed. The 1990s infill streets are the exception.
Copper laid in the 1970s has now had half a century of Valley water through it. It does not usually give way in the middle of a run. It wears through where it was bent during installation, or where it rests against a rebar chair or a stone and has been rubbing gently ever since. That means the leak is very often nowhere near the wet carpet, because the water travels along the trench before it finds a way up.
The hot side goes first more often than the cold, which is genuinely useful. A hot-water escape warms the concrete around it, and that warm patch can be read through tile, wood or carpet with a thermal camera before anything is cut.
Related: slab leak detection and thermal imaging leak detection.
| What we go on | In Dobson Ranch |
|---|---|
| Build window | 1973 to 1999 |
| City or jurisdiction | Mesa, Arizona |
| Likely supply material | copper supply under the slab on the earlier streets, with later material on the 1990s infill |
| What tends to fail first | copper at a bend or where it rubs a rebar chair, and old glued joints in the irrigation |
| What we check first | the hot side with a thermal camera, and the meter with the irrigation isolated |
Is Dobson Ranch older than Mesa as a whole?
Yes, by fifteen years at its start, and that gap is the point of this page.
The Census figures for Mesa show how far the city moved after Dobson Ranch was finished. The American Community Survey gives a median year of construction of 1988, and three in ten Mesa homes were built before 1980 — a share that is far higher inside this community than across the city.
| Housing across Mesa city, Arizona | Share |
|---|---|
| Median year built | 1988 |
| Built before 1980 | 30 percent |
| Built since 2000 | 27 percent |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2023). Geography: Census place.
How do you find a leak when the whole neighbourhood is damp?
By ignoring the ground and testing pressure instead. Around lakes, greenbelts and a golf course, high soil moisture is the normal condition, so a wet patch carries no information at all until something else has confirmed there is a loss.
The same discipline applies to the irrigation itself. A system of this age has been patched, rerouted around later work and had valves replaced by different hands over decades, and every one of those is a joint. Joints are where it fails, and a joint failure on a mainline runs day and night while one past a valve only runs on schedule.
Related: irrigation and drip leak detection and reading a bill that jumped.
Asked and answered
What do people in Dobson Ranch ask us?
What kind of pipe is under a Dobson Ranch home?
Copper, on most of them. The community was built between 1973 and 1999, so the majority of its homes predate the switch to newer materials, with the 1990s streets as the exception. Copper of that age tends to wear through where it was bent or where it rubs something in the slab, rather than bursting, and the hot side usually fails before the cold.
The ground near the lake is soggy. Is that a leak?
Usually not, and that is exactly why a community built around water needs a different approach. High soil moisture is normal near lakes and irrigated greenbelts. The tests that mean something are a meter reading with everything off, a second reading with the irrigation isolated, and a pressure test on the line itself.
Is Dobson Ranch older than the rest of Mesa?
Yes. The Census Bureau puts Mesa's median year of construction at 1988, while Dobson Ranch began in 1973. Mesa also contains communities finished in the last few years, so the two ends of the city have nothing in common underground even though they share a water provider.
Which communities near Dobson Ranch do we also work in?
Losing water in Dobson Ranch?
Tell us what you are seeing and roughly which decade your street went in, and we will say what it sounds like from here.
5.0 on Google
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.”