How Do We Find Hidden Leaks Without Damage?
A hidden leak announces itself indirectly: a ceiling stain that keeps coming back, a musty smell, a boiler that needs re-pressurising every week, a water bill that’s crept up. The old way to find it was to start pulling things apart and hope. Here’s how professional detection does it instead.
The non-invasive toolkit
1. Thermal imaging
A leak changes the temperature of the surface above or around it. Thermal cameras show hot-water pipe leaks under floors and cold evaporation patches on walls — without touching anything.
2. Acoustic listening
Pressurised water escaping a pipe makes a distinctive noise. Ground microphones and listening sticks let us hear the leak through floors and walls and home in on the loudest point.
3. Tracer gas
For stubborn leaks, a safe trace gas is introduced into the (drained) pipe. The gas escapes at the leak and is picked up by a detector at the surface — pinpointing leaks under concrete floors, tiling and screed.
4. Moisture mapping
Calibrated moisture meters map how wet each surface is, separating an active leak from old residual damp or condensation (condensation or damp? here’s how to tell).
5. CCTV drain surveys
When the suspect is a drain rather than a supply pipe, a camera goes down the line and shows exactly what’s wrong: CCTV drainage surveys.
Why “find first, open second” saves you money
Every exploratory hole that misses is plaster, tiling or flooring you pay to repair — often more than the detection survey itself. Locating the leak first means one targeted access point instead of several wrong guesses. If you’re claiming on insurance, targeted access is also what trace-and-access cover expects — see does insurance cover trace and access?
What a DML detection visit looks like
- We ask the history — what you’ve seen, when it started, what’s been tried.
- We survey with the methods above — fixed price agreed before we attend (what leak detection costs).
- You get the location, the cause, and a plain-English explanation.
- Need it for a claim? We produce an insurer-ready report.
- Leak been running a while? We can check for damp and mould at the same visit.
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Related services: Leak Detection · Trace & Access · Insurance Leak Investigations · Damp Surveys · Mould Inspections · Contact