Professional help with a suspected hidden leak

A hidden leak rarely announces itself. There is no noise, no puddle, no burst pipe in plain view — only a water bill that does not add up, a stain that grows slowly, or a floor that is cold in one particular spot. Precisely because the symptoms are quiet, most people wait months before seeking help, and reach us once the damp has already reached the neighbours.

What you can check yourself in ten minutes

Before looking for a firm, carry out one simple check that needs no instruments at all:

• Close every tap in the property — including the cisterns, the washing machine and the dishwasher.
• Read the water meter and write the figures down exactly.
• Wait two hours without using any water.
• Read it again. If the numbers have moved, water is escaping somewhere on the installation.

That check answers one question only — whether there is a leak. It does not answer the far more expensive one: where.

Why “break it open and see” is the costliest option

The classic approach to a leak is to break open wherever it is wet. The trouble is that water travels. It runs along the pipe, down through the screed, across the waterproofing, and surfaces metres away from the fault itself. Breaking open “at the stain” therefore often means two repairs instead of one: the first in the wrong place, the second in the right one.

The wet patch shows where the water comes out. It almost never shows where it goes in.

What the professional team does

Diagnosis is a separate service from the repair, and that distinction matters. We come to establish exactly where the defect is and to give you a document with which to commission the repair precisely.

1. Inspection and the history of the problem

When it started, after what, where it appears, whether there has been recent work, whether there is underfloor heating. Half the diagnosis comes from asking the right questions.

2. Measuring moisture at depth

With Tramex moisture meters we measure the moisture content in the structure itself — concrete, screed, masonry — rather than at the surface. That is how condensation is separated from an active leak.

3. Thermographic survey

A FLIR thermal camera reads the temperature differences behind walls, floors and ceilings. An active leak and the wet zone around it hold a different temperature from dry material and stand out as a clear anomaly.

4. The report

You receive a written document with thermograms, real photographs, the recorded readings and a conclusion. With it, the tradesman knows where to work and you hold evidence for a neighbour, an insurer or the seller of a property.

When not to wait

• The water bill has risen with no change in habits.
• A stain, or plaster that flakes, returns after a repair.
• A smell of damp or mould in a room with no visible cause.
• The neighbour below reports damp while everything looks dry at your end.
• You are buying a property and want to know its real condition before the deal.

In every one of these cases the problem does not go away by itself — it simply becomes more expensive. Get in touch for a consultation, or see how thermographic leak detection works.