Leak Detection in Hull

Signs of a hidden leak

• A stain or damp patch on a ceiling or wall that grows, even when nobody has used the room above.
• The water meter moving with every tap and appliance turned off.
• Boiler pressure that drops and has to be topped up every few days, which usually means a leak on the heating side.
• A warm patch on a solid floor, a damp edge to the carpet, or laminate starting to lift.
• A musty smell, bubbling paint or the sound of running water when nothing is on.

How a leak is traced

• Moisture mapping. Meter readings across walls and floors show where the wet area is and where its edges are, which narrows the search before anything else.
• Thermal imaging. A heating pipe leaking into a floor shows up as a warm streak. Evaporating water shows as a cool patch.
• Pressure testing. Isolating sections of the supply or heating system one at a time shows which section is losing pressure.
• Acoustic detection. Water escaping from a pressurised pipe makes a noise that listening equipment can pick up through a floor or the ground.
• Tracer gas. A harmless gas mix is pushed through the drained pipe and detected at the surface where it escapes. It's used for pipes buried in concrete or under a garden.

Usually two or three of these together are enough to mark the spot, so the opening is one tile, one board or a small square of screed.

Pipes in concrete floors

Many houses built from the 1950s on have water and heating pipes laid in the concrete floor screed. Copper laid straight into screed can corrode over decades and pinhole. The first sign is often a warm spot underfoot, a damp skirting or a heating system that won't hold pressure. By the time it shows, the screed around it has usually been wet for a while, which is why finding the leak is only half the job.

We cover the whole city and the East Riding towns around it, including Willerby, Anlaby, Kirk Ella, Cottingham, Hessle and Beverley.

Whose leak is it?

• Inside the house, and the supply pipe from the edge of the street to your home, including any stop tap on your property: yours to repair, according to Yorkshire Water. In some older streets, neighbours share one supply pipe and are jointly responsible for it.
• In the road or pavement, up to your boundary, including the outside stop tap: Yorkshire Water's. Report it on its 24-hour Leakline, 0800 57 35 53.
• Yorkshire Water expects a supply pipe leak repaired within 30 days, and can serve a legal notice if it isn't. Customers on its financial support schemes may qualify for a free supply pipe repair, so ask.
• If you rent, tell your landlord in writing. Repairs to the pipes and the structure are normally theirs.

Trace and access cover

Many buildings policies include trace and access cover, which pays to find a leak and to open up and make good the wall or floor to reach it, usually up to a set limit such as £5,000 or £10,000. It isn't in every policy, and some pay to find the leak but not to repair the pipe itself. The damage the water caused is a separate escape of water claim. Check your schedule, and ring your insurer before any floor comes up. See what home insurance covers.

After the leak is found

The pipe repair is plumbing work. The water that has already escaped is the restoration part: a leak that has run for weeks has usually soaked the screed, the floor void or the bottom of a wall, and putting flooring back over a wet floor traps it. We take readings, dry the structure until they're back to normal, then reinstate. See concrete floor drying and structural drying.

Our water damage cost estimator prices the drying and repairs, and shows what you'd pay after your excess.