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Narrow it to a system
Meter first, with every tap shut. Then the boiler pressure over an hour or so. One of them drops, and that tells Charlie whether the leak is on the supply pipe outside or the heating inside.
Leak detection in Rayleigh
Charlie locates water main, heating and underfloor leaks across Rayleigh, Rawreth and Hockley with thermal imaging, acoustic listening and tracer gas, then marks where to open.
No find, no fee
Rochford area covered
Report insurers can use
Lines open 24 hours
Tell us what you have noticed and where. We ring you back to talk it through. No find, no fee.
No find, no fee
24/7 enquiries
Non-invasive methods
Reports for insurance claims
Rayleigh leak detection splits along the town's history. The old centre on the hill has brick houses with pipework changed many times. The estates that spread out from the 1960s, down towards Rawreth and the A127, were built on solid floors with heating pipes in screed. The two types leak in different places.
Essex and Suffolk Water covers the town and their responsibility ends at your boundary stop tap. From there, the supply pipe under the front garden, the pipework in the house and the heating circuit are yours. That is where Rayleigh leaks tend to be, and where most leak detection Essex work happens.
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Meter first, with every tap shut. Then the boiler pressure over an hour or so. One of them drops, and that tells Charlie whether the leak is on the supply pipe outside or the heating inside.
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The camera goes over each floor and the walls with pipes in. Heating runs show as warm lines and a leak as a patch where the warmth has spread. A cold supply leak shows the opposite way, as a cool damp area.
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Tracer gas in the drained heating loop, or the ground microphone along the supply pipe, puts the leak within a few inches. Charlie marks it and photographs it for the findings.
The camera reads surface temperature and shows the pipe layout without lifting a thing. On the Rayleigh estates the screed is thin enough that a heating pipe shows clearly and a leak stands out as a warm bloom.
Supply pipes leaking under pressure make a noise the ground microphone picks up through turf, gravel and block paving. We follow the line from the stop tap towards the house and mark the loudest point.
A hydrogen mix in a drained heating circuit escapes only at the leak. It rises through the floor and a detector picks it up, pinning down a point the camera could only narrow to an area.
A brick house in the old centre on the hill had a meter turning with the house shut off and a soft patch on the front lawn that never drained. The ground microphone followed the supply pipe from the stop tap and the break was under the lawn, not the drive, so the grass was lifted in one place. On a 1960s estate towards Rawreth a boiler losing pressure led to a heating pipe in the screed, found with the thermal camera and confirmed with tracer gas under the hall. A shop in the town centre was checked before opening, where a cold feed under the floor had split and was showing as a wet patch in the stockroom.
Hockley, Hullbridge and Rochford are the nearest places, with Wickford and Runwell a short drive west. Leigh On Sea, Hadleigh and Benfleet lie down the hill towards the estuary, and Eastwood and Rawreth are the same run.
Where a policy includes trace and access, locating the leak and opening up to reach it is normally covered. Our report gives the insurer the method, the readings, the images and the exact position in one document.
The main in the road and the pipe to every boundary stop tap. Everything on the house side of that tap is the owner’s. If the meter test points to the company’s side, we will tell you.
Sometimes. Our engineer is often in the Rochford area, so if he is nearby he can add you to the day. Otherwise it is a 24 to 48 hour booking.
Quite possibly. A leaking supply pipe in Rayleigh’s clay tends to keep the ground above it soft rather than draining away. We listen along the pipe and tell you whether it is the pipe or just poor drainage.
Yes. Commercial premises have longer pipe runs under hard surfaces, so the ground microphone and a pressure test do most of the work. We can come before opening or after closing.
No charge for the detection work. No find, no fee. If the damp is a leaking gutter, a cracked bath seal or condensation in a cold corner, we say so.
Call us on 07897 020 680 and describe what the boiler, the meter or the lawn is doing.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.