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Prove which system is leaking
Charlie closes the stop tap and watches the meter, then checks the heating gauge separately. That 20 minutes rules out one system and points the search at the other.
Leak detection in St Neots
St Neots is a 50 mile run west from Haverhill along the A428, and Charlie covers the whole town, from the riverside streets to the new houses at Wintringham, without a trial dig.
No find, no fee
Visits in 24 to 48 hours
Report written for claims
No find, no fee
24/7 enquiries
Non-invasive methods
Reports for insurance claims
St Neots has grown fast. The old core around the market square has Victorian and Edwardian houses with much-altered pipework. Eaton Socon and Eynesbury are post-war estates with copper heating in concrete floors. Loves Farm and Wintringham are new builds with underfloor heating.
Anglian Water supplies the town. On the post-war estates the supply pipe is often the original galvanised steel, which corrodes from the inside and leaks at threaded joints under the drive. On the new estates the supply pipe is plastic, so a dropping boiler gauge is the usual call.
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Charlie closes the stop tap and watches the meter, then checks the heating gauge separately. That 20 minutes rules out one system and points the search at the other.
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The thermal camera and a pipe locator map where the pipe actually goes under the drive or floor. In a 1960s Eynesbury house that route is rarely where expected.
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Acoustic listening on the supply pipe, or tracer gas on the heating loop, narrows the leak to a hand-sized spot, which is marked and photographed for the report.
Used on the heating circuits in the Eaton Socon and Eynesbury estates to show the pipe route through a concrete floor and the point where heat spreads sideways from a leak below.
Steel and copper supply pipes carry the sound of a leak well. The ground microphone is worked along the drive in steps until the signal peaks over the break.
The method for underfloor heating in the Loves Farm and Wintringham houses. The loop is drained, gassed and walked with a detector until the gas is found at the leak.
Around St Neots the jobs have been in the PE19 postcode, taking in Buckden, Caxton and Papworth, and Godmanchester and Hemingford Abbots. Several were older houses on steel supply pipes under drives, and one was a heating circuit under a concrete floor. West of the town we have also found leaks in Caldecote and Bar Hill, mostly in newer houses.
As well as the town itself Charlie covers Eaton Socon, Eynesbury, Little Paxton, Buckden, Great Paxton, Gamlingay and the villages along the A428 towards Cambourne. Huntingdon and Godmanchester are on the same run.
Trace and access cover on a home policy usually pays for finding the leak and for reinstating whatever was opened to reach it. Charlie's St Neots report sets out the isolation tests, the thermal and photographic evidence and the marked position, so your insurer can see the search was targeted.
About 50 miles and a little over an hour by road. Charlie groups St Neots with Huntingdon and Cambourne jobs, so you are normally offered a slot within 24 to 48 hours. Travel is included in the visit and never billed separately.
Usually a leak, but Charlie checks the boiler first. If the pressure relief valve and expansion vessel are sound, the water is going into the pipework or the underfloor loops, and tracer gas finds the exact point. He says if the boiler is at fault.
Yes. Steel pipes corrode at the threaded joints and the leak is often at one of them. Acoustic listening narrows it to a short stretch so the drive is opened once. If the pipe is failing in several places the report says so.
Yes. Charlie traces leaks in commercial units along the High Street and on the industrial estates, and can work before opening or after close. Commercial pipe runs tend to be longer, so the isolation tests take a little more time.
You do not pay. Charlie would rather spend an extra hour than leave a leak unfound, and the isolation tests mean he knows which system is losing water before tracing begins. No find, no fee applies to every St Neots visit.
Ring Charlie with what you have noticed and he will fit you onto the next run west.
Office hours: 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.