1
Sort the symptoms on the phone
Charlie asks whether the meter turns with the taps off, whether the boiler needs topping up and where any damp has appeared. On the fen edge he also asks about the ground.
Leak detection in Downham Market
On the fen edge a leaking pipe rarely shows on the surface. Charlie finds it with cameras, listening gear and tracer gas and marks the one place to dig.
No find, no fee
Slots within 24 to 48 hours
Trace and access report
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
Downham Market stands on a rise at the edge of the Fens, with carstone and brick houses in the Old Town and newer estates spreading east and south. The land round it is flat, low and wet for much of the winter, so a soggy patch of lawn tells you nothing. The meter is the only honest witness.
Anglian Water supplies the town, and the pipe between their stop tap and your house is yours to maintain. Downham Market is usually booked within 24 to 48 hours.
1
Charlie asks whether the meter turns with the taps off, whether the boiler needs topping up and where any damp has appeared. On the fen edge he also asks about the ground.
2
He isolates and tests the mains, the heating and the hot water separately. A meter test with the house shut off settles whether the loss is outside or inside.
3
Thermal imaging maps the pipes, then acoustic listening or tracer gas pins the leak to a few inches. Charlie marks the position and photographs it.
Inside the house the camera shows warm heating pipes under the floor and cold wet patches where water has pooled. In a carstone cottage with thick walls it is the only way to see the pipes.
A supply pipe leak gives off a noise that the ground microphone hears through soil and paving. Saturated fen soil carries the sound less well, so our engineer takes readings closer together.
When the ground is too wet for listening, the pipe is drained and charged with a safe hydrogen mix. The gas rises above the leak and a detector finds it however wet the ground.
A carstone house in the Old Town had a damp patch low on a chimney breast the owners blamed on the weather. The heating was losing pressure, so we gassed the circuit and found a split in a pipe buried in the hearth. On one of the newer estates on the south side, a meter kept turning overnight. The supply pipe ran under a block paved drive, and the ground microphone put the leak a metre from the front wall, so the paving came up in one small square. Down at Denver, a bungalow on a long run from the lane had the same story and tracer gas confirmed the point, the ground being too wet to listen through.
King's Lynn is the next town north of Downham Market and an area we cover regularly in this corner of Norfolk. Swaffham is to the east, and Dersingham and Hunstanton are up the coast. Our engineer covers them on one run.
Trace and access is the part of a buildings policy that pays for finding a hidden leak and for the opening up and reinstatement needed to reach it. Our report gives your insurer the test results, the camera images and the marked location, with photographs, ready to send with the claim.
Not quite. We trace leaks on water supply pipes, central heating and underfloor heating, not on compressed air lines or pneumatic systems. The tracer gas we use goes into drained water pipes to find where they are split, nothing else.
The meter proves there is a leak, and tracer gas finds it. Our engineer puts the gas through the supply pipe and walks the route with a detector. The gas surfaces only above the break, so wet ground does not confuse the result.
Yes. Our engineer usually has a slot within 24 to 48 hours, and King’s Lynn is in the diary so often that Downham Market can sometimes be added the same day.
No. The thermal camera reads surface temperature on any wall, and the gas detector works from the floor surface. Thick stone walls hide pipes from the eye but not from the camera. Nothing is drilled into the stone to look.
No. Our engineer tests every system and if they all hold and the meter stays still, there is no fee. He will tell you what the damp is likely to be instead, which on the fen edge is often groundwater or a drainage problem.
Dial 07897 020 680 and describe the meter, the boiler and the damp, and he will book you in.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.