A letter about high water use
Affinity and Anglian both flag a jump in consumption. If nothing has changed in the house, a supply pipe or an internal pipe is the usual cause.
Leak detection in Bedfordshire
From Luton and Dunstable in the south to Bedford and Biggleswade in the north, Charlie traces hidden leaks without opening floors or walls, then gives you a report you can send to your insurer.
No find, no fee
24 to 48 hour bookings
Floors and walls left intact
Report ready for your claim
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
Bedfordshire is split between two water companies, and it matters when you have a leak. Luton, Dunstable, Houghton Regis, Leighton Buzzard and the south of the county are on Affinity Water. Bedford, Kempston, Biggleswade and the north are on Anglian Water. Both write to you when a meter reading jumps, and both expect you to find a leak on your own pipework.
The housing runs from Victorian terraces in Luton and Bedford, through 1930s semis along the A5 and A6, to the new estates at Wixams and the north of Houghton Regis. The new builds tend to have underfloor heating in a screed floor. The old terraces have supply pipes under the front path that date from when the house was built.
A Bedfordshire job is booked like any other: a phone call, a price for the trace, and a visit usually within 24 to 48 hours. We cover every LU, MK and SG postcode in the county.
Affinity and Anglian both flag a jump in consumption. If nothing has changed in the house, a supply pipe or an internal pipe is the usual cause.
Air keeps getting into the heating because water keeps getting out. The fill loop hides the loss until the pressure gauge starts dropping between top ups.
Laminate that cups, tiles that sound hollow, or a chipboard floor that gives underfoot are often sitting on a wet screed fed by a pipe below.
A green stripe across a lawn in August, or a drive that never dries, points to a buried supply pipe or heating pipe between two buildings.
1
Charlie takes the details himself. Where the water is showing, how long it has been going on, whether the heating or the mains is losing pressure. That decides the kit and the price.
2
On site he isolates the supply and the heating to confirm which one is leaking. Then thermal imaging, acoustic listening or tracer gas take it down to a spot, not a room.
3
The leak point is marked up. The written report with photos and thermal images follows the same day, written so a loss adjuster can follow it without a site visit.
A thermal camera reads the surface temperature of a floor or wall. Hot water leaking into a screed shows as a plume spreading from the pipe, and cold mains water shows as a dark patch.
A ground microphone and headphones pick up the noise a pressurised leak makes. Walking the pipe route and comparing readings finds the loudest point, which is where to dig. It works through tarmac and concrete.
When the leak cannot be heard or seen, we charge the empty pipework with a hydrogen and nitrogen mix. The gas escapes at the leak and rises through the floor finish, where a hand held detector picks it up.
In north Luton a pre war terrace had a water company letter about high use and nothing wet indoors. The meter moved with the taps off, and the ground microphone along the front path put the leak at a joint by the gate, where the lead pipe had once been extended in copper. At Wixams a new house was losing heating pressure; one underfloor loop dropped at the manifold, the thermal camera showed its route and tracer gas marked a nicked pipe beside the patio door. In a village near Henlow a cottage on a long private supply had a soft patch of lawn, found with a locator and a listening stick to a split under the garden path.
The towns with their own pages are Toddington, Leighton Buzzard and Houghton Regis in the south of the county, and Biggleswade and Kempston in the north. Luton, Bedford, Dunstable, Flitwick, Ampthill, Sandy and the villages between them are covered from this page.
If your policy has trace and access cover, the insurer pays for locating the leak and for repairing the floor or wall that had to be opened to reach it. They want evidence the search was done properly. Our report sets out the methods used, the readings, thermal and photographic images and the marked leak point. Ring your insurer first to confirm the cover and the excess.
Luton, Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard and the south are on Affinity Water. Bedford, Biggleswade, Kempston and the north are on Anglian Water. It does not change how we find the leak, but it changes who you send the report to if the leak is on the supply pipe and you want a repair from them.
We can usually book you in within 24 to 48 hours. Phone, describe what you have seen, and Charlie will give you a price for the trace and a day for the visit. Enquiries are answered around the clock, and the no find, no fee promise applies to every Bedfordshire job, whether it is a house in Luton or a unit in Bedford.
Yes, and it is a common call from the newer estates in the county. We pressure test each loop at the manifold to find which one is losing water, then use thermal imaging and tracer gas to put the leak point on the floor. The screed stays down until the repair.
We do. Offices, shops, pubs, care homes and warehouses get the same survey. The difference is scale: longer pipe runs and bigger heating systems take more time to isolate. We can work outside opening hours if daytime noise makes acoustic work hard.
Then you do not pay. That is what no find, no fee means. It happens rarely, usually when a leak is intermittent and has stopped by the time we arrive. We leave you with instructions on what to watch and come back when it starts again.
Call, tell us what you have noticed, and you will have a price and a visit time before you hang up.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.