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Which system is leaking
Charlie closes the stop tap, reads the meter, then checks the heating gauge. Twenty minutes of testing points the search at either the supply pipe or the heating.
Leak detection in Burwell
Burwell is 19 miles from Haverhill, about 35 minutes by road, on the Fen edge between Cambridge and Newmarket. Burwell leak detection for the long High Street, the estates behind it and the villages along the lode.
No find, no fee
35 minutes from Haverhill
Fen edge joints found
No find, no fee
24/7 enquiries
Non-invasive methods
Reports for insurance claims
Burwell is one of the biggest villages in Cambridgeshire, stretching over a mile along its High Street and North Street. The older houses are clunch and brick cottages with pipework added in stages. Behind them the estates built from the 1960s have copper heating in concrete floors.
The village sits where the chalk meets the Fen. Houses at the north end, towards the lode and Reach, are on softer ground than those at the top of the village, and supply pipe joints there move with it. A visit often ends with one chalked spot on a path.
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Charlie closes the stop tap, reads the meter, then checks the heating gauge. Twenty minutes of testing points the search at either the supply pipe or the heating.
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A thermal camera and a locator map the actual pipe run. In a cottage that has been extended twice the route is rarely where the owner assumes it to be.
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Acoustic listening on the supply pipe or tracer gas in the heating loop narrows the leak to a hand-sized area, which is marked and photographed for the written report.
Shows heating pipes in the concrete floors of the 1960s estates and the underfloor loops in the newer houses off Newmarket Road, and the heat that gives a leak away.
For the supply pipe under a long front path on the High Street. The ground microphone hears the leak under pressure and the loudest point is where the path comes up.
A drained heating circuit is charged with a safe gas that rises through the floor at the leak. The detector finds it without lifting tiles or boards, which keeps reinstatement small.
Closest to Burwell we have found leaks in Bottisham, which has come up more than once in both the CB7 and CB8 postcodes, on older houses and on heating circuits under solid floors. Towards Newmarket the CB8 jobs have taken in Balsham and the villages out to Chedburgh and Chevington. North across the Fen edge we have traced leaks in Ely East and Ely North.
From Burwell Charlie covers Swaffham Prior, Swaffham Bulbeck, Reach, Exning, Fordham, Bottisham and Lode, and continues to Soham and Newmarket. Waterbeach and Cottenham are reached across the Fen on the same day.
Trace and access cover on a household policy pays for locating the leak and reinstating what was opened to reach it, separately from the repair. Charlie's Burwell report gives the insurer the isolation tests, the thermal and photographic evidence and the marked leak point, with the repair quote attached to it.
Yes. Fordham, Swaffham Prior, Swaffham Bulbeck, Reach and Exning are all a few minutes from Burwell and Charlie takes them on the same visit when he can. Leak detection in Fordham follows the same method, meter test first and then the trace.
Very likely. The softer ground at the north end of Burwell moves and opens joints on old supply pipes, and water finds its way up through the path. The meter test confirms the loss and acoustic listening finds the joint.
Yes. The loop is drained and filled with tracer gas, and the detector finds the point where gas comes up through the floor. It is accurate enough that the repair means lifting one tile or opening one small patch of screed.
Yes. The water company’s responsibility ends at the stop tap at your boundary. From there to the house the pipe is the owner’s. Charlie tells you which side the leak is on, so you only pay for a trace if it is yours.
It is about 19 miles and 35 minutes from Haverhill, through Newmarket. Burwell is often grouped with Soham and Ely, so a visit is usually booked within 24 to 48 hours and sometimes the next morning if a slot is free.
Ring Charlie and he will tell you when he is next passing through Newmarket.
Office hours: 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.