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Prove the loss
The stop tap is closed and the meter read, then the heating gauge is checked on its own. That first 20 minutes shows which system is losing water and which kit comes out.
Leak detection in Cottenham
Cottenham is a village we cover regularly. Leak detection in Cottenham for the long High Street, the estates and the Fen edge villages.
No find, no fee
Leaks already found here
Northstowe covered
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
Cottenham is a long village with a High Street of over a mile, lined with older brick houses and cottages, and estates of 1960s to 1990s housing behind it. Beyond the village the ground drops to the Fen, and houses on Twenty Pence Road sit on softer ground.
Cambridge Water supplies Cottenham, Histon, Oakington and Willingham, and the new town at Northstowe between them. Hard chalk water scales up older copper and iron pipework, so pinhole leaks in old pipes are common. At Northstowe the usual call is underfloor heating losing pressure.
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The stop tap is closed and the meter read, then the heating gauge is checked on its own. That first 20 minutes shows which system is losing water and which kit comes out.
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The thermal camera and a locator trace the real route of the pipe under the path or the floor, which in an extended village house is often a surprise.
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Acoustic listening on the supply or tracer gas in the heating narrows the leak to a hand-sized area. Charlie chalks it, takes the photographs and talks you through the repair.
Shows heating pipes under the solid floors of the village estates and the underfloor loops at Northstowe, and the spread of heat from a leaking joint.
For supply pipes under long front paths on the High Street and the Fen edge roads. The ground microphone hears the leak under pressure and the strongest signal marks the dig.
A drained heating or underfloor loop is charged with safe gas, which rises through the floor at the leak. The detector finds it without lifting flooring, so one tile comes up.
In an older brick house on Cottenham High Street the owner had a damp patch at the bottom of a wall and a meter that kept turning. We listened along the supply pipe with the ground microphone and found a pinholed, scaled copper pipe under the front path. On one of the estates behind the village a boiler that lost pressure overnight was traced with the thermal camera to a warm patch under the lounge floor, and tracer gas placed a corroded pipe in the concrete. At Northstowe a new house had an underfloor heating loop that would not hold pressure. The camera showed the loop layout, gas found the leak under the kitchen.
From Cottenham we cover Rampton, Willingham, Histon, Impington, Oakington, Longstanton, Northstowe and Landbeach, and reach Waterbeach across the Fen edge on the same visit where we can fit it in.
Trace and access cover pays for locating the leak and for reinstating whatever was opened to reach it, as a separate item from the repair. Our Cottenham report records the tests, the thermal and photographic evidence and the marked leak point, which is what the insurer asks for before approving it.
We have found leaks in Cottenham on more than one occasion. The village is on the run we make north of Cambridge towards Waterbeach and Ely, so it is a regular stop rather than a one-off.
Yes, especially on Twenty Pence Road and the roads towards Rampton where the ground is soft. A green or wet patch in a dry lawn over the line of the supply pipe is a classic sign, and acoustic listening finds the point.
Yes. Northstowe is between Cottenham and Longstanton and the houses have plastic pipework and underfloor heating. A dropping pressure gauge there is usually a joint or a loop under the screed, which tracer gas finds without lifting the floor at all.
Yes. Cambridge Water looks after the main and the pipe up to the stop tap at your boundary. From there to the house the pipe is yours. We tell you which side the leak is on first, so you only pay for a trace on your own pipe.
You do not pay. No find, no fee means that if we test the mains and the heating, trace the pipework and find nothing, the visit costs you nothing. The tests still tell you something, because they show which system is holding pressure, so the damp or the high bill can be looked at from another angle. Cottenham visits are usually booked within 24 to 48 hours.
Ring us, tell us what the meter is doing, and we will give you a day.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.