1
A short phone conversation first
Charlie asks what you have seen, how often the boiler needs topping up and whether the meter moves with the taps off. That decides which equipment comes in the van.
Leak detection in Billericay
Charlie locates the leak with cameras, microphones and gas before anyone chips at a floor.
No find, no fee
Booked within 24 to 48 hours
Insurance ready written 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
Billericay grew fast between the wars and again in the 1960s, so most homes are semis and detached houses on suspended timber floors, with later estates at Queens Park and Sunnymede on solid floors. The older houses give leaks somewhere to hide under the boards. The newer ones bury heating pipes in screed.
Water here comes from Essex and Suffolk Water. The supply pipe from the pavement to the house is yours, and on a long Billericay front garden that can be 15 metres of pipe under lawn and drive. A leak on that run shows on the meter long before it shows on the surface.
1
Charlie asks what you have seen, how often the boiler needs topping up and whether the meter moves with the taps off. That decides which equipment comes in the van.
2
A thermal scan of each room shows where the pipes run and where the temperature is wrong. A meter test and a heating pressure test tell him which system is losing water.
3
Acoustic listening or tracer gas narrows the leak to a few inches. Charlie marks it on the floor or wall, photographs it and explains what the repair involves.
The camera reads surface temperature, so a hot pipe under laminate or a cold wet patch inside a plastered wall stands out straight away. Nothing is touched or lifted.
Supply pipe leaks under Billericay front gardens make a noise that travels through the soil. A ground microphone finds the loudest point, which is where the break is.
For a heating circuit buried in screed, a safe hydrogen mix is pumped into the drained pipes. It escapes at the leak and rises through the floor to a probe.
A 1930s semi with suspended timber floors had damp at the skirting in the dining room and a boiler losing pressure. The thermal camera showed the heating pipe under the boards, and tracer gas put the leak at a joint near the bay window, so two boards came up. A detached house with a long front garden had a water bill that had doubled with nothing showing on the surface. The ground microphone followed the supply pipe under the lawn and drive to a split halfway along. In Ingatestone a cottage had water coming through the kitchen ceiling after baths, traced to the bath waste where it had parted from its trap.
From Billericay the diary takes in Ingatestone, Shenfield, Stock, Ramsden Heath, Crays Hill and Great Burstead. Wickford and Brentwood are a few minutes further. It is the same visit whichever side of town.
If your home insurance includes trace and access, the cost of locating the leak and opening up to reach it is usually recoverable. Our written report sets out the method, the evidence and the exact leak position, with thermal images and photographs attached. Insurers accept it as it stands, with no second survey.
Sometimes. If our engineer is already in the Wickford or Chelmsford area he can usually add you to that day. Otherwise a visit is usually booked within 24 to 48 hours of your call.
Usually in a pipe under the ground floor, where copper laid in the screed has corroded. It can also be a radiator valve or a joint under an upstairs floor. Thermal imaging shows which, and tracer gas confirms the exact point.
Yes. Both are a few minutes from Billericay and we treat them as the same trip. Ingatestone has older cottages with mixed pipework and Shenfield has larger detached houses with long heating runs. The methods are the same for both.
Acoustic listening works through block paving and tarmac. We find the loudest point and mark the exact blocks to lift, so the repair is a small patch and the drive goes back as it was. We do not dig unless you ask us to do the repair.
No. The visit is no find, no fee. If there is a leak, we find it. If the problem turns out to be a failed shower seal or condensation, we tell you so and you pay nothing for the detection work.
Call 07897 020 680 and describe what you have noticed.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.