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Rule systems in or out
Charlie closes the stop tap and watches the meter, then puts the heating under test pressure. Within minutes he knows whether the loss is on the mains side, the heating side or neither.
Leak detection in Great Maplestead
Old timber framed houses and long garden pipe runs make leaks hard to find by guesswork. Charlie brings the cameras, microphones and gas and pins the leak down before a board comes up.
Nothing paid if nothing found
Same or next day where possible
Written report for claims
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
Great Maplestead lies in the hills between Halstead and the Suffolk border, a village of older cottages, farmhouses and a few newer homes in between. Many houses are timber framed with lime plaster and brick floors, so water finds odd routes. A leak under a kitchen floor can show as damp at the foot of a wall two rooms away.
Leak detection in Essex villages follows a familiar pattern: a buried heating pipe losing pressure, or a long private supply pipe that has let go under the lawn.
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Charlie closes the stop tap and watches the meter, then puts the heating under test pressure. Within minutes he knows whether the loss is on the mains side, the heating side or neither.
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Every floor and wall that could carry the pipe is scanned with the thermal camera. Warm lines show where heating runs; a cold blotch shows where water is sitting. Old houses rarely follow the drawings, so he checks rather than assumes.
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Acoustic listening or tracer gas confirms the spot the camera suggested. Charlie marks it, measures it from fixed points so a builder can find it again, and photographs it for the report.
Brick and pamment floors hold heat, so a heating leak under them shows as a warm pool rather than a line. The camera sees that pattern through the floor covering and nothing has to be lifted.
Our engineer uses a ground microphone along the route of the supply pipe from the road to the house. The point where the leak noise peaks is the point to dig, and he marks it with paint.
A drained heating circuit is filled with a safe hydrogen mix. The gas escapes at the split, rises through the floor or wall and sets off a hand probe.
A timber framed cottage near the church had damp at the foot of a wall two rooms away from the kitchen. The thermal camera showed a cold track under the brick floor leading back to a heating pipe, and tracer gas confirmed the joint, so one brick came up rather than the whole floor. A farmhouse on the Halstead side had a water bill that climbed for months. Its supply pipe ran thirty metres under a lawn and a drive, and the ground microphone put the break under the lawn a few paces from the house. A newer house between the two had a bathroom waste dripping onto the ceiling below, which the camera separated from the heating in minutes.
Halstead is the nearest town and we treat Little Maplestead, Gosfield, Coggeshall and Braintree as the same patch. Castle Hedingham, Sible Hedingham and Pebmarsh get the same service.
If your policy includes trace and access, the cost of locating the leak and getting to it is normally covered. Our written report records the tests we ran, the thermal images and the marked leak position, so the insurer can see why the floor or wall had to come up.
Yes. Everything our engineer does on the first visit is non-invasive: cameras, microphones and gas. He only tells you where to open up, and it is one small spot rather than a whole floor.
Our engineer closes the stop tap and watches the meter, then puts the heating under test pressure, so within minutes he knows whether the loss is on the mains side, the heating side or neither. Every floor and wall that could carry the pipe is scanned with the thermal camera, then acoustic listening or tracer gas confirms the exact spot. He marks it, measures it from fixed points and photographs it for the report.
Everything on your side of the meter or boundary is yours. Acoustic listening is the right tool for that long stretch. We find the loudest point and mark it, so the repair is a single hole, not a trench.
Our engineer is a qualified plumber and heating engineer, so for many leaks he can. For a repair under a drive or inside an old wall he tells you what the job involves and you decide who does it.
Some older cottages in a row share a supply pipe. We can still trace where the water is escaping, and the report shows which section it is on. Who pays for the repair then depends on the deeds.
Phone us on 07897 020 680 and we will tell you what to check before the visit.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.