A bill that suddenly doubled
Metered customers often see the problem on paper first. If usage has jumped and nothing in the house has changed, water is going somewhere you cannot see.
Leak detection in Essex
Charlie covers the whole county from Haverhill, just over the Suffolk border. Thermal imaging, acoustic listening and tracer gas find the leak before anyone lifts a floorboard.
No find, no fee
Visits in 24 to 48 hours
Reports your insurer accepts
One engineer throughout
No find, no fee
24/7 enquiries
Non-invasive methods
Reports for insurance claims
Essex is a long county. Haverhill to Saffron Walden takes 20 minutes, and Haverhill to Southend nearer an hour and a half. Charlie plans the diary around that, so a job in Tendring and a job in Thurrock do not land on the same afternoon. You speak to him directly, and he is the person who turns up.
The housing varies as much as the distance. Colchester and Maldon have Victorian terraces with lead and iron pipe still in the ground. Basildon, Harlow and South Woodham Ferrers went up in bulk after the war, with concrete ground floors and pipe runs under the slab. The coast has bungalows on clay that moves with the seasons.
Most of the county is supplied by Anglian Water. Essex and Suffolk Water serves Southend, the Thames side and the estuary towns, and Thames Water handles sewerage in the south west. Whoever supplies you, the pipe from the boundary stop tap to the house is yours, and that is usually where we are asked to look.
Metered customers often see the problem on paper first. If usage has jumped and nothing in the house has changed, water is going somewhere you cannot see.
Topping the system up every week means a heating pipe is leaking, often under a floor. Older Essex houses with pipes in the screed are the usual suspects.
Plaster that stays dark after a week of dry weather is being fed from behind. A pipe or waste joint inside the wall is the first thing to rule out.
A green stripe across a brown garden, or a soft patch on the drive, usually sits above a supply pipe. Clay soil holds the water near the surface.
1
What have you noticed, when did it start, is the water metered, does the boiler lose pressure. From that he knows which kit to load and roughly how long the job will take.
2
He checks the meter with everything off, tests the heating pressure and walks the property with a thermal camera. That tells him which pipe is suspect before any detailed work starts.
3
Acoustic listening on supply pipes, tracer gas on heating circuits and under floors. The leak gets marked on the floor or wall to within a few inches, so the repair is one hole instead of three.
4
You get a written report with photographs and thermal images. Charlie can do smaller repairs on the day, or hand the marked location to your own plumber or builder.
A thermal camera shows where a warm heating pipe runs under a floor, and where a cold supply leak is chilling a wall. It covers a room in minutes and touches nothing.
A leak on a pressurised supply pipe makes a hiss. Ground microphones pick it up through concrete, tarmac and lawn, which is how we locate breaks on long rural supply runs in north Essex.
A safe hydrogen and nitrogen mix goes into a drained heating circuit. The gas escapes at the leak and rises through screed and tile, where a sensor picks it up. The floor stays intact.
The busiest patch is the Southend side: Leigh-on-Sea, Chalkwell, Belfairs and Westcliff in SS9 and SS0, with more in Hockley, Hawkwell and Ashingdon. Around Colchester we have worked in Lexden, Berechurch, Greenstead, Marks Tey and Kelvedon, and out to Ardleigh and Elmstead. Braintree, Bocking, Witham and Hatfield Peverel come up through the year. Further south we have found leaks in Wickford, Pitsea, Hadleigh, Corringham, East Tilbury and Chadwell St Mary, and in the west at Harlow and Blackmore near Brentwood.
Every Essex postcode from CO and CM down to SS and RM is in range. The towns below have their own pages with local detail. Witham, Harwich and Loughton sit between them and are covered just the same, so call if your village is missing.
Most home policies include trace and access cover, which pays for finding the leak and making good what had to be opened to reach it. Charlie's report gives your insurer the method used, the evidence, the exact position of the leak and a plain description of the damage. Send it with the claim and the loss adjuster has what they need.
All of it. Haverhill sits on the north west corner of the county, so Saffron Walden and Braintree are close. Southend, Canvey and Tilbury are the far end, roughly an hour and a half away. Charlie groups the southern jobs together, so you still get a visit within 24 to 48 hours.
No. We find leaks, we do not install monitoring systems. If you want ongoing protection, a plumber can fit an automatic shut off valve on the incoming main. Our job is the one off investigation when water is going missing and nobody can see where.
Anglian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water and Thames Water are each responsible up to the boundary stop tap. From there the pipe is yours. We locate the break on your section, often under the garden or drive, and mark it so the repair is one small hole.
Yes, and it is one of the more common jobs in Basildon, Harlow and the newer estates. Heating pipes were laid in the screed and corrode over decades. Tracer gas finds where the gas surfaces and thermal imaging confirms it, so your builder opens one patch of floor.
You do not pay. That is what no find, no fee means. Charlie leaves with a located leak on nearly every visit, because he will not stop at a guess. If the fault turns out to be condensation or a roof problem, he tells you plainly and does not charge.
Call Charlie on 07897 020 680 any time, or 01440 840 772 in office hours.
Office hours: 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.