Boiler pressure keeps dropping
You top the system up, it holds for a day or two, then the gauge falls again. Water is leaving the heating circuit somewhere, usually under a floor.
Leak detection in Hertfordshire
Charlie finds hidden leaks in homes and businesses across Hertfordshire with thermal imaging, acoustic listening and tracer gas. You get the exact spot marked and a written report your insurer will accept.
No find, no fee
Visits within 24 to 48 hours
Non-invasive on every job
Insurance reports included
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
Hertfordshire is a mix of old and new. Hertford, Ware and St Albans have Victorian terraces with lead and iron supply pipes patched over a century. Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield have 1920s to 1950s houses on solid floors. Round the M25 you get flats and post-war estates with long shared pipe runs. Each hides a leak differently.
Most of the county is supplied by Affinity Water, with Thames Water taking the sewerage. If Affinity have written to you about high usage, or your meter turns with every tap off, the leak is usually on your side of the stopcock and it is your responsibility to find it. That is the job we do.
Most Hertfordshire jobs are booked within 24 to 48 hours. We cover every AL, SG, WD, EN and HP postcode, and quote one price for the trace before we set off.
You top the system up, it holds for a day or two, then the gauge falls again. Water is leaving the heating circuit somewhere, usually under a floor.
Close every tap and watch the meter. If the dial still creeps, the supply pipe between the boundary and the house is losing water.
A spot of tile or laminate warmer than the rest usually sits over a hot pipe joint that has gone. Solid floors hide this well.
Plaster that stays dark after the heating has been on for weeks is being fed from behind. Rising damp is rarer than a slow pipe leak.
1
Charlie asks what you have noticed, when it started and what sort of property it is. That tells him which kit to load and whether it sounds like supply, heating or waste.
2
He isolates the system, confirms there is a leak, then narrows it down with thermal imaging, acoustic listening or tracer gas. Most visits take 2 to 3 hours. Nothing is lifted or cut unless you say so.
3
The leak point is marked on the floor or wall. You get photos, thermal images and a written report the same day, laid out for a trace and access claim if you need one.
4
Small repairs can often be done on the visit. Bigger ones get a clear description of what needs opening up, so your own plumber or builder can get straight to it.
An infrared camera shows the heat of a pipe through tile, screed and plaster. On a heating leak it picks out the warm bloom where water is spreading, normally within a foot or so of the fault.
Pressurised water escaping through a crack makes a hiss that travels along the pipe. Ground microphones pick it up through concrete and tarmac, which is how we find mains leaks under Hertfordshire driveways.
For tracer leak detection in Hertford we drain the circuit and fill it with a hydrogen and nitrogen mix. The gas is harmless, lighter than air, and comes up through the floor at the leak where a probe finds it.
In a Victorian terrace in Hertford the meter kept turning with every tap off, and the supply pipe turned out to be the original lead run under the front path; the ground microphone found the split a metre from the wall. In Welwyn Garden City a 1930s house on a solid floor had a boiler losing pressure. Thermal imaging showed the heating pipe under the hall and tracer gas confirmed the failure at one point in the screed. A flat in a post war block near the M25 had water coming through the ceiling, and isolating each supply off the shared riser showed it belonged to the flat above, which the report set out.
We have pages for the Hertfordshire towns people ask about most: Welwyn Garden City, Hoddesdon, Hertford, Ware and Broxbourne in the east, Rickmansworth and South Oxhey in the south west. Every other town and village in the county is covered on the same terms.
Most Hertfordshire home policies include trace and access cover, which pays for finding the leak and making good what had to be opened. Our report gives the insurer what they ask for: where the leak is, how it was found, thermal and photographic evidence and what needs repairing. Check your policy wording before the visit so you know the excess, then send the report with your claim.
The whole county. Hertford, Ware, Hoddesdon, St Albans, Hitchin, Watford and Rickmansworth are all regular runs for us. The time of day we can arrive varies by town, and we agree it on the phone.
Theirs up to the boundary stop tap, yours from there to the house. Affinity will often fix the first leak on your supply pipe for free or at a reduced cost, but they need to know where it is. We find it and give you the report to send them.
Yes. Thermal imaging and acoustic listening work through plaster, tile and brick. Tracer gas finds heating leaks under suspended timber floors without lifting boards. We only open something up when the leak point has been pinned down to a small area, and only with your agreement.
If our engineer attends, carries out the survey and cannot locate the leak, you do not pay for the visit. The price for the trace is agreed before we set off, so there are no surprises on the day either way.
We can usually book you in within 24 to 48 hours. Phone enquiries are answered around the clock on 07897 020 680, so you can call the moment you first spot the problem rather than waiting for office hours to start.
Phone us, describe what you have seen, and get a price and a visit time.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.