Boiler pressure keeps dropping
You top the system up and a week later the gauge is back below 1 bar. With no drip at any radiator, the heating pipework under the floor is the usual suspect.
Leak detection in Norfolk
Charlie finds hidden water and heating leaks anywhere in Norfolk without ripping up floors. He can usually book you in within 24 to 48 hours.
No find, no fee
Reports for trace and access
Whole Anglian Water area
Usually within 24 to 48 hours
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
Norfolk is the far end of our patch, and Charlie still comes. The biggest share of the county's jobs over the last year has been in West Norfolk around King's Lynn, with steady calls from Norwich, Dereham and the coast.
The housing varies more than in most counties: flint and carrstone cottages on the coast, Victorian terraces in Norwich, 1960s estates in Thetford, timber framed houses in the market towns and farmhouses on long private supply pipes between them. Each leaks in its own way, and we pick the equipment to suit the building.
Anglian Water supplies the whole county. If they have written to say your usage looks high, or your meter turns with every tap closed, the leak is usually on your side of the boundary stop tap and finding it is your job.
You top the system up and a week later the gauge is back below 1 bar. With no drip at any radiator, the heating pipework under the floor is the usual suspect.
Close every tap and watch the dial. If it still creeps round, water is escaping between the meter and your house, often under the drive.
A patch that dries out, then returns in the same spot, is being fed from somewhere. Plaster will not fix it until the pipe behind it is found.
Hot water from a leaking heating pipe warms the screed above it. If one stretch of tiles feels warmer than the rest, that is often where the leak sits.
1
A short call covers what you noticed, when it started and whether Anglian Water or your insurer is involved. From that Charlie knows which kit to load and how long to allow.
2
On site he isolates the mains, the heating and any underfloor circuits in turn and tests each one. That shows which system is losing water before any tracing starts.
3
Thermal imaging, acoustic listening or tracer gas follow the pipe run until the leak gives itself away. We mark the point so the repair opens up one small area.
4
You get photographs, thermal images where used, the location and what we found, written for a trace and access claim so your insurer has what they need.
An infrared camera shows temperature differences across a surface. A heating leak under screed shows as a warm bloom, a cold mains leak as a cool line. It needs no holes and works through tiles, laminate and plaster.
Water forcing its way out of a pressurised pipe makes a noise. Ground microphones pick it up through tarmac, concrete and soil, which is how we follow a mains leak across a Norfolk driveway or garden without a digger.
We drain a heating or underfloor circuit, fill it with a safe hydrogen and nitrogen mix, then sweep the floor with a detector. The gas escapes at the leak and rises through solid concrete, so the spot is marked within centimetres.
In King's Lynn a 1960s semi with heating in the concrete floor was losing pressure every few days; tracer gas found the leak under the hall, and the floor was opened in one small square. On the north coast a flint cottage near Brancaster had damp that looked like rising damp, and the thermal camera traced it to a heating pipe in the wall. In Norwich a Victorian terrace had water in the cellar from a lead supply pipe under the front path, found with the ground microphone by the gate. Near Dereham a farmhouse on a long supply pipe across a field had its leak marked beside a field drain, so one hole was dug rather than a trench.
Each town below has a page of its own. If yours is missing, we still come: leak detection in Watton, Poringland, Caister-on-Sea and Hethersett is booked through the same number, as is every village between.
Most home policies carry trace and access cover. It pays for finding the leak and for putting right whatever had to be opened to reach it, separate from the repair. Our report sets out the method, the evidence and the exact location, with photographs and thermal images. Check your policy wording before the visit so you know what is covered.
All of it. Travel is built into the booking, and the 24 to 48 hour window applies across Norfolk as it does everywhere else we cover.
Read the meter with every tap off and note the number, then read it again an hour later with nothing used. If it has moved, the leak is on your supply pipe or inside the house. Call us with both readings.
Yes. Older Norwich terraces often have heating pipes buried in a concrete floor with no access from below. Tracer gas is the usual answer. The gas passes through the slab and the detector picks it up at the surface, so the floor stays down until the repair.
Yes. An empty house hides a leak for weeks, so if you are away we can arrange access with a keyholder and send the report by email.
Yes. If we cannot locate your leak, you do not pay for the survey, wherever in Norfolk you are. The pressure tests at the start show which system is losing water, so the tracing begins with a clear target.
Yes. Shops, pubs, offices, farm buildings and holiday parks get the same approach. Larger pipe runs take longer to walk, so tell us the size of the building when you call.
Ring us on 07897 020 680 any time, or 01440 840 772 in office hours, for a visit usually within 24 to 48 hours.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.