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The phone conversation
Charlie asks if the house is lived in all year, whether the water is metered and what the floors are. A second home at Thorpeness and a Leiston terrace need different kit.
Leak detection in Leiston
Charlie books Leiston leak detection within 24 to 48 hours and covers Sizewell, Thorpeness, Aldringham and Knodishall on the same trip.
No find, no fee
Leiston, Sizewell, Thorpeness
Holiday lets surveyed
Coastal pipework traced
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
Leiston grew up round the Garrett engineering works, and much of the town is Victorian terraced housing built for its workers, with later council estates on the edges. The heating pipes dropped into those solid floors in the 1970s and 1980s are now failing.
The coast changes the job. Thorpeness and Sizewell have holiday houses that stand empty for weeks, so a leak runs unnoticed until the bill arrives. Salt air corrodes outside pipework. Anglian Water supplies the area, and on sandy soil a mains leak drains away rather than surfacing.
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Charlie asks if the house is lived in all year, whether the water is metered and what the floors are. A second home at Thorpeness and a Leiston terrace need different kit.
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Everything off, meter read, heating pressure logged, then each part of the system isolated in turn. This can often confirm the leak is outside before any board is lifted.
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Thermal imaging for heating under solid floors, acoustic listening on the mains, tracer gas where the sand swallows the sound. The point is marked and the report follows.
The camera reads the heat trace of pipes under a Leiston terrace floor and shows where it spreads into a bloom, or a cold mains leak under a Thorpeness chalet as a cool band.
On sandy ground the noise of a leak travels less far, so our engineer listens at shorter intervals. Contact sensors on the stop tap and at the house narrow the run first.
The most reliable tool near the coast. Gas pushed into the drained pipe rises straight up through sand and shingle, so the detector finds the leak even with no sound and no damp.
A Victorian terrace near the old works had a boiler losing pressure, and the heating pipes dropped into the solid floor decades ago were the suspect. The thermal camera showed a cold break in the run under the back room and tracer gas confirmed the leak there, so the owner opened one small patch of floor. At Thorpeness a holiday house stood empty for a month and the owner's first clue was the water bill. With a keyholder letting us in, the meter test showed the supply pipe losing water, and tracer gas rose through the sandy garden over the leak. On an estate on the edge of town a bathroom waste was found dripping onto the kitchen ceiling below.
A Leiston visit covers Sizewell, Thorpeness, Aldringham, Knodishall, Saxmundham, Yoxford and Aldeburgh. Leak detection in Sizewell and leak detection in Thorpeness are booked exactly as Leiston is, and holiday lets are surveyed between guests.
Holiday homes and second homes often have stricter policy conditions about unoccupied periods, so a clear report matters. Trace and access cover pays for locating the leak and making good any opening up. The report states the date, the method, the test readings, the marked location and our view of the cause.
Yes. We test each supply in turn and follow the shared runs with the thermal camera through walls and ceilings to the point where the loss starts. The report states which pipe is at fault and roughly where, which is what a freeholder, managing agent or neighbour needs before anyone agrees to a repair.
Yes, with a keyholder or an agent to let our engineer in. He tests the supply pipe and the heating, finds the leak and emails the report with photographs the same day, so you can instruct a repair without travelling to the coast.
Harder to see. Sand lets the water drain away so there is no wet patch, and it muffles sound. Tracer gas is the answer: it rises straight through sand to the surface over the leak, and we mark that spot.
Yes. Leak detection in Sizewell is part of the Leiston patch, whether it is a recent build with plastic pipework and underfloor heating or an older bungalow in the village. We bring the kit for both on the same terms.
Then we tell you, and the survey is no find, no fee for you because the leak is not on your property. We can give you the readings to pass to Anglian Water so their team knows where to look.
Phone 07897 020 680 with your postcode for the next coast run.
Landline 01440 840 772. Email hello@completeleakdetection.co.uk.