Where We Attend for Leak Detection in London

How coverage is stated

The one statement of coverage this site makes is London inside the M25, 24/7. That is the whole of it. There is no list of boroughs, no list of postcodes and no map, because a list of places says less about whether a leak can be found at your property than a description of the property itself does.

The price travels with the visit. For a single domestic property within that coverage, the detection price is one fixed price of £480, every method included, agreed before we attend, whichever part of London it is in. There is no zone, no surcharge by distance and no separate figure for a particular area. If something about the location or the building would change the scope of a visit, it is said in writing before attending and not discovered on the day. No VAT is charged.

This page is not a set of local landing pages, and none exist on this site. What follows is more useful for most readers: what kinds of London home produce what kinds of leak search, so that you can describe your own property to the team in a way that shortens the visit.

How the price applies everywhere it is offered

The detection price is defined by the job and not by the postcode. The job is finding the leak at a single domestic property and writing it up. The price pays for locating the leak with every method it needs, and the written report, in one visit to a single domestic property in London. No VAT is charged.

That is worth saying because many firms price by area, adding charges for distance or for zones, and a visitor has to do arithmetic to compare. Here the arithmetic is absent. What can differ between properties is not the price of the visit but what is quoted after it: a repair, an opening in a structure, and making good. Those depend on what is found and where, and they are quoted in writing before they start. The pricing page shows the two columns side by side.

If the property is not a single domestic home, such as a shop, an office or a large block with many units, the scope and the figure are agreed in writing before attending. That is a boundary on the scope of the detection price and not a statement about where the work can be done.

Flats and conversions

A great many London leak enquiries come from flats, and a flat changes the search in three ways. First, the leak may not be yours. Water in a flat often arrives from above, from a shared riser or from a neighbouring wall, and part of the work is establishing whether the source is inside your own property. That is why the three outcomes on the no find, no fee page matter more in flats than in houses.

Second, the structure is different. Many purpose-built blocks have concrete floors, which make tracing slower and make opening up a heavier job than lifting a board. Converted houses are different again, with timber floors, mixed pipework from several eras and a history of alterations that nobody has a drawing of.

Third, access is shared. Stopping the water might mean asking the managing agent for a riser key, and finding the source might mean asking the flat above to let the engineer in. If you can arrange access before the visit, or warn the neighbours that a visit is coming, the search goes more smoothly. The report is the document that supports those conversations. No VAT is charged.

Terraced and semi-detached houses

Older terraced and semi-detached houses are different. They tend to have suspended timber ground floors, which make listening and tracing under the floor easier and make openings smaller, plumbing that has been altered by successive owners, and a mix of lead, copper and plastic that behaves differently under acoustic listening. A plastic repair joined onto old copper is a common place for a slow weep, and plastic carries sound poorly, so the engineer leans on pressure testing, moisture mapping and tracer gas more than on listening.

Extensions are another feature. A kitchen added to the back of a house brings a different floor construction, often a solid slab, and pipes that run through the old and new parts under different conditions. A leak near the join between old and new is a classic puzzle, and the methods are chosen with that in mind.

None of this changes the price. It changes the order of the ladder the engineer climbs, which the how it works page describes. No VAT is charged.

Mansion blocks and period buildings

Mansion blocks and other period buildings bring their own considerations. Pipework often runs in risers and floor voids that serve several flats, access may be restricted, and the building may be managed by a freeholder or an agent with rules about who can open what. Where a leak crosses a flat boundary, a clear written account of what was measured is the thing that lets the right party act on it.

Ceilings in older buildings can be lath and plaster, which hides water well and carries it a long way before a stain appears. The place the water shows is often far from the place it starts. Moisture mapping across the ceiling, and thermal imaging where the surface allows it, are how an engineer works back from the stain to the source.

Where the building is old and the layout unclear, ask the team before the visit what can be done without opening anything, and what the opening would involve if it turns out to be needed. Any opening is quoted separately in writing first. Making good, such as walls, ceilings and decorating, is quoted per job by a partner team. No VAT is charged.

Newer buildings and modern fittings

Newer apartments and houses do not escape leaks. They tend to have plastic pipework in concealed runs, push-fit joints, manifolds in cupboards and, in some, underfloor heating loops set into the screed. Leaks in such systems are often slow, and they are hard to hear because plastic is quiet, so pressure testing and thermal imaging do more of the work than listening.

Underfloor heating is worth a separate note. A loop that is losing water shows up as a pressure drop on the circuit, and thermal imaging with the heating running can trace the loop across the room. The visit covers the search. What is done once a leak is found in a loop is a separate, quoted matter, agreed in writing before attending, because the repair depends on how the loop is laid.

The underfloor heating cost page goes into the cost side of this. No VAT is charged.

What the building tells the engineer before they arrive

A few facts about the property shorten a visit more than anything else, and you can usually supply them from memory. The age of the building, roughly. Whether the floors are timber or concrete. Whether the pipework has been replaced, and with what. Whether there is underfloor heating. Where the stop tap and meter are. Which flats or houses share a wall, ceiling or riser. And where in the property the symptom appears and when.

They matter because the first rungs of the search are chosen on them. A concrete floor and plastic pipework point to pressure testing and tracer gas early. A timber floor and copper point to listening and thermal imaging. A shared riser points to a conversation with a neighbour before anything is opened.

• Roughly how old the building is, and whether it has been converted.
• Whether ground floors are timber or concrete.
• Whether the pipework has been replaced, and with what.
• Whether there is underfloor heating.
• Where the stop tap and meter are.
• Which neighbours share a wall, ceiling or riser.

How to check the scope before you book

If you are unsure whether your property falls within a single domestic visit, there is a simple check. Is it a home that one household lives in, or a single flat? Then it is within the scope. Is it a shop, an office, a whole block or a building with many separate units? Then the scope is agreed in writing before attending. Is the leak underground, outside the building, on a different set-up? Then, too, the scope and the figure are agreed in writing first.

The scope checker on this site walks through those questions, and the pricing page shows what sits inside and outside the detection price. Where the answer is not obvious, ask through the enquiry form and the team will say in writing what the visit covers and what it costs. No VAT is charged.

Why this site has no pages for individual areas

It would be easy to publish a page for every part of London, each saying the same few things with a different name at the top. Those pages would help nobody. A leak in one borough is found by the same methods as a leak in the next, the price is the same, and the things that change the search are the age and construction of the building and who else shares its pipework, none of which follows a borough boundary.

A reader looking for help with a leak is better served by one page that says clearly what is covered and how the price works, and by guides that explain the situations people actually face: a stain on a ceiling, a meter that moves, a heating circuit that loses pressure. The what is included page and the cost guides are written for that purpose.

If you want to know whether a particular address is within coverage, ask through the enquiry form. The answer is given in writing, with the scope and the price, before anyone attends. No VAT is charged.

Out of hours and urgent leaks

Coverage is stated as London inside the M25, 24/7, and the detection price is the same whatever time the visit is arranged for. Beyond that, nothing more is promised about arrival times on this site, because they depend on the day and on the work already booked. What the team can do straight away is tell you how to limit the damage.

If water is escaping and you cannot stop it, close the stop tap, switch off the electrics to any affected area if you can reach the consumer unit safely, and move anything valuable out of the way. If you cannot isolate it, say so on the enquiry form. If you smell gas at any point, leave the property and ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. No VAT is charged.