Leak Detection Price in London: What the Visit Costs

The price, and what it is the price of

The figure is £480 for the visit, and it is the price of one thing: finding where the water is escaping and telling you in writing what was found. It is stated before anyone attends, and it is the amount on the invoice for the detection work. No VAT is charged.

The sentence that defines it is this one: one fixed price of £480, every method included, agreed before we attend. Every word of it is doing a job. "One" means there is a single figure rather than a rate card. The wording about methods means the engineer is not choosing between a lighter method and a more thorough one on your behalf and billing you for the escalation. "Agreed before we attend" means you see the figure first and nothing about it is worked out on the doorstep.

Most leak detection is sold the other way round. A rate is quoted for a unit of time, the engineer arrives, and the final bill depends on how long the search takes and which instruments came out of the van. That model is not dishonest, but it hands you the risk of a slow search. Here the risk of a slow search sits with the team, because the price does not change with it.

What is in the price and what is quoted separately

This is the one table on the page that matters. The left column is what the detection price pays for. The right column is work that can follow a detection visit and is never bundled into it, with when each item arises. Anything in the right column is quoted in writing before it starts, so that you can say no. No VAT is charged.

Why there is no clock running on this page

Readers used to other leak detection sites will look for a rate per unit of time and not find one. That is deliberate. A time-based figure for finding a leak invites a comparison that does not hold: two firms can quote the same rate and one finishes in the time the other takes to unpack. A rate tells you what the engineer earns per unit of time and nothing about what your leak will cost.

No time-based figure appears anywhere on this site, either for finding a leak or for mending one. If your leak is found and you want it repaired, repair work is quoted separately in writing before it starts, as one fixed price with labour, parts and materials set out. The repair quote is never added to the detection price, and it is never a rate that runs while the work is done. No VAT is charged.

The difference matters at the point where a search gets difficult. Under a metered model, a leak that hides well is the engineer's opportunity, whatever anyone intends, because every extra hour is billed. Under the price stated here, a leak that hides well is the engineer's problem. The incentive runs towards the quickest honest answer, and that is the answer you want.

Worked examples: what the visit costs and what follows

These are illustrations, written as scope rather than as hours, because the number of hours is exactly what the price removes from your side of the arrangement. None of them is a real job. Each shows the detection price and then what, if anything, is quoted afterwards. No VAT is charged.

First, a ceiling stain in a first floor flat, where the bathroom of the flat above is the obvious suspect but the owners above say theirs is dry. The visit covers listening along the supply pipes, thermal imaging of the ceiling, and moisture mapping to see where the water is travelling. The source turns out to be a slow weep from a compression joint behind the bath panel in your own flat. The detection price is £480. A small fix, such as tightening a fitting or changing a small part, can be done on the spot once the leak is found, and is quoted first, so tightening the joint may be done on the spot, quoted first. Nothing else is added.

Second, a damp patch on a ground floor that keeps coming back, with a water meter that creeps even when every tap is off. The visit uses pressure testing to confirm which circuit is losing water, then tracer gas on the circuit that fails, then moisture mapping to pin the position. The leak is under a screed floor. The detection price is again £480, including the gas and the cylinder. What follows is quoted separately: opening the floor at the one point the readings identify, repairing the pipe, and making good. For a longer repair the leak is stopped first, and the repair is quoted in writing after that.

Third, a flat where the water is coming through the ceiling from the flat above. The visit establishes, with readings you can show, that the source is in the neighbour's waste connection and not in your property. The leak has been located, so the detection price is charged. The repair is not yours to commission, and the written report is the document you give your landlord, managing agent or insurer. The no find, no fee page explains why a leak that proves to be elsewhere is a located leak: read the three outcomes.

What changes the price and what does not

The detection price does not change with the number of methods used, with the time the search takes, with which room the leak turns out to be in, or with whether the answer is a loose fitting or a failed pipe. It does not change with tracer gas being needed. That is the point of stating it before the visit.

What does change the total you end up paying is what you decide to do afterwards, and those decisions are yours and are priced separately. Three things move the total: whether the leak needs a repair beyond a small fix, whether a structure has to be opened to reach it, and whether the damage needs making good. Each is quoted on its own terms, and none is compulsory.

The scope behind the price is also fixed. It is a single domestic property in London. A commercial building, a large block with many units, or underground work that needs a different set-up is not covered by the detection price, and for those the team agrees the scope and the figure with you in writing before attending. That is a statement of where the price stops, not a surcharge: it is the same honest boundary the table above draws. No VAT is charged.

• The detection price does not change with the methods used, the time taken or the position of the leak.
• A repair beyond a small fix is a separate written quote, with parts agreed first.
• Opening a structure and making good are separate, quoted per job.
• A commercial or multi-unit building, or underground work, is scoped and agreed in writing first.

How to read any quote against this one

If you are comparing this with another firm's quote, the useful exercise is not to compare headline figures. It is to ask the same five questions of both, because a lower headline with a long list of extras can cost more than a higher one that is complete. The quote checklist puts them in a form you can tick through. The short version follows.

Is the figure for the visit or for a unit of time, and if it is a unit of time, how many units has the firm said the search will take? Is tracer gas inside the figure or billed on top? Is the written report inside the figure? Does the quote say what happens if the leak turns out not to be in your property, or not to exist? And what is the firm's stated position on opening up and making good?

A published price is a statement about how the firm works, and the market is not uniform. When the public pages of London leak detection firms are read, most state no price at all and ask you to ring for a quote, and where a rate is published it is generally a time-based one with extras listed separately. The published prices compared page sets that out with sources. Neither approach is wrong. The question is whether the figure you are looking at is the whole of what you will be asked to pay for the detection stage. No VAT is charged.

What the price does not tell you

A price states what you pay. It does not state what the search will find. A visit can end with a leak located in your own pipework, a leak located in somebody else's, a measured conclusion that no leak exists, or, rarely, a live leak that cannot be located despite every method. Each of those outcomes has a stated consequence for the fee, and they are set out on the no find, no fee page. The price you read here is the starting point, and that page is how it behaves when the answer is awkward.

It also does not tell you how large the repair will be. A leak can be a ten minute fix or a day's work with the floor up. Nobody can say which from a damp patch, and a firm that does tell you before it has looked is guessing. The honest sequence is the one this site follows: find it, report it, then quote the repair against what was found.

And the price does not say that the result will please you. If the survey shows the pressure loss is an expansion vessel that needs recharging, or the damp is condensation, the visit has still done its work: it has told you what is true. No VAT is charged.

Where the price applies

The detection price applies to a single domestic property in London, and the coverage is London inside the M25, 24/7. The areas page explains how that coverage is stated and what changes between a flat, a terrace and a mansion block, without turning into a list of places.

There is no separate price by borough, by size of home, or by floor. A one-bedroom flat and a five-bedroom house are priced the same for the detection visit, because the work is defined by finding the leak and not by the floor area. The size and price page goes into where size does and does not matter. No VAT is charged.

If your property is not a single domestic home, say so when you ask for a visit. It changes the scope and not the honesty of the answer: the team will state in writing what the visit covers and what it costs before attending.

How to book and what to have ready

You book through the enquiry form on this site. Tell the team what you can see, where, since when, and whether the water is still escaping. If you can, read your water meter, wait twenty minutes with every tap off, and read it again. A meter that has moved is the strongest single piece of evidence that a leak is live and is worth passing on.

Before the visit, you will have the price and the scope in writing. On the day, the engineer works through the methods the leak needs, and at the end you get the written report. If a repair is wanted, the quote follows in writing and you decide. The how it works page follows the visit step by step.

If water is escaping now and you cannot contain it, close the stop tap first and ring the enquiry route afterwards. 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.