East Anglian Leak Detection
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Garden city homes, old and new

Leak detection in Letchworth Garden City

Many of Letchworth's early cottages were built simply and cheaply, and central heating came decades later, its pipes run wherever they fitted. We find leaks in that added pipework.

Added heating pipework traced

Rear bathrooms tested fitting by fitting

Repairs quoted separately

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Lines open 8am to 8pm, every day.

Laid out in the early twentieth century, Letchworth was the first garden city, with houses set among gardens and trees. Two cottage exhibitions in its first years left a stock of homes built to test cheap new ways of building, some of them quite unlike an ordinary house.

In homes this old, the plumbing has usually been added to many times: heating run under floors or behind boxing, bathrooms moved or built out at the back. Any leak detection in Letchworth Garden City has to begin with how your own house was put together.

White rendered Arts and Crafts cottages behind hedges and wide grass verges, typical of a Hertfordshire garden city Timber-framed and brick cottages beside a village pond with a willow tree, typical of a Hertfordshire village

What typical Letchworth jobs look like

Damp kitchen wall beside a lean-to bathroom

The property

An early garden city cottage with a bathroom in a lean-to at the back, on a concrete floor, sharing a wall with the kitchen.

The problem

Paint bubbled low on the kitchen side of that wall. The meter stood still with everything off, but the patch grew darker after every bath.

How we found it

Moisture readings peaked at the plughole end of the bath. Filling it changed nothing, but draining it did, and a thermal image showed the warm water tracking from the waste pipe into the wall.

The outcome

We marked and photographed the spot by the waste. The repair, quoted separately, needed only the bath panel removed, and the wall was left to dry out.

Falling pressure and leak sealer, pipes behind boxing

The property

An early cottage with solid floors and radiators added decades later. Their pipes run round the rooms at floor level, behind wooden boxing.

The problem

The boiler gauge fell to nothing every couple of days. Leak sealer had not helped, so the owner's heating engineer flushed it out before we came.

How we found it

Isolating each circuit showed the ground floor one dropping. Once the radiators were hot, the camera followed the pipes behind the boxing to a warm patch in one corner, where tracer gas seeped out.

The outcome

We marked and photographed the corner. One length of boxing came away so we could repair the pipe, quoted separately, and the owner filed our report for the insurer.

Letchworth homes we are asked to help

Owners of early cottages losing pressure

Central heating came decades after these cottages, its pipes hidden behind boxing or under a solid floor. Mention any leak sealer and how fast the pressure falls.

Homes with a rear lean-to bathroom

A ground floor bathroom in a rear extension or lean-to can leak into the kitchen wall beside it rather than a ceiling. We map the damp and test each fitting.

Owners told to get a report

Before any floor comes up, your insurer may want the leak's position in writing. Ring them first to ask whether they must approve the work, then book.

Your meter, your pipe and Affinity Water's

Affinity Water supplies Letchworth Garden City. A letter from it about constant use means the meter has kept moving when it should rest, which usually points past the boundary or meter to pipework you own. Older homes may still have their first supply pipe, so tell us roughly how old the house is.

Working out how the house was built

1

How old, and what is underfoot?

Tell us roughly when the house was built, what the floors are made of and where the bathroom sits. Those answers shape the whole visit.

2

Which pipe is losing water?

The meter shows supply and hot water losses, the boiler gauge shows heating losses, and closing valves in turn narrows either one down to a single pipe.

3

Where along it?

Next we follow the faulty pipe until one point stands out, using heat, sound or gas to suit it, then check that point a second way before marking it.

Methods that suit early garden city homes

Moisture meters

Old solid walls and floors soak up water and spread it. Readings across the area show where it is strongest, pointing back to whatever feeds it.

Thermal imaging

Warm heating pipes behind boxing or under a solid floor show as lines on the camera. Where water escapes, the warmth spreads, showing us where to look closer.

Tracer gas

We isolate the pipe and fill it with a hydrogen and nitrogen mix. Escaping at the leak, it rises through grout, cracks or concrete to our detector.

Towns and villages beside Letchworth

Baldock is next door to the east, Hitchin lies to the south-west and Stevenage to the south. Over the Bedfordshire border we also work in Arlesey, Stotfold and Henlow, a short way to the north.

Leak detection in Baldock Leak detection in Arlesey Leak detection in Stotfold Leak detection in Hitchin Leak detection in Henlow Leak detection in Stevenage Leak detection in Hertfordshire
1930s mock Tudor semi-detached houses with hedged front gardens on a frosty morning, typical of a Hertfordshire commuter town

If your insurer has its own contractor

Some insurers send their own contractor and some let you choose, so call yours before booking and ask whether it must approve the work. Our written report gives the location, methods, readings and photographs, and is sent once the visit is paid. A leak is only proven once it is opened up at the mark.

Leaks we trace

Water leak detection Leaking water main Central heating leak detection Leaking underfloor heating Shower leak detection Underground water leak detection Gas pipe leak detection Thermal imaging leak detection Acoustic water leak detection Tracer gas leak detection Commercial leak detection Trace and access leak detection Leak detection for landlords Water leak repair

Useful guides

Central heating leak sealer: what it can and cannot do How to choose a leak detection company: questions worth asking Microbore pipe leaks: finding a leak in thin heating pipes No find, no fee on home water leaks: what our terms cover and what they do not

Common questions in Letchworth Garden City

Because age tells us how the pipes were likely added. An early cottage may have heating under a solid floor and a bathroom out at the back, while a later home may have pipes in screed. It decides which tests come first.

For a heating leak, yes, at some point. Thermal imaging needs warm radiators, so you may be asked to have the heating on when we arrive. Supply pipe leaks do not need it, as we find those by sound and tracer gas.

It can, where pipes cross between homes or a supply is shared. First, close your stop tap and see whether the meter stops. If pipework runs to or under next door, tell us when you book so access can be arranged.

Keep the house available for the whole half day or full day your price covers. Someone needs to let us in and point out where the meter, stop tap and valves are. Finishing early does not reduce what you pay.

It can, if the leak qualifies. No find, no fee on home water leaks covers one leak on a water main up to 30 m or the hot and cold supply pipes, at least half a litre a minute, where we also carry out the access and repair. It does not cover central heating, shared mains, businesses or leaks that come and go.

Leak in an older Letchworth home?

Call 07700 102 008 and tell us when the house was built. Visits are usually booked within 24 to 48 hours.

Call 07700 102 008 Get a quote
East Anglian Leak Detection