A water leak at business premises: making safe and keeping going
With a water leak at business premises, the first jobs are to stop the water, keep people safe and protect what you can. Where water is dripping from a ceiling tile or pooling on the shop floor, close the main stop tap. A bigger site may have more than one, so it helps to know in advance where each one is and which part of the building it controls.
Keep staff and customers away from water near sockets, lights or the fuse board, and only switch the power off at the board if you can reach it on dry ground. Lift stock, files and equipment out of the wet, and take photographs before you clear up, because your insurer may want to see the damage. If you can smell gas, ring the gas emergency service first.
Trading can often carry on. When the leak is on one branch, say a staff kitchen or a toilet block, shutting the valve on that branch stops the water there while the rest of the building keeps its supply. A leak that only shows up on the meter or the bill, with nothing wet in sight, is a reason to take readings rather than to close the doors.
Reading the meter and any sub-meters
The meter tells you whether water is moving while nobody is using any. Note the reading as the last person locks up, then again before the first person arrives. A change overnight means either something is still drawing water or there is a leak. On business sites the meter often sits in a chamber in the car park, the verge or the pavement, sometimes a fair walk from the building.
Before you trust an overnight figure, switch off or allow for anything that uses water on its own. Automatic urinal flushes, water softeners, ice machines and timed watering in a yard or garden can all turn a meter with the doors locked. So can a toilet cistern or a storage tank that never stops refilling.
Sub-meters break the picture down by building, unit or floor. Read every sub-meter at the same time as the main meter, then read them all again later. Add up how far the sub-meters have moved and compare that total with how far the main meter moved. If the main meter has counted clearly more, the difference is going somewhere none of them measures, such as the pipe from the main meter to the first sub-meter, or a branch with no meter of its own.
Landlord, tenant or managing agent?
Who pays to find and mend the leak usually depends on the lease and on which pipe has failed. In a building split into units, the pipework in shared parts is often the landlord's or the management company's to look after, while a unit's own pipes may fall to the tenant. Read the repairing clauses in the lease, or ask your agent, before anybody opens up.
Let the landlord or agent know in writing as soon as you suspect a leak, and agree who will book the survey and who will settle the bill. When you ring us, mention whether the building belongs to someone else, and whether another party is covering the cost. Get the owner's agreement before any opening up, since the marked spot may be in their floor, wall or yard.
Shared buildings raise one more question: is the water yours at all? A stain on your ceiling may start in the flat or office upstairs, and a supply pipe may cross under the unit next door. If any of your pipework runs into or beneath a neighbouring property, we need to hear about it at the booking stage, so that access to it can be sorted out ahead of the day.
Booking a survey for a business
Booking for a business works much as it does for a home, with a few differences in the terms. Before the visit, we settle a price with you by phone or email. That figure buys a slot on site of half a day or a full day. Card details hold the date. Firms booking for their premises may be asked to pay in advance, before we confirm, and we take payment by card or by bank transfer, not in cash or by cheque.
Cancelling a business booking needs at least one working day's notice. No find, no fee on home water leaks does not apply to businesses, so a business visit is paid for at the agreed price, whether or not the leak is found. Visits are usually booked within 24 to 48 hours, and our lines are open 8am to 8pm, every day.
Think about the disruption before the day. Testing involves closing stop taps and valves for spells, so let us know when the site can manage without water, and make sure meters, valves, ceilings and yards are clear to reach. We need parking within 100 m at no charge; for a town centre shop, tell us where that is.
Supply pipes under yards and car parks
Plenty of business sites take their water through a long buried pipe from a meter at the road, laid under tarmac, concrete or block paving. Nobody on site may know its route, and it may have been laid long before the present occupiers moved in. A leak on it often never shows at the surface, because the water can soak away into the ground beneath a hard yard.
A ground microphone, moved along the route a step at a time, picks up the noise a pressurised leak makes, even through tarmac or concrete. Tracer gas, a hydrogen and nitrogen mix, suits plastic pipe and quiet leaks: the mix seeps out through the split or failed joint and is sensed from the yard surface above. The confirmed point is marked and photographed, so cutting can start at one spot in the yard or car park instead of along the whole run.
Help the search by passing on what you know: where the pipe enters the building, any old site drawings, earlier repairs and roughly how long the run is. The pipe from the meter or boundary into your building is normally the property's responsibility. In England a business can buy its water from a retailer instead of the regional company, so a leak warning may come from the retailer. Old pipe can give way at other weak points once it is pressure tested or repaired, and those are quoted separately.
The report for your insurer or landlord
Once the leak is found and confirmed, our written report gives the location, methods, readings and photographs. It is sent when the visit has been paid for. A landlord or agent who was never on site can follow the evidence to the spot, which helps them decide who arranges the repair and when.
Work out which policy applies before you book. On a rented building it may be the landlord's buildings policy and not yours, and certain insurers want a say before work goes ahead. If the policy includes trace and access, the report is written so it can go in with the claim. The insurer alone rules on whether to pay out.
If your water company or retailer has a leak policy, ask what they will want to see once the pipe is mended. Some offer an allowance for water lost from a customer's own pipe, and they may ask for the report and proof of payment. Their rules differ, so check with them before counting on anything.