East Anglian Leak Detection
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Soham households with a leak letter

Leak detection in Soham after a water company letter

Anglian Water's letter says your meter never rests, but not where the water goes. We trace the leak from above ground, so digging happens in one place.

Stop tap test explained by phone

Leaks under paths and floors

Report you can send on

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Soham lies between Ely and Newmarket and has spread well beyond its old centre, with post-war and later estates around it. Where a home is on a water meter, a leak on the buried pipe often shows up first as a letter about constant use.

Leak detection in Soham is often about what follows that letter: where the leak is, whether it is on your side, and what the figure on the letter tells you. Farms and fen homes out towards Wicken and Isleham bring longer pipes into the picture.

A lone brick house beside a straight drainage channel on flat black fields, typical of the Cambridgeshire fens Pale gault brick Victorian terraced houses with bicycles at the railings, typical of Cambridge

Soham leaks of the kind we trace

Damp side wall and a meter that never rested

The property

A post-war semi on a wide plot, with a pavement meter and a supply running down the side of the house under a concrete path to the kitchen.

The problem

Anglian Water's letter quoted a steady loss. The owner had also seen damp low on the side wall, and the path over the pipe never fully dried.

How we found it

The meter ran on with the kitchen stop tap shut. The outside length would not hold pressure, and the ground microphone caught a hiss by the wall, where moisture readings peaked.

The outcome

After marking and photographing the spot, we carried out the quoted repair there and then. The owner forwarded our report and invoice to Anglian Water.

Warm hall floor in a 1980s house

The property

A 1980s house on an estate near the old centre, on a solid floor, with the hot water cylinder upstairs and its pipe to the kitchen run under the hall.

The problem

The meter crept on with nothing in use, and the owner noticed the dog had taken to lying on one warm patch of hall floor.

How we found it

Turning off the cold feed to the cylinder stopped the meter, pointing at the hot side. While a hot tap ran, the thermal camera picked out a warm fan under the hall, and tracer gas agreed.

The outcome

We marked and photographed one spot under the hall. The owner chose to have their own plumber open the floor there, using our photographs as a guide.

Soham households we hear from

Owners holding an Anglian Water letter

It says water is passing all the time, sometimes in litres an hour. We separate house from garden at your stop tap, then trace the buried length.

Owners with one warm patch of floor

A solid floor that stays warm in one spot with the heating off can mean a hot water pipe leaking beneath. We test the hot side on its own.

Farms and fen homes towards Wicken

A roadside meter and a long pipe to the house mean a longer search. Tell us its rough length and route, and we agree the price first.

What the figure on your letter means

Anglian Water supplies Soham, and its letters may give the loss in litres an hour. Under 30 litres an hour, half a litre a minute, counts as slow, and slow leaks can be harder to hear. Past your boundary or meter, the buried length is normally yours, not the company's.

Three stages to a Soham supply leak

1

Questions on the phone

We ask what the letter says, where the meter is and roughly how many metres of pipe lie between it and your indoor stop tap.

2

The stop tap test

With every tap off we read the meter, then shut the stop tap. If it stops, the leak is indoors; if not, the buried length outside is losing water.

3

Tracing and proving

We follow the outside pipe with a ground microphone and check the loudest point with a second test, then mark the spot and photograph it.

The tests behind a Soham search

Acoustic listening

A ground microphone catches the hiss of water forced out under pressure, even through concrete. Plastic pipe, or a pipe laid deep, can muffle it, and then tracer gas takes over.

Moisture meters

These show damp creeping through a wall base, a floor or a ceiling, and where it is wettest, which tells us what to test first.

Pressure testing

It needs stop taps and valves that still turn, so one length can be shut off. If it loses pressure on the gauge it leaks; if not, we move on.

Around Soham

Fordham and Isleham lie to the east, Wicken to the west on the fen edge. Beyond the town, our leak detection in Cambridgeshire takes in Burwell, Ely, Littleport and Waterbeach, with Newmarket and Mildenhall over the Suffolk border.

Leak detection in Burwell Leak detection in Ely Leak detection in Newmarket Leak detection in Mildenhall Leak detection in Waterbeach Leak detection in Littleport Leak detection in Cambridgeshire
New-build brick and timber-clad townhouses with solar panels and young street trees, typical of a Cambridgeshire estate

Your insurer and the water company are separate

Anglian Water's letter and your insurance policy are separate matters. The water company wants the leak dealt with; an insurer with a trace and access section may want evidence, and its approval first. Once the visit is paid, you get a report with the location, methods, readings and photographs, which can serve both.

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

Boiler overflow pipe dripping outside: what it means Central heating leak sealer: what it can and cannot do Damp patch on an internal wall: leak, condensation or something else? Gas meter capped after a leak: what happens next

Common questions in Soham

Their check shows water is being lost somewhere on your side. Pinning down the exact point on your private pipe is a separate job, and that is ours: traced from the surface, confirmed by a second test and then marked.

It can. 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.

No. A ground microphone can often hear water escaping under concrete, and where it cannot, tracer gas is used instead. Once two methods agree, opening up starts at the marked spot, not along the whole path. Any repair is quoted separately.

That is for Anglian Water to decide under its own leak policy, so ask it. We can give you a written record of where the leak was and how we found it, plus a repair invoice if we fix it.

Lift the small cover and note the numbers. Use no water for an hour, then read it again; any change means water is passing. If the cover is stuck or the chamber flooded, leave it and tell us when you ring.

Leak letter on the mat in Soham?

Ring 07700 102 008 with the letter to hand, any day from 8am to 8pm. Visits are usually booked within 24 to 48 hours.

Call 07700 102 008 Get a quote
East Anglian Leak Detection