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Home / Hertfordshire / Welwyn

Old Welwyn and the Mimram valley

Leak detection in Welwyn and Digswell

Damp on an old Welwyn wall is not always a leak. A meter test tells the two apart, then our engineer Charlie finds the pipe at fault and marks it.

Damp or leak, tested first

Found before floors come up

Repairs guaranteed for 3 months

Call 07700 102 008 Get a quote

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Lines open 8am to 8pm, every day.

Old Welwyn sits in the valley of the River Mimram, just north of the garden city that took its name. It grew up as a stop on the old Great North Road, and many of its houses are far older than the pipes that now run through them.

Old houses in a river valley often carry some damp, and the ground tends to get the blame. A leaking supply or heating pipe usually shows on the water meter or the boiler gauge, so we check both of those before anyone pays to treat a wall.

Timber-framed and brick cottages beside a village pond with a willow tree, typical of a Hertfordshire village 1930s mock Tudor semi-detached houses with hedged front gardens on a frosty morning, typical of a Hertfordshire commuter town

Typical leaks in Welwyn's older houses

Tide mark blamed on the river, fed by a pipe

The property

An old brick cottage in the village centre. Its supply pipe passes under the front wall to a stop tap below the kitchen sink.

The problem

A tide mark kept climbing the sitting room's front wall, even in dry weather. A damp proofing firm had quoted, and the owner wanted a second opinion.

How we found it

Closing the kitchen stop tap did not halt the meter, so the incoming pipe was to blame. Moisture readings peaked low on the front wall, and tracer gas came up through the floor there.

The outcome

Our mark and photographs put the dig in one place. The pipe under the wall was replaced, quoted separately, and the damp treatment was put on hold.

Bedroom ceiling stain below a loft water tank

The property

A 1930s house at the village edge. A cold tank in its loft supplies the hot water cylinder, and the pipes run through deep insulation.

The problem

A brown ring kept spreading across a bedroom ceiling near the chimney breast, in wet weather and dry. The owner had already had the chimney checked.

How we found it

Moisture readings on the ceiling grew stronger towards the tank. In the loft, a thermal image showed cold, wet insulation under the tank's outlet joint, and readings in the joist below agreed.

The outcome

Photographs of the joint and the soaked insulation went into the report. The joint was remade during the visit, quoted separately.

Who rings us from Welwyn

Owners of older village houses

A tide mark on a wall, or a stain below a bathroom squeezed into an old building. We map the damp and test nearby pipes before plaster comes off.

Anyone with a letter about the meter

Affinity Water has written about constant use, yet nothing looks wet. Turn off your stop tap and watch: a meter that then goes still points to a leak inside the house.

Executors and families with an empty house

With the house empty, a turning meter means water is going somewhere. Tell us who can open up. If the payer lives away, we may ask for payment before confirming.

Affinity Water, your meter and an old wall

Affinity Water supplies Welwyn, and its pipe usually ends where your boundary or meter is. Beyond that point the pipe is normally yours. If the company writes about constant use, its meter is still turning overnight, and damp that comes with a moving meter is probably fed by your own pipe, not the ground.

Damp or leak: how we find out

1

Let the meter answer first

Turn everything off and watch the dial. If it creeps, water is escaping. Shut the stop tap and look again: that splits the house from the pipe outside.

2

Map the wet area

Moisture meters show where damp is strongest and which way it spreads. A patch leaning towards a pipe, or rising after a bath, suggests a pipe rather than the ground.

3

Two methods, one mark

One reading is never enough to dig on. Two methods must land on the same spot before it is marked, so any opening in an old floor can stay small.

What we use in Welwyn's older homes

Moisture meters

Old brick and plaster hold water, so we read the whole wall. The pattern shows whether damp starts at the floor, at a pipe or higher up.

Acoustic listening

Pressurised water forcing its way out of a joint hisses constantly. A ground microphone pressed to the floor or path catches it, loudest over the leak.

Tracer gas

Quiet leaks need gas instead. We fill the pipe with a hydrogen and nitrogen mix; our detector then finds the spot above the leak where it seeps out.

Around Welwyn

Digswell lies between Welwyn and the garden city, with Oaklands and Woolmer Green to the north-east. Elsewhere in Hertfordshire we reach Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield to the south, Harpenden, Hertford and Stevenage.

Leak detection in Oaklands Leak detection in Welwyn Garden City Leak detection in Hatfield Leak detection in Stevenage Leak detection in Harpenden Leak detection in Hertford Leak detection in Hertfordshire
White rendered Arts and Crafts cottages behind hedges and wide grass verges, typical of a Hertfordshire garden city

Where the opening up should start

Look in your buildings policy for trace and access cover, and ring the insurer to ask whether it must agree the work first. It may want the leak located before old plaster or boards come away. Our written report gives the location, methods, readings and photographs, and opening up begins at our 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 Welwyn

It could, which is why we test first. Ground damp does not move a water meter, while a leaking supply pipe usually does, and moisture readings add the shape of the patch. Heating leaks show on the boiler gauge instead.

Not to search. Every test works from the surface, and a floor or wall is opened only after two methods agree. The repair then needs an opening at the mark itself, quoted separately, so you decide before anything is touched.

The methods are the same, but the houses differ. Old Welwyn has more period buildings with pipes added over time, while the garden city is mostly planned twentieth century housing. Your house’s age and its floors decide our first test.

Yes, and an empty house makes the meter test clearer, because nothing should be drawing water. Someone must let us in, and every valve, the meter and the stop tap must be reachable. Tell us if the house is not yours.

Only if the damp comes from a leak the promise covers. 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. Full conditions are on our terms page.

Damp wall or meter letter in Welwyn?

Call 07700 102 008. Lines are open 8am to 8pm, every day. It helps to know roughly how old your house is.

Call 07700 102 008 Get a quote
East Anglian Leak Detection