East Anglian Leak Detection
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East Anglian Leak Detection
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Fakenham and its villages

Leak detection in Fakenham for central heating leaks

When the boiler gauge keeps dropping in a Fakenham home, gas or oil, water may be escaping from the heating. We find the leaking circuit and mark the point from the surface.

Oil and gas heating tested

Sealant question asked first

Price agreed before you book

Call 07700 102 008 Get a quote

Get a quote

Lines open 8am to 8pm, every day.

Fakenham is a market town on the River Wensum, ringed by farms and villages. Many village homes have no mains gas and heat with an oil boiler, sometimes in an outhouse or on an outside wall, so the heating pipes may cross a yard to reach the house.

In the town, many post-war houses and bungalows have heating pipes set in solid floors. A leak in a sealed heating system barely moves the water meter, so leak detection in Fakenham usually begins with the boiler gauge and a household tired of topping it up.

A farm track leading across ploughed fields to a red brick farmhouse under a wide sky, typical of rural Norfolk Victorian red brick terraced houses on a sloping street, typical of Norwich

Typical jobs in and around Fakenham

Oil boiler in an outhouse, pipes under the yard

The property

A brick and flint village cottage with no mains gas. Its oil boiler sits in an outhouse, and the heating pipes cross under a brick yard to the kitchen.

The problem

The gauge needed topping up every other day. The engineer who serviced the boiler found it sound, and no damp showed anywhere indoors.

How we found it

No sealant had been added. With the radiators valved off, the yard pipes still lost pressure. Once the heating ran hot, the camera showed warmth spreading between two bricks; tracer gas agreed.

The outcome

Just the bricks over the mark came up. We quoted the repair separately, made it while we were there, and the gauge held afterwards.

Supply pipe that went round the side

The property

A 1960s detached house on Fakenham's edge, with a pavement meter and a supply pipe that loops round the side to a stop tap at the back.

The problem

A constant-use letter had come from Anglian Water. Sure the pipe crossed the front lawn, the owner had dug a test hole there and found dry soil and no pipe.

How we found it

The dial still crept with the back door stop tap closed, which ruled out the house itself. The lawn was silent under the ground microphone; beside the side path the hiss peaked, and tracer gas agreed.

The outcome

The test hole was filled in and the path opened over the mark alone. We quoted for the repair on its own, and the owner could show Anglian Water exactly where the leak had been.

From the top-up note to the marked pipe

1

Your top-up record and any sealant

Tell us how often you refill, from what pressure to what, and whether sealant was ever added. Sealant can stop testing working, so we need to know beforehand.

2

Splitting the system into circuits

Radiator and zone valves are closed in groups while we watch the gauge. Whichever circuit keeps losing pressure, upstairs, downstairs or outside, is the one we search.

3

Heat on the camera, then proof

Run hot, heating pipes show on the thermal camera, with a broader glow where water escapes. Our engineer Charlie marks the point only once tracer gas or a pressure test agrees.

Fakenham callers we hear from

Village homes on oil-fired heating

A boiler in an outhouse or on an outside wall sends pipes through walls and under yards. If the boiler has passed its service, those pipes are where we look.

Owners with an Anglian Water letter

Your supply pipe may not run straight from meter to stop tap. Tell us where both sit, and we will listen along every likely line.

Farms and estates that let cottages

A tenant reports cold radiators or forwards a letter. Tell us who pays and who will open up, because a payer living away can be asked to settle up before the visit.

What each method can and cannot do

Thermal imaging

It sees heat, not pipes, so the heating must be running hot. Under thick stone, deep screed or insulation the picture fades, and another method takes over.

Pressure testing

Closing off one circuit and watching its gauge shows whether it holds. That proves which pipework leaks, though not where, so it comes before any search.

Tracer gas

A hydrogen and nitrogen mix fed into the isolated pipe escapes at the fault and rises through concrete, brick or soil to the detector where the camera sees little.

Why the meter can miss a heating leak

Anglian Water supplies Fakenham, and its constant-use letters come from meter readings. A sealed heating system topped up by hand barely moves the meter. An older system fed by a loft tank refills itself, so its leak can turn the meter instead. Your supply pipe, from boundary or meter to house, is usually yours.

Two prices: finding the leak, then fixing it

A policy may treat finding a hidden leak and repairing it differently, so we price them apart: detection agreed before you book, any repair quoted on its own. Check your cover before booking. Our report gives the location, methods, readings and photographs once paid; the insurer alone decides what it pays.

Places we reach around Fakenham

Hempton and Sculthorpe sit on Fakenham's edge, and Great Ryburgh, Walsingham and the Raynhams lie among the farms nearby. Wells-next-the-Sea is north on the coast, with Holt north east and Dereham south east.

Leak detection in North Elmham Leak detection in Wells-next-the-Sea Leak detection in Dereham Leak detection in Holt Leak detection in Reepham Leak detection in Swaffham Leak detection in Norfolk
Flint and red brick cottages with pantile roofs facing a village green, with a round-towered church behind, typical of a Norfolk village

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 Damp patch on an internal wall: leak, condensation or something else? Gas meter capped after a leak: what happens next Hot water leak or cold water leak: how to tell which pipe is leaking

Common questions in Fakenham

Then the pipes or radiators are losing the water, not the boiler. Before you ring, note each refill for a few days and look for damp near any pipe or radiator; both clues help us decide where to search first.

Very little, because the radiators hold water whatever the fuel. What differs is the pipe route: a boiler in an outhouse or on an outside wall sends pipes through a wall or under a yard, and we test that length alone.

No. No find, no fee on home water leaks does not cover central heating. We agree the price of a heating search before you book. It pays for half a day’s testing or a whole day’s, and stays put however quickly the leak turns up.

It does, because sealant can stop testing working. Mention it when you book, with roughly how much went in. A leak half blocked by sealant may lose water slowly or stop and start, which makes it harder to pin down.

Yes, out to the farms and villages, on gas or oil. Have the boiler pressure to hand, and tell us whether the boiler is indoors, in an outhouse or on an outside wall. Lines are open 8am to 8pm, every day.

Fakenham boiler losing pressure?

Call 07700 102 008 with your top-up note and mention any sealant. Visits are usually booked within 24 to 48 hours.

Call 07700 102 008 Get a quote
East Anglian Leak Detection