Plumbing
Some leaks announce themselves with water pouring through a ceiling. Others are slow and sneaky: a stain that keeps spreading, a floor that feels soft, or a heating system that needs topping up every week. Tracing a hidden leak is careful, methodical work, and this page explains how it is approached.
Hidden leaks usually show up indirectly. Common clues include:
If you are on a water meter, turn off every tap and appliance that uses water and read the meter. Wait an hour without using any water and read it again. If the figure has moved, water is escaping somewhere between the meter and your taps.
For the heating, watch the boiler pressure gauge over a few days with nobody topping it up. A steady fall suggests a leak on a radiator, valve or hidden pipe. Our guide to a boiler losing pressure explains the other reasons it can drop.
Look under sinks, behind the toilet, around the bath panel and at the base of the hot water cylinder. Many 'hidden' leaks turn out to be a weeping compression joint in a cupboard.
Tracing a leak is about narrowing it down. The engineer first works out which system it is on: the cold mains, the hot water or the central heating. Isolating sections of pipe one at a time and watching whether the loss stops is often the quickest way to do that.
Next comes following the pipe routes. Water runs along pipes and joists before it drips, so a stain on a ceiling is not always directly below the leak. Knowing how pipework is usually run in the house, and where joints are likely to be, helps target the search. Pressure testing a section of pipe confirms whether it is holding.
Sometimes the leak can only be reached by lifting a floorboard or opening a small area of plaster. Where that is needed, Chris will explain why and agree it with you first, keeping any opening as small as practical.
A water leak in a wall is often from a pipe feeding a shower valve, a radiator tail or a joint buried during an old renovation. Under solid concrete floors, heating pipes can corrode over time. In these cases the right fix is sometimes to reroute the pipe rather than dig it out, which avoids breaking up a finished floor. The options will be explained before any work starts.
Heating leaks are common in older systems. Small weeps at radiator valves, corroded radiators and joints under floors all let water out, and the system then draws in fresh water and oxygen, which speeds up corrosion. Fixing the leak protects the boiler too. Our radiator leaking guide covers the most obvious culprits.
You may have seen plug-in water leak detectors or whole-home leak detection systems. Simple sensors sit on the floor and sound an alarm when they get wet, which is useful under a washing machine or near a cylinder. More advanced systems monitor flow on the main supply and can shut the water off if they detect unusual use. They warn you about a leak; they do not find or fix one already hidden in the structure.
If water is actively pouring or dripping, turn off the stop tap straight away and switch off any electrics near the water. Our emergency plumber page explains what to do first, and our burst pipe repair page covers what happens once the pipe is found.
Call or WhatsApp 07429 632804 with photos of any stains and what you have noticed, or use the quote form. Chris will tell you honestly whether and when he can attend. Our services page lists the rest of our plumbing work.
Common questions
Clear answers before you arrange a visit.
It depends on how easy the leak is to narrow down, which system it is on and how much access is needed. We do not publish a set price; Chris will explain the likely approach when you describe the problem.
We work within roughly 30 miles of our Briton Ferry base, including Neath, Port Talbot and Swansea. Ring and ask if you are not sure.
Usually a small sensor that sounds an alarm when it gets wet. It is placed where leaks are likely, such as under a washing machine or beside a cylinder.
A system that watches water flow on the main supply and can alert you, or shut the water off, if it sees use that looks like a leak.
Not always. The aim is to narrow the leak down first. If an opening is needed, it is agreed with you and kept as small as practical.
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