Commercial Leak Detection London

Business Water Leak Detection

If you run a business and the water bill has jumped, the leak is usually costing you more than the survey will. A business water meter records everything that passes it, and a supply pipe losing a litre a minute puts over half a million litres a year through that meter whether anyone uses it or not. Unlike a household, a business is rarely credited for it automatically, so the charge continues until the leak is found and reported.

Business water leak detection starts at the meter rather than at the damp patch. We take a reading, isolate the incoming supply, and establish whether water is being lost on your side of the meter before anything else. That single test separates a genuine leak from a billing or metering error, and it is worth doing before you commission anything larger.

From there the survey follows the building: risers, plant room, ceiling voids, kitchens and washrooms, and any irrigation or plant serving the site. Most business premises can be surveyed without closing, and where the work has to happen outside trading hours we schedule it that way rather than asking you to lose a day.

Commercial Leak Repair After Detection

Detection and repair are separate pieces of work and we price them separately, because the repair cannot be costed honestly until the fault has been seen. Once the leak is located and exposed, you get a figure for the repair before anything is cut, along with what access is needed and how long the affected area will be out of use.

Straightforward failures on accessible pipework, a split joint or a perished flexible connector, are usually dealt with on the same visit. Anything involving a riser, a buried main, a structural floor or specialist plant is quoted first, and where the right answer is a specialist contractor rather than us we will say so. Making good, drying and redecoration are separate trades and are costed separately again.

Commercial vs Domestic Leak Detection

A house might have one cold main, a hot water cylinder and a heating circuit. A commercial building can have several separate systems running across multiple floors, through risers, plant rooms, ceiling voids and under large floor slabs. Working out which system is leaking is often the first challenge, so every commercial survey starts by isolating circuits one at a time to see which is losing pressure or water.

Scale changes the equipment too. Commercial plumbing leak detection often needs correlators for pipe runs of 100 metres or more, thermal cameras that can scan large ceiling areas from floor level, and tracer gas for complex multi-branch systems. And it has to be done around staff, customers, stock and residents, coordinated with whoever manages the building.

Leak Detection for Commercial Properties in London

Tracing Leaks in Multi-Occupancy Buildings

Water runs along joists, down service voids and through gaps around pipes, so a stain on a shop ceiling or in a ground floor flat can be several metres from the actual leak, and sometimes two floors up. The usual candidates are a bathroom or kitchen in the unit above, a shared cold water riser, a heating flow and return serving several flats, or a soil and waste stack.

We work outwards from the damage, testing each possible source in turn. That usually means access to neighbouring units, so the building manager or managing agent arranging entry in advance makes the biggest single difference to how quickly the leak is found. Where a flat above cannot be entered, we can often still narrow the source down from the communal areas and state in the report what could not be checked.

If water is coming through a ceiling right now, our guide to water coming through the ceiling: the first hour covers what to do before we arrive.

Out-of-Hours Access and Minimising Disruption

We plan each visit with your facilities or building manager around the times the building is quietest. Offices are often best surveyed in the evening or at the weekend, shops before opening or after closing, and restaurants between services or after the kitchen shuts.

The detection methods themselves are non-invasive. Thermal imaging scans surfaces without contact, acoustic detection listens through floors and walls, and tracer gas testing finds leaks without excavation. In most cases we can complete a commercial survey without moving furniture, lifting floor coverings or removing more than the odd ceiling tile. Some tests do need a water or heating supply shut off for a short time, and we agree that with you beforehand.

How a Commercial Leak Detection Survey Works

Large-Scale Detection Methods

Alongside our standard thermal imaging cameras and acoustic listening devices, commercial work uses equipment built for large buildings and long pipe runs.

Each method has limits. Acoustic equipment struggles next to running plant, traffic or busy kitchens, which is another reason to survey out of hours. Thermal imaging needs a temperature difference and is less useful on cold mains under thick slabs. Tracer gas needs the section under test to be drained and isolated. Our guide to leak detection equipment explains how the methods compare.

Reporting for Facilities Managers and Insurers

A facilities manager needs more than "leak found". Our commercial reports set out the systems tested and the readings taken, the equipment used, the areas investigated and any that could not be accessed, the leak position with photographs and thermal images, the likely cause and the recommended repair. Where drawings are provided, the position is described against them so a contractor can find it without a second visit.

The same report supports an insurance claim, where insurers and loss adjusters will want to see that the source has been properly identified. Requirements vary, so check with your broker or claims handler. Our escape of water claim evidence checklist lists what to gather alongside the report, and the trace and access page explains how the survey fits into a buildings claim.

If your insurer or loss adjuster wants to speak to us, we will liaise with them directly. Our insurance claims guide covers the claims process in more detail.

Emergency Commercial Response

A sudden commercial leak can escalate quickly: water in a ceiling void can reach several floors, and a burst in a plant room can flood a basement. Our emergency leak detection service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and our engineers carry the commercial detection equipment with them. Isolate the affected supply if you can safely do so, then call 020 3912 0200.

Managing Agents and Property Portfolios

For managing agents, facilities managers and landlords with more than one building, an account arrangement gives you one number to call, agreed pricing for routine surveys and the same report format across every property. We can also carry out planned surveys of plant rooms, risers and flat roofs.

Commercial Leak Detection Pricing

The price depends on the size of the building, how many systems need testing, how many units or floors are involved, access to risers and plant rooms, and whether the work is booked out of hours or as an emergency. Our published prices for commercial work are:

All prices include the survey, the written report and the thermal imaging evidence, and you receive a fixed quotation before we start. The repair is priced separately once we know what has failed; hidden water leak repair costs in London gives typical figures. See our pricing page for all our services.

Commercial Leak Detection FAQs