I have been advised by Scottish Water that they have detected a leak in the mains supply feeding the flats I live in..They say it is after their stop tap and is ,therefore ,the responsibility of the owners ..The supply pipe is below cement and or tarmac. Does anyone know if plumbers have sonar type equipment that can pick up suck leaks to identify where the leak is to avoid costly investigative digging ...Scottish Water suggested that some plumbers would have this equipment . Stuart
I had a leak like this and Severn Trent Water sent a guy out with a "listening rod" (essentially a long big of metal rod) that he put on the floor and listened to. He pinpointed it to within 2 feet. When we dug, he was fairly accurate.
How old are the flats? It's possible that the leak is in some old lead pipe, if thats the case, Scottish Water may subsidise relaying it in plastice as there is a drive to cut down on lead and leaks. I had mine done and it was a
15 meter run from the boundary and the house, it cost £500 all in.
Are you sure the leak is not where the mains joins the actual building?
We live on a clay soil, and a leak in a pipe can get channelled sideways for quite a distance before it becomes audible.
A Severn Trent man (with stick-and-cup) declared that he could hear a water leak on our drive, after their stop tap. His Absolute Declaration was proved wrong when closing the stop tap did not send the noise away.
In spite of being bloody well told that their 4" asbestos main was on the other side of the lane, they still insisted on starting the JCB on our drive (where 'The Man' had put his yellow cross), only to dig their way all across the lane, to the leaking 4" asbestos main.
Well they are ,sort of. I advised them of the problem but they took the pessimistic route saying there could be considerable costs involved ..What they seemed to be saying was that it would be a case of digging at one end and keeping digging until the leajk was found .I was trying to suggest to them ways of locating the likley area of the leak before starting digging ...
But surely if the likely area of the leak can be found then thats where to start digging and therefore costs should be less..?
The factor suggested that quotes would not be able to be obtained as companies would not give one as they would not know the cost involved until they started the work ( and presumably completed it as well)
It was a SW Inspector who came out to see me but turned up a day early when I wasn't up..I would think he just used some form of rod or stethoscope type thingy ...
What...a utility company to do this ...:-)...can't imagine they would be exactly cheap assuming that they would do it in the first place ..
I had a problem like this with South West Water. In fact its just been sorted - not by SWW and its a saga and a half!
None of the plumbers who came here had sonar equipment. They all had a long wooden pole.
Similarly they were all fairly accurate in locating said leak ( even if brent were not so good at digging on X marks the spot and finding it!)
My hubby located a leak under concrete putting his ear to the end of the stale of a pike. he also located the service pipe underground by divining for it with a couple of rods. It does work.
"Andrew Gabriel" wrote | chris French writes: | > Yorkshire Water will fix leaks in domestic supply pipes for free | I thought Prescott got all the water companies to agree to that | as part of the initiative to reduce water loss via leaks?
Scottish Water unfortunately are not a water company accountable to shareholders and public pressure; they are a public sector body who charge more for water than private sector companies in England.
What you need is a company with a leak noise correlator:
This will give the distance of the leak between two points in the pipework, then an acoustic sounder can be used on the ground above to help pinpoint the location of the pipe.
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