Leak Detection Merivale

Merivale leak detection where cottages and infill share a pipe

Merivale's mix of restored cottages in narrow lanes and 1990s infill shapes most leak calls here. When a section was subdivided, the new home was sometimes connected to the existing supply pipe rather than given its own line from the street, so two households can share one pipe from the boundary. If the shared meter is moving, the first job is working out whose branch is losing water, because each owner maintains their own branch and the common section is a joint responsibility.

We isolate each branch in turn and pressure test it. The cottages usually sit on timber floors with older metal or copper pipe, so we can often get into the subfloor and see the drip, while infill townhouses are more likely to have plastic pipe in walls and under concrete, where acoustic and thermal gear take over. Narrow lanes and shared driveways mean the supply pipe can run under someone else's paving, so we trace its route carefully and dig only where the sound is clearest.

Being flat, Merivale gets frost on calm winter nights, and cottage pipes running along an outside wall or through a cold subfloor are the ones that split. After the repair we hand over an itemised invoice showing where the fault was, which supports a remission application to the council. Lagging those runs before June is a small job that saves a hidden drip later.

Local tip: Before a leak test on a Merivale infill site, let your neighbour know, because we may need to turn their water off briefly to isolate the shared pipe.