Emergency Leak Detection Across London: Areas We Cover

Where emergency leak detection is available

The service covers all of London. The coverage is stated as London inside the M25, 24/7, and it does not change with the postcode, the time of night or the type of property. A leak in a basement flat and a leak in a detached house are booked in the same way, at the same rates, and the engineer is sent with the equipment that the description points to.

This site does not have a page for each district, and that is deliberate. A page for every neighbourhood would repeat the same service under different names, and it would suggest that the service changes from one street to the next when it does not. What does change from place to place is the building: its age, how it was converted, who owns the pipes in it. That is the useful thing to explain, and it is what the rest of this page does.

The emergency rate is from £220 an hour, with the exact rate stated when you book. It is a fixed hourly rate quoted before we attend and never exceeded, and booking has no call-out fee and no travel charge: the rate starts when work starts. No VAT is charged. The pricing page sets out every rate, and nothing in the rate is adjusted for where in London you are.

Why leaks in London behave the way they do

London is a city of old buildings that have been altered many times. A house may have a Victorian structure, a 1930s extension, a 1980s bathroom and a loft conversion from last year, all with plumbing from different decades joined together. That mixture is the main reason a leak here is rarely a simple one. The pipe that is failing is often not the one that was fitted most recently, and it is often not visible.

Four things recur in the leaks that Londoners ask about: old supply pipework that is wearing out, flats where several households depend on shared pipes, ground that moves with the seasons, and a supply boundary that makes it unclear who owns the part of the pipe that is leaking. Each is explained below. None of them means that your home has a leak. They are reasons why, when one appears, the search takes the shape it does.

Old supply pipes: lead, iron and early copper

Many older London homes still have some of their original supply pipework. Lead was commonly used for supply pipes until the middle of the twentieth century, and some lead remains in older properties, usually where the supply enters the building. Cast and galvanised iron were used for mains and for internal pipes in older buildings. Copper, which replaced them, lasts a long time but can pit or corrode in certain waters and conditions, and early soldered joints can fail where they have been disturbed.

What this means for a leak visit is practical. Old pipe tends to fail in more than one place over time, so the first leak found is not always the last. Joints between old and new materials are common failure points. And a corroded pipe may not tolerate being cut into, which changes whether a repair is a small fix or a section replaced and quoted. If the pipe is in poor condition generally, the engineer will say so, and say what that implies for the repair.

Lead deserves a specific word. If you know or suspect that part of your supply pipe is lead, a leak repair is a good moment to mention it, because the engineer can note where it is. Replacing it is a separate decision, and the water supplier can advise on the part that is theirs. This service finds and repairs leaks. It is not a water quality service.

Flats, conversions and shared risers

A great deal of London housing is flats, and a great many of those are conversions of larger houses. Conversion often means that pipes were extended, re-routed and boxed in by different people at different times. A single supply may feed more than one flat. A riser, which is the vertical pipe that carries water up through the building, may pass through your kitchen cupboard on its way to someone else's bathroom. A stop tap that isolates your flat may also isolate a neighbour's.

This has two effects on a leak. First, the water you see may not be yours. It can come from the flat above, from a communal pipe, or from a riser that serves several homes. Second, isolating the leak can be slower, because the valve that matters may be in a shared cupboard or a meter room that someone else holds the key to. Telling the engineer about the building when you book, and who has access, saves time.

In larger blocks, there may be a managing agent or a freeholder who must be told. A written finding that says where the leak was and how it was confirmed is what moves that conversation forward. The who to call for a water leak guide separates the leak engineer from the landlord, the managing agent and the water supplier.

Clay soil and ground movement

Much of London sits on clay. Clay shrinks as it dries and swells as it takes up water, and over a dry summer followed by a wet autumn the ground around a building moves by small amounts. Pipes that are buried, and pipes that run through walls and floors that move with the building, feel that movement. Joints loosen, pipes crack at points where they are rigidly held, and old fittings that coped for decades give way.

Trees add to the effect. Their roots draw water from clay and make it shrink further, and roots can also find and invade joints in pipes that carry water. This is one reason a leak on a buried supply pipe is often found a little way from the building, in a garden or under a path, and it is why that work is quoted, not improvised: excavating a path or a driveway is a larger decision than tightening a fitting.

None of this means every leak is caused by the ground. Most leaks in homes are inside the building, at a fitting, a hose, a joint or a seal. But where a leak is on a buried pipe, the type of ground is part of the reason, and an engineer working in London expects it.

Who owns the pipe: the water supplier boundary

Most of London is supplied with water by Thames Water, and a few outer areas are served by neighbouring water companies. Your water bill tells you which company supplies you. The practical question in a leak is not which company it is, but where the company's pipe ends and yours begins.

In general, the supplier is responsible for the main in the road and for the pipe that connects it to the edge of your property. From the boundary to the building, the supply pipe is usually the responsibility of the property owner, even where it runs under a path or a neighbouring strip. Inside the building, the pipes, taps and appliances are the owner's, or, in a flat, the leaseholder's or landlord's, depending on the lease or tenancy. A shared riser belongs to the building. These are general rules, and the position in a particular property depends on its title, lease and tenancy.

The reason this matters on a leak visit is that who pays and who repairs depend on where the fault is. A leak that proves to be a neighbour's, a communal riser's or the water company's main is a located leak, and the hours spent finding it are charged at the quoted rate. The written finding is what lets you take it to the right party.

How the type of home changes the visit

The service is the same everywhere, but the visit is not. Different homes leak in different ways, and the engineer thinks about the building before choosing a method. The table below shows the usual patterns, and it is a guide, not a rule.

What is covered, and what is not

Covered: water leaks on water pipework, fittings, valves, appliance connections and heating pipework, in homes and flats across London, at any time, including nights, weekends and bank holidays. Covered: finding the source, stopping the leak, small fixes on the spot, written quotes for larger repairs, and a partner team for making good. Repair work runs at the same hourly rate as detection, with parts and materials costed on top and agreed before we start.

Not covered: anything that is not a water leak. Gas, boiler faults, electrical faults, blocked drains and roof or gutter problems belong to other trades. If you can smell gas, leave the building and ring the National Gas Emergency Service. This service does not promise an arrival time, and it does not promise to find a leak that will not show itself, which is why the no find, no fee page states exactly when the detection fee is waived and when it is not.

Also not covered, and worth saying plainly: advice on who is legally responsible for a particular leak, or on what an insurance policy will pay. The written finding gives you facts. What to do with them is a matter for your landlord, your managing agent, your insurer or a solicitor.

Booking from anywhere in London

To book, use the enquiry form on the contact page and describe what is happening. Say what type of building it is, whether you have stopped the water, and whether anything electrical is wet. The rate is quoted before anyone attends.

If you are not sure whether the leak is an emergency, the emergency checker asks four short questions, and the can a water leak wait until morning guide sets out the night-time decision. The how it works page follows a call from the first enquiry to the written findings, and the emergency leak detection page explains each method and where it fails.