Emergency Leak Detection Price: Every Hourly Rate Explained

How leak detection is charged

A leak is a search problem. The stain on your ceiling tells you where the water arrives, not where it starts, and nobody can read the length of the search from the outside of a building. That is why the work is charged as a rate multiplied by the time spent, and why the rate is the part you are told first.

The rate you agree on the phone is a fixed hourly rate quoted before we attend and never exceeded. It does not rise because the leak turned out to be awkward, large or slow to find, and it does not rise because the visit ran late into the night. The one figure you cannot know in advance is the number of hours, and this page does not pretend otherwise: every total shown below is a worked example, not a quote. No VAT is charged.

Read the page in the order it is written and you will have the whole structure: the rates, what is inside the hours, the single item charged on top, what happens when the leak is found, who prices the repair, and where the no find, no fee boundary sits. If anything on your own bill does not match it, that is worth a question.

The emergency rate

The emergency rate is from £220 an hour. It is for attendance to a leak that is escaping now and has not been contained, and it applies on any day: nights, weekends and bank holidays are inside it. The words from and stated when you book belong together. The figure shown is the starting point, and when you ring you are told the exact rate that applies to your booking before anyone sets out. No VAT is charged.

It leads this page because most people read a price page while water is still on the floor and want the worst case first. If you have closed the stop tap and the water has stopped, your situation is calmer than an emergency, and the standard rate in the next section may be the one that fits. Say so when you ring. Honest triage is part of the service: a leak that can wait until morning is better dealt with in daylight, and the page on whether a water leak can wait until morning helps you decide.

What the emergency rate buys is speed of attendance to an active leak and the full range of detection methods on arrival. It does not buy a different kind of finding. The same engineer, the same equipment and the same written report sit behind every rate here.

Every rate in words

Different leaks need different methods, and a few methods take more specialist work than others. The table sets each rate beside the kind of job it applies to. If a visit changes from one kind of work to another, the time is charged at the rate for the work being done, and you are told when the change happens rather than after. No VAT is charged.

What sits inside the hours

The hours are the time spent finding the leak, and every tool used to find it is inside them. Acoustic listening, thermal imaging, moisture meters, an endoscope, pressure testing and dye testing do not appear as lines on a bill. You are paying for the engineer’s time, not for the camera.

No call-out fee and no travel charge: the rate starts when work starts. In practice that makes the clock easy to check: ask when work started and when it stopped. The journey to you and the minutes spent arriving are not part of it.

The written report is also inside the hours. When your insurer, your landlord or a managing agent needs a record of what was found and how, writing it up is part of the job and is not a second invoice. The trace and access rate is the one that comes with an insurer-ready written report, since opening up a structure is the work an insurer is most likely to ask about. No VAT is charged.

• Listening equipment, thermal imaging, moisture meters and the endoscope are used within the hours.
• Pressure testing and dye testing are used within the hours.
• The written report is part of the work and is not charged separately.
• The tracer gas cylinder is the single item charged on top of the rate, once, and only when gas is used.

Tracer gas and the cylinder

Tracer gas is a harmless, very light gas mixture that is pushed into a pipe that has been emptied. It leaks out where the pipe is damaged and a sensitive detector picks it up above the floor or wall. It suits the leak that makes no sound and leaves no warm patch, which describes many slow leaks under screed and behind tiles. The work is £160 an hour. No VAT is charged.

The gas comes in a cylinder, and the cylinder is charged once at £80 on top of the hourly rate, and only if gas is actually used. If listening finds the leak before the gas is needed, there is no cylinder to pay for. If gas is used, the cylinder is charged one time however long the search then takes. That is why the tracer gas total further down carries the cylinder at both ends of its range. No VAT is charged.

Tracer gas is not always the right first move. A method that finds the leak in one pass can be cheaper in hours than three methods that each reveal part of the picture, and sometimes the sensible plan is to listen first and keep the gas in reserve. The team says which method it intends to use and why, so you can ask about the cylinder before the gas goes in.

Typical totals worked out

A total is a rate multiplied by hours. The figures below are that arithmetic done for four common jobs. They are examples, not quotes: an easy leak falls under them, an awkward one goes over them, and you are told if the hours are heading toward the top of a range or past it. No VAT is charged.

A stain in one or two rooms usually takes 2 hours at £160 an hour, which gives £320. A whole house, where the source is not obvious and several floors need checking, usually takes 3 to 4 hours, which gives £480 to £640. A supply pipe search runs at £180 an hour, typically 2 to 3 hours, which gives £360 to £540. And a tracer gas search, with its cylinder, typically takes 2 to 4 hours, which gives £400 to £720.

Emergency attendance has no typed total because the exact rate is stated at booking. The sum has the same shape: the stated rate multiplied by the hours the job takes. For a rough sense of scale, take the hours of the nearest example above and apply the rate you were given.

After the leak is found: stop, fix, quote

Finding a leak and repairing it are different jobs, and the price follows that split. Repair work runs at the same hourly rate as detection, with parts and materials costed on top and agreed before we start. A visit that finds and repairs is not moved onto a dearer scale half way through. No VAT is charged.

A small fix, such as tightening a fitting or changing a small part, is done on the spot once the leak is found. That covers the common cases: a loose compression fitting, a perished washer, a small part that can be swapped without opening a wall. The part is added at its cost and agreed before work starts, and the time is at the rate you were told. For a longer repair the leak is stopped first, and the repair is quoted in writing after that. The reason is that stopping water is urgent and happens now, while a repair that means lifting a floor or opening a wall is your decision, and it deserves a written quote you can read, keep and show to an insurer. The service itself is described on the emergency leak repair page, and the arithmetic of a repair quote is taken apart in how a leak repair quote works.

Making good, such as walls, ceilings and decorating, is quoted per job by a partner team. Plasterboard, ceilings, flooring and decorating are not part of the hourly charge. A partner team looks at the damage and prices that work for the job in front of them, and you decide whether to accept it. No VAT is charged.

• Finding the leak: the hourly rate for the work being done.
• Repair work: the same hourly rate.
• Parts and materials: costed on top and agreed first.
• A small fix: done on the spot once the leak is found.
• A longer repair: the leak is stopped first, then quoted in writing.
• Making good: quoted per job by a partner team.

How to compare a leak detection quote

Quotes for the same visit can look very different on the page and be the same underneath, so compare structure before figures. Ask each firm for three things in writing: the rate per hour, what that rate includes, and what is charged on top. A quote that gives only a total for a job nobody has seen is a guess about hours with the risk folded in, and the page on hourly rates and lump sums explains why that matters.

Then check what each firm treats as extra. Equipment, travel, a report, an evening or weekend uplift and a charge for arriving are the lines that turn a modest rate into a larger bill. The rates here have none of them, apart from the tracer gas cylinder, because the aim is that you can multiply the rate by the hours and arrive at the invoice. No VAT is charged.

Finally, compare like with like. A rate that includes the report and the instruments is not the same product as a lower rate that charges for them afterwards. If you are comparing the emergency attendance price, check the rate that applies at your time of day and ask for it to be stated in writing before anyone attends.

What would change the hours

Because the hours drive the total, it helps to know what moves them. None of this changes the rate. It changes how long the search takes, and you can often shorten it.

• Access: a stop tap in a locked cupboard, a boxed-in pipe or a room that cannot be entered adds search time.
• Hidden pipework: a run under a solid floor or inside a wall takes longer than one on show.
• Number of systems: a leak that could be the supply, the heating or a waste connection means ruling each one out in turn.
• Size of the property: a whole house takes longer than a single room.
• What you can tell the engineer: when the stain appeared, whether it changes with taps or appliances, and any recent plumbing work all narrow the search.
• Shared pipework: a leak that might involve a neighbour or a communal riser needs extra checking to place correctly.

Where the no find, no fee boundary sits

No find, no fee waives the detection fee in one situation: we attend a confirmed live leak inside your own property and a live leak cannot be located. A leak that proves to be a neighbour's, a communal riser's or the water company's main is a located leak and is charged. A survey that establishes no leak exists is charged for the hours as well, because ruling a leak out is the answer you paid for. The full explanation, with a worked example of each of the three outcomes, is on the no find, no fee page. It is a narrow promise with clear edges, and it is written that way so you know where it applies before you rely on it.

In short: if a confirmed live leak inside your own property cannot be located, the detection fee is waived. If the leak is located, wherever it proves to be, the hours are charged at the rate you were told. If the survey establishes that no leak exists, the hours are charged too, because ruling a leak out is a result. No VAT is charged.