A leak on the mains, found without digging up the drive.
When the leak is on the incoming mains, the trail usually runs under a driveway, a path or a garden. We locate it by listening, not by excavating, pinpointing the escape so one section is lifted, not the whole run.
Signs your external supply is leaking.
Mains leaks often run for months unseen because the water disappears straight into the ground. These are the clues that something is escaping before it reaches your stop tap.
A jump in your water bill
A metered bill climbing with no change in usage is the classic mains-leak signature, water lost before it ever reaches a tap.
Damp patches on the drive
Persistently wet paving, a patch that never dries, or unusually lush grass along the supply route can mark the leak below.
Low pressure at the tap
Weak flow throughout the house, especially if it has dropped gradually, can mean water is escaping the supply pipe underground.
The meter spins with everything off
Turn off every tap and appliance: if the meter still ticks over, water is being lost somewhere on your side of it.
Ground movement or sinkage
A slowly sinking spot in a drive, path or lawn can be soil washing away around a leaking buried pipe.
Water in the boundary box
Standing water in the meter or stop-tap chamber by the boundary often points to a fitting or pipe failing right there.
Located by sound, not by spade.
A pressurised mains leak makes a noise that travels along the pipe. We measure that sound from two points and let the maths tell us where the leak is to within a fraction of a metre.
Confirm the loss
A meter test proves water is being lost on the supply, and isolating sections tells us it’s the external mains rather than internal plumbing.
Trace the route
We establish where the supply pipe runs between the boundary and the house, under the drive, the path or the garden.
Acoustic correlation
Sensors at two access points measure the leak sound; correlating the time difference pinpoints the escape along the run, with tracer gas to confirm where needed.
Marked & reported
The spot is marked on the surface and written up within 48 hours, so one section is opened for repair, not the entire driveway.
One opening, not the whole runThe whole point is not digging blind.
Excavating a driveway on guesswork is expensive and rarely lands on the leak first time. Locating it precisely first means the groundworker lifts one section, fixes the fault, and reinstates a small area not a whole expanse of paving.
- Pinpointed before excavation the dig is targeted, not exploratory.
- Block paving, tarmac or lawn we work across all common surfaces.
- Boundary to building the full private supply run, both ends checked.
A leak under the drive found from the surface, before a single slab moves.
Clear pricing, often insurance-recoverable.
External mains surveys start from £450 for a four-hour minimum visit. Where the leak has caused damage, the detection is frequently recoverable through your buildings insurance under trace & access.
Across Hertfordshire, Essex & London.
Based in Hertfordshire and on the road across London and surrounding counties. Most surveys are booked within two working days.
Water bill climbing for no reason?
Tell us what your meter’s doing and we’ll come back the same working day with an honest answer and a clear price and find it without digging blind.