Grange Plumbing“Howard quickly and efficiently located and repaired a leak on our water main. Brilliant service — would highly recommend.”
Howard, Sussex
Leak Detection in East Grinstead & Across Sussex
Pinpoint hidden leaks fast — without ripping up floors or driveways. Sussex & Surrey.
Find the leak. Fix only what's needed.
Hidden leaks waste water, raise bills and cause serious damage if left unchecked. We use specialist equipment to locate leaks accurately — whether they're under a tiled floor, behind a stud wall or buried under a driveway — so the repair is targeted and minimal.
What we use
- Acoustic leak detection
- Thermal imaging surveys
- Pressure testing
- Tracer gas detection
- Hidden underfloor & in-wall leaks
- Underground supply pipe leaks
Signs of a hidden water leak
If you've noticed any of these around your home, it's worth booking a leak detection survey before damage gets worse.
- Unexplained rise in water bill
- Low or dropping water pressure
- Damp patches on floors, walls or ceilings
- Boiler losing pressure repeatedly
- Soggy or unusually green patch in garden
- Sound of running water when all taps are off
Trace & Access for insurance claims
Many home insurance policies include trace and access cover — which pays for the cost of locating and accessing a hidden leak. We provide full insurance-approved reports and documentation to support your claim. If you're unsure whether your policy covers this, we can advise. Contact us on 07894 956041 for a free assessment.
Leak detection in Mid Sussex
We carry out leak detection surveys across Mid Sussex every week. For dedicated info on your area, see:
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Frequently asked questions
We use a combination of acoustic listening devices, thermal imaging cameras and tracer gas testing to pinpoint leaks without unnecessary digging. This non-destructive approach means we find the leak precisely before any access is made.
Many home insurance policies include trace and access cover, which pays for the cost of finding and accessing a hidden leak. We provide full insurance-approved reports to support your claim.
Most leak detection surveys take between 2–4 hours. In many cases we can locate the leak and carry out the repair in a single visit.
The section of water supply pipe from the boundary of your property to your house is your responsibility as a homeowner — not the water company's. If you suspect a leak, contact us for a free assessment.
Yes — we cover East Grinstead, Crawley, Haywards Heath, Horley, Burgess Hill, Lingfield, Forest Row, Oxted and across Sussex and Surrey.
If our leak detection confirms your water main needs replacing, we can often carry out the replacement on the same day using our trenchless moling service. Find out more about water main replacement.
★★★★★ Perfect 5-star rating across all platforms
“Professional, friendly and informative throughout. The price quoted was exactly what we paid — no surprises. Left everything clean and tidy. Will use again.”
Local customer, East Grinstead
“Solved a problem that three other plumbers had failed to fix. Couldn't recommend highly enough.”
Local customer, Sussex
Areas We Cover
Grange Plumbing provides leak detection across Sussex & Surrey
- East Grinstead
- Crawley
- Haywards Heath
- Horley
- Burgess Hill
- Lingfield
- Forest Row
- Copthorne
- Turners Hill
- Felbridge
- Oxted
- Redhill
- Reigate
- Cuckfield
- Lindfield
We also cover all surrounding areas of West Sussex and Surrey. Not sure if we cover your area? Call us on 07894 956041.
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How a leak detection survey actually works
Leak detection is a diagnostic job before it is a plumbing job. The aim is to establish that water is being lost, how much, and exactly where — with enough confidence to open up one small area rather than several.
Step one: confirm the loss
We start at the meter. With every outlet in the property closed and the internal stop tap shut, a meter that still turns tells us the loss is on the buried supply pipe between the meter and the house. If it stops, the loss is internal — under a floor, behind a wall, on the heating system, or a continuously running WC.
That single test decides the whole approach, and it is why we do it before touching anything else.
Step two: locate it
For buried pipework we use acoustic ground microphones and correlation: a leak under pressure makes a characteristic noise, and by listening at two points on the same pipe the escape can be positioned along the run to within a short distance. On internal leaks we use thermal imaging to see temperature differences through floors and walls, and tracer gas where the leak is too small or too quiet to hear.
Nothing is excavated or lifted on a hunch. By the time we open up, we know what we expect to find and where.
Insurance, trace and access
Most UK home insurance policies include trace and access cover, which pays for finding and reaching a hidden leak and making good afterwards, even where the repair itself is not covered. Insurers generally want documented evidence rather than an assertion.
We supply a written report with the survey method, meter readings, acoustic and thermal findings, photographs and the located position, which is what a claims handler needs to process the claim without repeated queries.
What happens after the survey
If the leak is on the buried supply pipe and the pipe is old lead, galvanised or alkathene, a spot repair is usually a false economy — the rest of the run is the same age and the same material. In that situation we will quote a full trenchless replacement alongside the repair option so you can compare them properly.
If the pipe is modern MDPE with a single damaged point, a repair is entirely reasonable and we will say so.