How to find out if there is a leak
Finding a Pipeline Leak
Hey, it's not an easy job to spot a leak in a pipe. Water does not always gush out of it. Usually, a small leak forms in metal products, from which drops of liquid leak out. The defect may go unnoticed for a long time, but over time it will cause enormous inconvenience. Mold will appear, the walls will begin to become damp, and the wooden floors will begin to rot.
Leaks do not occur in metal-plastic pipes, but they depressurize at the fittings. Therefore, they cannot be hidden in the walls.
And the leak will become noticeable when the neighbors come running with a complaint that their ceiling is leaking, and your wall will be wet.
In underground systems, a leak is dangerous due to subsidence of the foundation, erosion of the soil, and more water is consumed than normal
What to do next?
After diagnosing the location of a water leak in a pipe in an apartment or private house, it is necessary to somehow solve the problem. If you live in a private house, then shut off the leaking branch and call the experts who will eliminate the leak with minimal damage.
Please note that repairing metal-plastic pipes using standard fittings means aggravating the situation. After some time, the joints will definitely begin to leak. That is why professional builders never embed them into walls or under the floor and leave access to them. The nuts on them have to be tightened periodically.
It would be wiser to replace the entire pipe. It’s easier with metal pipes - just apply a clamp. In multi-storey buildings the situation is more complicated - you will have to shut off the entire riser and look for a specialist from a local service company.
Thermogram 3. The exact location of the hidden depressurization of the heating line was determined, at the corner joint located in the floor screed, at a depth of 10 cm.
Thermogram 4. The exact location of the hidden depressurization of the hot water supply line at the welded corner joint located in the floor screed was determined.
How to find a hidden humidification area of building structures
Finding a leak is difficult. Even an experienced engineer cannot determine its source. As a result, after several openings of building structures and going through possible options for independently detecting leaks, people give up.
We recommend contacting the sanitary and epidemiological station and using the service to find defects using a modern device - a thermal imager. The tool finds problem areas and makes them visible. The accuracy of the pipe break location is 0.5 - 2 meters. It depends on the thickness of the screed, laying features, and the use of materials (heat insulating). You will not need to destroy the building structure. It is enough to cut out a small piece of the wall to make the problem area accessible.
This examination method is the most accurate.
How to find a leak in a pipe underground
A leak is a breakdown that needs to be fixed as quickly as possible. Open leaks are easy to see - in this case, water flows like a fountain from underground. But there are accidents that are not so easy to detect.
Previously, to determine a leak, you had to dig up the entire pipe. This is labor-intensive, troublesome and inconvenient - you need to turn off the water supply, block the road...
Today everything is simpler. The optimal solution to a problem always follows from its cause. Specific conditions need to be defined:
- type of pipe (metal, plastic);
- purpose (hot or cold pipes, sewerage);
- running depth.
Equipment used by SES workers
Inspecting pipes with a thermal imager
Experts use the most effective methods. Considerable experience allows craftsmen to find pipe defects in difficult conditions. Then, based on the test results, write a conclusion and act for presentation to higher authorities, including the court.
To get effective results, we use different techniques and devices:
- Thermal imagers with high resolution and high-contrast matrices. Such devices are expensive, but inexpensive models may not detect a leak.
- Humidity scanner. Determines the moisture content of building materials.
- Path-defect detector. To find hidden communications.
In addition to these devices, we use an air compressor, an ultrasonic leak detector , an endoscope and other devices. We have the equipment to solve the most complex problems.
How to find a metal pipe in the ground yourself
All of the above methods are suitable for searching for metal pipes, but a locator is the most convenient and preferred option. In some cases, it will determine with the highest accuracy the required underground networks even in passive mode (without using a signal generator); such pipelines include heating networks and gas pipelines, because They often have a protection current.
In the case of metal, another option appears - a metal detector. Despite the dependence on third-party interference and limitations on the depth of work, it has a number of advantages:
As for searching for pipes underground on your own, this is of course possible - almost all equipment can be rented. In contrast to this idea, you can note: firstly, you will have to spend significant time studying the instructions, and in the case of ground penetrating radar you will most likely need small courses, and secondly, the amount of the deposit will be a very powerful argument against it.
Why you should contact our sanitary and epidemiological station
Leaks can be almost invisible. But if they are not identified quickly, property damage can occur. Technicians have the skill and equipment to find the cause of the leak and help fix the problem.
Our company has excelled in the field of thermal imaging inspections. We even detect hidden water leaks. And early detection of leaks helps save money on repairs.
Clients trust us because:
- We don't inflate prices.
- We have modern equipment from European manufacturers.
- We use innovative technologies to detect flaws without causing damage to building structures. The thermal imager accurately determines the location of a leak without requiring destruction of floor coverings, drilling walls, or removing tiles.
Contact us. We will determine exactly where the pipes are leaking and quickly repair the damaged line. Our services are for you.
How to find a water leak in a heated floor if a pipe is broken?
If there is a diagram for laying underfloor heating pipes, then finding a water leak will not be difficult. Much greater difficulties can arise with the removal of floor finishing materials and the installation of the coupling. It is the coupling that should be used to connect a broken heated floor pipe if it was damaged during operation.
Certain difficulties in finding leaks may arise if there are absolutely no heating floor wiring diagrams at hand. In this case, you can act in reliable and proven ways.
In order to find a water leak, you should use automotive fluid that is poured into the car washer reservoir. This product contains special dyes, and they will help you find the place where the heated floor was broken.
To use this method, in addition to the “colored” liquid, you will also need a pressure testing pump. What is a pressure test pump? This is a special device that makes it possible to fill the heating system with water, air or antifreeze, in the absence of electricity or the required water pressure in the water supply.
To find a leak, you will need to close all the circuits on the heated floor comb, and then press them individually with liquid and dye. During this procedure, you always need to observe in which part of the room the colored spot appears. Of course, this method of finding a leak in a heated floor is not entirely ideal, but this is something where you can start looking for damaged areas.
In addition to a special liquid, you can find leaks in pipes if you fill them not with water or a special product, but with ordinary air. To do this, you need to perform all the same manipulations: block the contours of the heated floors, and then begin pressing them with air, separately. In the place where the pipe is damaged and the heated floor needs to be repaired, a jet of air will noisily escape.
Finding leaks in heated floors with a thermal imager
A special device - a thermal imager - will also help to detect leaks in heated floors. If you look at the heated floor when it is working through a thermal imager, you can see exactly how the pipes of the circuits are located. Accordingly, a warm water leak will be visible as a large red spot on the thermal imager.
The only problem in detecting leaks in a heated floor with a thermal imager may be a thick screed, more than 12 cm, and a glossy floor covering. The thermal imager beam is simply reflected from such a surface, and does not make it possible to track any temperature fluctuations on the floor surface.
To avoid problems with the operation of heated floors, you always need to have a pipe laying plan, with their exact location and distance from walls, doors and plumbing fixtures. The customer has the right to demand such a diagram from the installers in order to subsequently provide it to the finishing craftsmen who will install the floor covering.
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Hidden leak in the wall
“at the site there were no craftsmen with hammer drills and screwdrivers” - THERE WERE NOT!!! It all started with a small wet spot on the wall I indicated from the outside in the fall of 2009, at the level of the middle of the first floor. The house was built in 2003 and to this day no work has been carried out in the area of the pipes and nothing has leaked. Breaking the wall from the outside is too expensive and I think it’s just stupid, since the depth of the leak will be about a meter (half a block plus a brick, most likely all full). Even if you see a leak, you will also have to dig from the inside, since even with an outstretched arm you can’t do anything. With this approach, you can dismantle the entire house in the area of the pipe, and this, to put it mildly, is not professional. I measured everything and determined, taking into account the fact that there was also dampness on the landing exactly at the level of the entrance of the pipes (sewage + cold and hot water), that most likely it was leaking on the second floor.
I didn’t even intend to fix the leak with sealant, “Hero”, tobacco or mustard and other auto methods. It's too funny, and I'm not in the mood for jokes.
A “medical phonendoscope” is definitely not effective for such a leak; firstly, I’m not a hydroacoustic specialist, and secondly, as far as I understand, it doesn’t even drip there, but just gets moistened very slowly, i.e. WHAT TO LISTEN???
“Try pumping colored liquid into the pipes and using a pump to raise the pressure.” It’s too difficult for me to do technically, I’m not a plumbing specialist, I’m just a fan of tinkering around the house myself, and I had such grief. In addition, most likely the leak is too small to come out right away, otherwise the wall would have already collapsed. I was looking for specialists, everyone who came offered to dismantle the wall on the first floor from the inside and remove both baths on two floors, and they were packed in quite expensive tiles, and on each floor there was an original finish!!! I understand that it is apparently technically impossible to determine with an accuracy of at least a meter, or at least very difficult, but searching at random +/- 3-5 meters or by disassembling the entire house is also not professional, which is why I’m asking the pros for advice here... Leaning toward because this scoundrel who did all this put a fitting with an angle at the entrance to the floor and it’s leaking. If it had been bent and there was a crack there, it would have come out sooner.
“In the center of that wet spot you will find a leak.” The spot already has the diameter of the entire first floor!!!
If everything works out the way I think, then I will post a photo and the whole layout that I did here. From my bitter experience, you will keep this in mind and make money and at the same time help people like me, since you apparently do this professionally, and I’m a novice in these matters. I would give a normal amount of money right now to localize the problem within a radius of 1-2 meters, rather than destroy the whole house and drive myself into big losses.
PS Maybe there is still a device that looks for oozing leaks????????
Finding a pipeline leak in an apartment
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Builders wall up heating and water supply pipes in modern buildings into the walls. This makes the room look more beautiful and tidy. But if pipes leak, the masonry will need to be broken. People don't think about it at first, but later they regret making the wrong decision.
