Home/Leak Detection
Leak detection in Brackenfell that starts with your water meter and ends with one small opening, not a trench. We confirm there is a leak, narrow down which part of the property it is in, then locate it before a single tile is lifted.
Tell us what made you suspect a leak. You get the detection price in writing first.
Each step narrows the search, so the final opening is small and in the right place.
Readings with everything off, then section by section, to prove a leak exists and which run it is on.
Pressurised water escaping makes a noise. Ground microphones pick it up through paving and screed.
Hot water leaks show as warm patches in floors and walls long before they are visible.
Buried supply lines traced and the leak pinned to a small area before breaking out.
A geyser that runs constantly can be heating water that leaks away in the floor.
Cisterns and taps checked first, because a silent cistern can waste more than a buried pipe.
Section 37(2) of the City of Cape Town’s Water By-law requires an owner to repair any defect in the water installation that is causing, or is likely to cause, leakage. There is no threshold and no grace period in that wording. A leak on your side of the meter is your responsibility from the moment it exists, whether or not anyone has noticed it yet.
The meter is on your side in this. Everything that passes through it is billed, so it also records every litre that disappears into the ground. That makes the meter the cheapest leak detector on the property, and the first instrument we use.
The test is simple. Read the meter last thing at night, make sure nobody uses water and nothing fills automatically, and read it again first thing. Any movement means water is leaving the installation. The size of the movement tells you whether you are looking for a dripping cistern or a failed joint under the floor.
From there, isolating sections of the property splits the search: house or garden, hot or cold, one bathroom or another. Only once the leak is confined to one run do the listening equipment and the thermal camera come out, and only then does anything get opened.
Do the overnight meter test before you call anyone. If the meter does not move, you do not have a hidden supply leak, and you have saved yourself a call-out.
If the meter test shows no leak, you hear that before any equipment comes out.
Nothing broken open until the leak is pinned to a small area.
Location, cause and repair on the invoice, useful for insurance.
Holes closed and the area tidied, with tiling quoted separately if needed.
Detection is priced by the job size: a meter and isolation test is a small fixed fee, and electronic location on a buried line costs more. The repair is quoted after the leak is found. See the plumber prices page.
Do the overnight meter test on this page. A meter that moves with everything off means water is escaping somewhere on the property.
Finding it, yes. Repairing a pipe buried in a slab still needs an opening, but a located leak means one small opening rather than several exploratory ones.
Water leaking underground or under a slab can drain away without surfacing. A running cistern is also silent and very common. Both show up on the meter.
Leaks on the City’s side of the meter are the City’s to repair and should be reported to them. The by-law puts leaks in your own installation on you.
Yes. Once it is located, we quote the repair in writing and can usually do it on the same visit.
A large one can. If your pressure has been sliding, see our water pressure repairs page as well.
That needs a different set of tests. See our pool leak detection page.
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Suspect a leak in Brackenfell, Kuils River or Kraaifontein? Tell us what you have noticed and we will price the detection.
