Ingress and Water Leak Detection
Prevent Damage To Your Home With An Effective Water Leak Detection Survey. A Thorough Investigation From Our Experts Will Pinpoint Any Ingress Problem.
What is ‘water ingress’, and what causes it?
‘Ingress’ means ‘to enter’. Water ingress simply means that water is entering places it isn’t welcome, and causing water damage in the process. Some common places you might find water ingress are:
- Lofts or attics – due to a leaky roof with damaged or missing tiles, and poor flashing.
- Doors and windows – where the frame has deteriorated over time, or poorly sealed structures that allow rain water to get in the walls.
- Walls – where there are structural cracks that allow water to enter.
- Gutters and down pipes – which get blocked with soil and other debris.
- Leaky internal pipes – from washing machines, under sinks, behind the fridge.
Water can make its way into your home through the tiniest of cracks! Which is why its important to get a comprehensive damp survey to detect water ingress before it causes irreparable damage.
How much damage can it cause, and how can it be prevented?
Water ingress tends start as small, unnoticeable drips. But if undetected, it can cause a lot of damage over time. For example:
- Structural components like wood, plaster and concrete can weaken and deteriorate from prolonged exposure water. This can lead to safety hazards, where parts of the building begins to collapse in on itself.
- Water ingress creates damp environments that encourages mould and mildew to grow. This can produce unpleasant odours, and create poo air quality that can have major health risks.
- Cosmetic damage to varnish, wallpaper and paintwork are a big hassle, but those usually indicate a bigger problem below the surface. There’s no use just re-decorating, without first address the root cause of the damp issue!
The key to preventing water ingress is regular inspection and maintenance:
- Inspect and maintain the exterior of your home on a regular basis: roofs, gutters, windows, doors, exterior walls. Should you discover any cracks or gaps in the walls, however tiny, book a damp surveyor to asses any ‘hidden’ damage as quickly as possible and make sure you nip the problem in the bud.
- Ensure proper sealing on all joints, seals and gaps around windows, doors and other openings into the property.
- Apply water-proofing measures to vulnerable areas such as basements, crawl paces and foundations to prevent water seeping in and causing rising damp.
The sooner you start address the problem, the more effectively you can prevent further damage.
What do I do if I discover a leak?
When you find a leak, it’s important to act immediately to minimise damage. Here’s what you need to do as a first response:
1. Turn off the water supply if you’re able to detect a localised pipe leak, you can shut off the nearest valve. Otherwise, turn off the main supply.
2. Check for electrical risks such as nearby outlets and appliances. You may have to turn off the electricity mains temporarily.
3. Contain the leak with a bucket or towels to catch the water, and prevent damage to floors and furniture. You may also be able to apply temporary fixes using tape, or clamps until a plumber arrives.
4. Call a professional for an emergency repair. If the leak is coming from a pipe, call a plumber to diagnose and repair the leak. If the leak is coming from the roof, windows or external walls, you need to contact a building contractor.
5. Document the damage with photos which will help you explain the situation to contractors, and file an insurance claim.
6. Once the emergency addressed, get a thorough damp survey done for your whole house. You need to check if the area affected by the water leak goes beyond what you discovered. Escape of water can cause damp throughout the infrastructure of your house, which can cause great damage if not addressed quickly.
What are the other benefits of a professional water ingress detection survey?
With our comprehensive assessments, we will be able to establish whether high moisture levels are due to condensation or rising damp, or if they are caused by structural faults and leaking pipes leading to water ingress.
If we locate a structural fault like a faulty seal or eroded connectors in the plumbing, we can track where water has escaped have travelled throughout your home via timber, walls and other places that then hold on to moisture, causing other damp issues such as mould and deterioration.
Remember that the quicker you address the problem, the less damage it will have on your property!
FAQs on Ingress and Water Leaks
What are the common signs of water ingress?
These are the most common signs of damp issues. Ascertaining wether these issues are truly from water ingress requires a thorough assessment – except from when you can literally see water leaking from a pipe! Even then, the extent of the damage will require investigation.
- Damp and discoloured patches on walls or ceilings – indicating water is seeping through from somewhere.
- Peeling or blistering paint and wallpaper – this can be a reaction to water ingress, or excessively high moisture in the air with poor ventilation
- Mould and mildew – which can be caused by water ingress, or condensation. A must smell without visible mould can also be a sign ingress in hidden areas.
- Swollen or warped wood or plaster – these structural components get damaged with prolonged exposure to moisture caused by ingress or condensation.
- Cracks in the walls – caused by the material expanding and contracting due to moisture penetrating.
- Visible drips from ceilings, walls and light fixtures. Or pools of water especially after rain around windows or doors, or in basements.
- Localised low temperature compared to the rest of the building, and persistent condensation in a particular area.
Can you fix the water ingress, or do I need to hire a separate contractor?
We are an independent damp surveyor, and our job is to provide you with a comprehensive assessment of your entire home. This identifies the true cause of the damp issues, and we advise on the correct solution to rectify it.
We don’t offer contractor services, nor are we affiliated with anybody in order that we remain impartial in our assessment.
How long does it take to fix water ingress or a leak?
It really depends on where the leak is coming from and how much damage it has already made. But you can be sure to go through the following steps.
1. Assessment and Diagnosis (1-3 days): After going through first response to stop all visible leaks, you need to book a damp assessment of your entire property. This will give you an accurate understanding of where water is escaping and traveling throughout the property, below the visible surface. With our independent surveys, we will also identify the correct repair prevention you need to invest in.
2. Planning and Preparation (1-7 days): From our survey, you can hire the right contractors for the right job. We don’t offer contracting services ourselves, nor recommend anybody so that we can remain independent and impartial in our advice. Once you have hired for the correct services, they will go about sourcing the relevant materials and give you a schedule of works with a more accurate timeframe.
3. Repair Work (1-14 days): How long the works take will depend on the nature and extend of the damage incurred. Your contractors can advise you on the timeframe more accurately.
4. Drying and Restoration (3-14 days): Once the repairs are made, the affected areas need to be thoroughly dried to prevent damp issues recurring in the future. Depending on the size of the area that sustained damage, this can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Often, industrial humidifiers are used to aid the process.
Weather conditions, time of year and availability of contractors are also factors that can affect the timeline of your repair.
Will my insurance cover water ingress repairs?
This depends on the type of insurance you hold and if you’re a homeowner, renter or landlord. The best thing to do is to contact your insurance provider and ask them, and inform your landlord if you have one
Make sure that you take photos to document the damage as this could help you when making an insurance claim.
How much does a leak ingress survey cost, and what does it include?
Since each case is so different, it’s best for you to fill in the form and get a FREE quote from us by clicking the button below. The questionnaire will guide you to give us the information we need to give you a comprehensive quote by email.
All of our damp check surveys include a thorough inspection of the whole building – inside, outside underneath and over the top! We use top of the range equipment that to detect and track moisture throughout the building, so we can know for sure what’s causing the damp issues and how to best address the problem.
Don’t take our word for it…
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David was very helpful, knowledgeable and happy to answer any questions I threw at him last week, and there were a lot!
His feedback has saved the need for unrequired damp proof course work and will no doubt have saved our house sale from stalling. Thank you, I would have no hesitations in recommending or using David again.
Russell G. Handsworth
(Birmingham)
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With thanks for the report and your work. We will be speaking to the builder about action to try and resolve the problem.
We appreciated your warm approachable manner and your willingness to listen and are grateful that you identified condensation to be the problem after various other attempts to try and identify the damp patch had not been successful.
Rev K
(Tewkesbury)
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Thank you so much for doing our survey. I can’t get over how detailed it is, definitely worth the money. I’m glad to see there isn’t too much wrong and appreciate how thorough you were.
Elecia, whose house it was, said she was so impressed that she will try to hire you herself and you can’t get a better recommendation than that.
Elizabeth and Dennis
(Birmingham)