We've just bought a small semi to rent out to help eke out our pensions. Its been empty for 3 years after the owner died and the lawyers descended on the estate.
we started cleaning and fixing and discovered we had a lot of problems with the water system, the most worrying of which was a tiny water leak we could not find. The water meter little black wheel barely moved. So small you had to stand and stare to be certain that it was.
The main pipe went across a few feet of garden and then vanished into the concrete of the building, and did not reappear till it came out of the flat roof (also concrete) to the water tanks.
We feared the worst, having to dig around uprooting tiles and destroying half the building to find it. My usual plumber gave me the name of a guy who is known locally as " The leak man".
He arrives, shakes his head at the tiny movement and says he might not be able to find a leak this small. DAMN!.
I said I thought you had ground sonar? Oh yes he says, i have that, but this is too small to show. Then he gets out a full sized gas bottle of Hydrogen and connects it to the garden tap, pressurises to 4 bar, and walks around the outside of the house with a gas sniffer.He gets to the rear just below the kitchen window and hey presto, the thing goes off, beeping like mad.
The water pipe comes into the house at that point. He gets his kango drill out and 5 minutes later, theres the bad joint. A glued plastic tee 3" below the surface.
He fixed it with a loop of smaller flexible pipe that sticks up above the surface and now needs to be boxed in to stop people knocking it.. Not pretty, but minimal fuss and no fears because we dont get freezing weather.
He wasnt cheap for the 1 hour he was there, but the lack of damage that I would have had to repair otherwise made me very happy to pay him.
I've been around gas and water pipes for a half century, but had never seen this trick before. He located that leak EXACTLY. To the inch either side, through 2 " of 12 year old concrete.
Good man.
we started cleaning and fixing and discovered we had a lot of problems with the water system, the most worrying of which was a tiny water leak we could not find. The water meter little black wheel barely moved. So small you had to stand and stare to be certain that it was.
The main pipe went across a few feet of garden and then vanished into the concrete of the building, and did not reappear till it came out of the flat roof (also concrete) to the water tanks.
We feared the worst, having to dig around uprooting tiles and destroying half the building to find it. My usual plumber gave me the name of a guy who is known locally as " The leak man".
He arrives, shakes his head at the tiny movement and says he might not be able to find a leak this small. DAMN!.
I said I thought you had ground sonar? Oh yes he says, i have that, but this is too small to show. Then he gets out a full sized gas bottle of Hydrogen and connects it to the garden tap, pressurises to 4 bar, and walks around the outside of the house with a gas sniffer.He gets to the rear just below the kitchen window and hey presto, the thing goes off, beeping like mad.
The water pipe comes into the house at that point. He gets his kango drill out and 5 minutes later, theres the bad joint. A glued plastic tee 3" below the surface.
He fixed it with a loop of smaller flexible pipe that sticks up above the surface and now needs to be boxed in to stop people knocking it.. Not pretty, but minimal fuss and no fears because we dont get freezing weather.
He wasnt cheap for the 1 hour he was there, but the lack of damage that I would have had to repair otherwise made me very happy to pay him.
I've been around gas and water pipes for a half century, but had never seen this trick before. He located that leak EXACTLY. To the inch either side, through 2 " of 12 year old concrete.
Good man.
