Leak detection on the Central Coast

ZC Plumbing finds hidden water leaks across the Central Coast using acoustic listening, thermal imaging and pressure testing, so the leak is located without opening every wall or digging up the yard. Then we fix it, because we're licensed plumbers, not a detection company that hands you a report.

Slab leaks, wall leaks, underground pipes and leaking showers. Across Australia leak detection costs $150 to $600 and takes one to three hours.

A water bill that's jumped with no change in how you use water is the most common first sign. After that, a damp patch on a wall or floor with nothing above it, a warm spot on a concrete floor, the sound of running water when everything's off, mould in a corner that keeps coming back, or a lawn that's green in one stripe.

The most common leak in a house is a running toilet, and that's a standard repair. The ones that need finding are in slabs, in walls and in the pipe from the meter to the house.

Turn off every tap and appliance in the house, then watch the water meter for ten minutes. If the dial moves, water is leaving the system somewhere, and that's when to call. It costs nothing and it tells us straight away that we're looking for a leak rather than a habit.

The same order every time. The meter test to confirm it, then isolating sections of the house to narrow it down, then the tool the situation calls for. Acoustic listening picks up the sound of water escaping under pressure through a slab or a wall. Thermal imaging shows the temperature difference where a hot water pipe is leaking or water is soaking through a wall.

Pressure testing isolates a section of pipe and shows whether it holds. Underground and slab leaks are found the same way, with the tools reading through concrete and soil, which is what keeps the jackhammer and the excavator out of it until we know exactly where to dig. Most detections take one to three hours.

A detection company hands you a report and leaves. We're licensed plumbers, so the repair is quoted the same visit and usually done the same day, whether that's a section of copper under a slab, a leaking shower membrane that turns into a bathroom renovation, or the mains pipe from the meter to the house. If it's a drain rather than a supply pipe, the blocked drains page covers that.

On the Coast's older homes the leak is often the first sign the whole pipe run is due, and we'll say so rather than patch one spot a month before the next one goes.

Across Australia leak detection costs $150 to $600 for a standard house, up to $800 where trace and access is involved. With ZC it's $495 including GST for the first hour with the detection gear, and $385 including GST for each hour after, and most houses are found inside the first hour or two.

The repair is quoted separately once we know where and what it is. Set an hour's detection against a floor pulled up on a guess and a water bill that keeps climbing, and it's not a hard call.