Articles & Guides

A holiday let sits empty between guests more than any other property type, which is exactly when a leak does the most damage before anyone notices. Here’s how changeover checklists, smart shut-offs and guest reporting cut that risk down.

When a leak from your home damages a neighbour’s property, the honest answer is that fault rarely decides who pays. Here’s how liability actually tends to work in practice, what evidence helps, and why flats and terraces raise extra questions.

The excess on an escape of water claim is often higher than your standard buildings excess, which catches a lot of homeowners out. Here’s why insurers set it separately, how to work out whether a claim is worth making, and what can bring the cost down.

Drying out a house properly after a water leak takes longer than most people expect, and painting over a damp patch too soon almost always backfires. Here’s what the drying process actually involves and how to know when a property is genuinely dry.

A leaking or overflowing loft water tank is one of the most common causes of ceiling damage in older Cornwall and Devon homes. Here’s how to tell a ball valve fault from a split tank, and what to do next.

A leak correlator uses two sensors and the speed sound travels through a pipe to pinpoint a buried leak to within a metre or so. Here’s how the method works, why pipe material matters, and when it beats listening alone.

A loss adjuster visit after a water leak claim can feel like an exam you haven’t revised for. Here’s what they actually look at, what evidence helps your claim, and why a professional leak detection report makes the visit go smoother.

Pressure testing isolates sections of pipework and watches how the gauge behaves, proving which run is losing water before any invasive detection starts. This guide explains the isolation logic, the difference between wet and dry tests, how to interpret a falling gauge, and how testing narrows things down before tracer gas confirms the exact spot.

What a boiler expansion vessel does, the symptoms of a flat diaphragm or lost charge, how recharging differs from replacement, and why this work needs a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Thermal imaging and moisture meters are often used together, but they measure different things and can each be misread. This guide explains what a thermal camera actually shows, what a moisture meter actually shows, where each gives a false positive, and how combining them confirms a leak properly.

Thermal imaging cameras cannot see through walls or look inside pipework directly. This guide explains what a thermal camera actually detects, how a hidden leak still shows up on the surface, and where the method’s real limits are, including on granite and cob walls common in Cornwall and Devon.

A CCTV drain survey and a leak detection investigation look for different things using different equipment. This guide explains when each one applies, why they sometimes get booked together, and how to avoid paying for the wrong survey.

A drain leak and a supply leak look similar on the surface, but they behave differently, smell differently, and need different detection methods and different tradespeople. This guide explains how to tell them apart and what each investigation involves.

What the small pipe dripping outside your house near the boiler actually is, why a pressure relief valve discharges, and why you should never cap or block it yourself.

Pinhole leaks in copper pipework are small, weeping holes caused by internal erosion or corrosion rather than a single impact or joint failure. This guide explains why they form, why one pinhole is rarely the only one, and how a proper detection sweep finds the rest before they show up as new damp patches.

A washing machine or dishwasher leak often starts as a slow drip behind the unit, quietly damaging the floor long before anyone notices a puddle. Here’s what usually fails and how to check safely.

A concealed mixer shower leaking behind the tiles rarely announces itself until a ceiling or wall is already damaged. Here’s how these leaks start, how to test for one, and how to find it without demolition.

What a cold top, cold bottom or cold middle on a radiator actually tells you, how to fix trapped air and sludge yourself, and when the pattern combined with pressure loss points to a hidden leak in the heating circuit.

Why water pressure drops across a whole house or at a single outlet, the difference between a supply restriction and a leak, and when low pressure in a rural Cornwall or Devon property needs professional leak detection.

How to recognise an airlock in your water pipes, safe ways to clear one yourself, and the signs that a recurring airlock is actually air being drawn in through a leak.

A step-by-step look at what happens when you call DCI Leak Detection about a suspected leak, from phone triage through to pinpointing the source. Covers what to do before we arrive and how fixed pricing works.

A water meter that keeps spinning or ticking over with every tap and appliance off means water is passing through somewhere on your side of the system. This guide covers how to isolate internal plumbing from the supply pipe, what small dial movements mean, and what South West Water customers should know.

A ceiling bulging with trapped water is an active emergency that needs a calm, specific sequence: electrics off, controlled containment, stopcock shut, then finding the actual source. This guide walks through exactly what to do in the first few minutes and what happens next.

When a ceiling or wall stain returns after a repair, it usually means the original leak was never properly found, only patched over or coincidentally stopped. This guide explains why repairs fail without detection first, and how to confirm a stain is genuinely dry before redecorating.

A damp or wet patch of carpet with no spilled drink, no pet accident and no visible pipework nearby usually means water is tracking up from below. This guide covers the likely sources, from slab leaks to heating pipes, and how to find one without lifting the whole floor.

A sound of running water with every tap and appliance off usually means water is moving somewhere it shouldn’t be. This guide explains the likely causes, the checks to run first, and how acoustic listening pinpoints the source.

A musty smell with no visible damp patch is often the first sign of a hidden water leak, especially under floors or inside wall cavities. Here’s how to tell the difference between a smell you can ventilate away and one that needs a proper survey.

The ten most reliable signs of a hidden water leak, from a spinning water meter and unexplained bills to warm floor patches, musty smells and pressure loss. A practical checklist for working out whether professional leak detection is the next step.

Why underfloor heating develops cold spots, from airlocks and balancing issues to blocked loops, and how to tell an ordinary heating fault from a leak. Covers the pressure drop pattern that means a loop leak rather than a simple fix.

A practical look at smart water leak detectors and automatic shut-off valves, what point sensors and flow-based systems each catch and miss, and where they genuinely help holiday lets and second homes. Covers what these devices cannot do.