Acoustic leak detection is one of the more traditional methods used in tracing a leak. Water escaping from a leak in a pipe makes a noise. The greater the pressure of water in the pipe, the more it causes the pipe leak location and the surrounding material to vibrate and, generally, the louder the noise. Sensitive amplified microphones can be used to home in on the leak by listening at various points and looking for the area with the loudest noise as this is where the leak will be found.

There is no need to dig up floors or drill holes or even disturb floor coverings; in fact, the denser the material is between the leaking pipe and the surface, the better vibration will travel and the louder the noise that can be picked up on the surface.

Sometimes pipes are buried quite deeply and other methods of detection are not very effective; an infra-red or thermal camera for example, will not be able to find any change of temperature on the surface caused by a pipe that is both well insulated and deeply buried especially if the water in the leaking pipe is cold or close to the temperature of the surrounding material. In this sort of case, trace and access leak detection specialists often rely on acoustic techniques.

The point on the surface where the noise is loudest is usually the closest point to the actual leak and this can enable us to pinpoint the exact location to dig down and expose the leak for subsequent repair.

Use of tracer gas is totally non-invasive – once it has left the pipe from the leak location, it goes straight up through almost all building materials including concrete, paving slabs, sand and soil and can be detected at the surface directly above the leak location. Water, of course, does not do this and tends to spread out both sideways and downwards making it much harder to find the precise leak location and necessitating much larger scale excavation works to find the actual leak.

Tracer gas can be used in pipes of all sorts of sizes and lengths and of all sorts of materials. It leaves no residues or deposits and can do no harm. It’s a completely safe gas to use: non-toxic, non-corrosive, non-flammable and approved for use in drinking water pipes, waste pipes, central heating pipes, rising mains and petroleum pipelines. It poses no environmental risk and dissipates quickly.