FIELD NOTES · 54 PIECES
What we find, and what it means
Most trade blogs exist to carry keywords. These exist because we had something to say: numbers from our own jobs, ombudsman decisions read in full, and the parts of this trade that are usually left vague. Every figure is dated and sourced, and where we could not verify something we say so instead of writing round it.
From our own jobs
What the work actually turns up, counted from our own completed jobs rather than asserted. Sample sizes and limitations stated on every figure.
6 pieces- What 25 London Leak Investigations Actually FoundWe counted every leak investigation in our own job records with a written outcome. A failed pipe was the cause nine times out of twenty-five.
- How Often the Leak Is Where You Think It IsFifteen of our last twenty-five leak bookings arrived with a theory about the cause. The investigation contradicted ten of them, and confirmed five.
- Which Leak Detection Method Actually Found the LeakAcross 25 of our leak investigations, tracer gas located four leaks, plain looking settled eight, and thermal imaging located none in the two jobs it ran on.
- What a Metered Water Loss Turned Out to BeSix jobs booked from a meter reading or a water company letter. The three smallest losses were toilets and valves; the three largest were pipes under a floor.
- How Often We Find No Leak at AllFive of our last twenty-five leak investigations found no plumbing leak. All five began as damp, mould, staining or a sound, and none as running water.
- How Often the Floor Has to Come UpIn eight of our last twenty-five leak investigations, reaching the leak meant cutting into a floor, wall, ceiling or tiling, or excavating the ground.
Insurance, decided
Real Financial Ombudsman decisions on escape of water, trace and access and gradual damage, read in full and explained from the engineer’s side.
6 pieces- Two Shower Leaks, Two Ombudsman Decisions, Opposite OutcomesThree published Ombudsman decisions on shower leaks refused as sealant failure. One refusal was overturned, two were upheld. What separated them.
- What “Sudden and Unforeseen” Has Been Held To MeanInsurers say a policy covers sudden events, not gradual ones. Published Ombudsman decisions show the line is drawn at knowledge, not at duration.
- When the Ombudsman Overruled a Gradual Damage RefusalTwo published decisions where a gradual damage refusal was overturned, and one where it was not. The evidence that moved each of them, item by item.
- When the Insurer Does Not Find the Leak ProperlyThree Ombudsman decisions on failed investigations: a roof blamed for two years, a cracked heat exchanger missed, and a trace refusal that cost £11,000.
- Trace and Access Limits, Tested in Real DisputesFour Ombudsman decisions on where trace and access cover starts and stops: whether damage is needed, whether it is a separate claim, and who pays the excess.
- Who Has To Prove What on a Water Leak ClaimThe burden of proof shifts once you show an insured event. Published Ombudsman decisions on what you must establish, and what the insurer must.
Choosing who to call
What the large firms publish about price and scope, what a review score can and cannot tell you, and how the directories and the ads are actually paid for.
18 pieces- How London Leak Detection Is Actually PricedFour London firms publish a leak detection price and three publish none. The rate cards side by side, what each structure hides, and which one suits your leak.
- No Find, No Fee at Four Firms: the Conditions Matter MoreThe phrase is the same everywhere; the terms underneath are not. What is published, the four conditions on one guarantee, and the firms that offer none.
- Detection Only, or Detect and Repair: the Cost of a HoleSome firms find the leak and hand you a report. What that leaves you holding, which London firms publish that they reinstate, and when the handover is fine.
- What a Leak Detection Quote Should ItemiseThe eleven lines that decide the bill, drawn from what London firms already publish in their own terms: increments, minimums, travel, deposits and cancellation.
- Specialist, or a Plumber With a Damp Meter?Six technical questions a leak specialist answers without pausing, and the jobs where a general plumber is the right, cheaper and more honest call instead.
- Why the Cheapest Hourly Rate Often Produces the Biggest BillRate times hours is the whole equation, and the rate is the part you see. Worked arithmetic across four published London rate cards, and where each one wins.
- Pimlico Plumbers Reviews: How to Read Two Very Different ScoresTrustpilot showed 4.4 from 12,318 reviews and Reviews.io showed 2.7 from 188, both on 19 September 2026. What that gap means, and what neither number tells you.
- HomeServe Reviews: What 190,770 Ratings Are Actually RatingHomeServe UK scored 4.6 from 190,770 Trustpilot reviews on 19 September 2026. Those reviews cover an insurance product, not a leak survey, and that matters.
- Dyno-Rod Reviews: A 4.8 National Score and a Local FranchiseDyno-Rod held 4.8 from 50,318 Trustpilot reviews on 19 September 2026. What a national franchise average does and does not tell you about your own territory.
- 0800 Homefix Reviews: The Score, the Widgets and the Rate Card0800 Homefix held 4.5 from 1,937 Trustpilot reviews on 19 September 2026, and displays two different Google scores on its own site. How to read all three.
- ADI Leak Detection Reviews: 4.7 on Trustpilot, and the ScopeADI held 4.7 from 1,617 Trustpilot reviews on 19 September 2026. The score is strong; the published scope of what they repair is the part worth reading first.
- Aspect Maintenance Reviews, and Metro Rod Reviews, ComparedAspect scored 3.9 on Trustpilot and 4.8 on Reviews.co.uk on 19 September 2026. Metro Rod scored 4.3. Both distributions are split, and that is the useful part.
- What a Trade Directory Rating Actually MeasuresA 9.8 out of 10 is an average of a sample somebody else selected. What sits in the denominator, what never entered it, and the parts of the number the law now regulates.
- Are Trade Directory Reviews Reliable?The rules changed on 6 April 2025 and most people have not been told. What is now banned, what a platform must do, and the eight checks that answer the question for the platform in front of you.
- How Trade Directories Are Funded, and What It ChangesMembership, a fee per lead, or a cut of the job. Three funding shapes, the arithmetic each one puts inside your quote, and the one thing the law now forbids all of them from doing.
- What "Vetted" and "Approved" Actually Mean on a Trade BadgeThere is no legal definition of vetted. There is a law about claiming it falsely. The difference between a statutory register, a government-endorsed scheme and a private badge, and how to read any of them.
- Five Free Checks That Tell You More Than Any BadgeCompanies House, the gas and water registers, an insurance certificate read properly, and an itemised quote. Fifteen minutes, no cost, and they work on any firm including us.
- Should You Use a Trade Directory? Our Position, DeclaredWe are a trade business writing about platforms we could join and have an interest in you skipping. So here is the conflict stated first, then the honest cases where a directory is the better route.
How leaks behave
Pipe materials and their failure modes, what a pressure test proves, and the readings that get misread as leaks.
12 pieces- How Each Pipe Material Fails, and What That Tells YouLead, copper, galvanised steel, MDPE, push-fit and microbore each fail in a particular place and a particular way. Knowing which you have narrows the search before anyone opens a floor.
- Why Copper Pipes Get Pinholes, and WherePinholes in copper are not random and they are rarely a faulty piece of pipe. The pattern tells you whether it was flux, water chemistry, a deposit or turbulence, and whether more are coming.
- How Plastic Push-Fit Plumbing Leaks, and Why It HidesPush-fit rarely fails as pipe. It fails at the O-ring, the missing insert and the joint that was never pushed fully home, and then it hides from the two tools most people reach for.
- What a Pressure Test Proves, and What It CannotA held pressure is not the same as a watertight system. What the standard tests actually measure, the losses they are allowed to tolerate, and the six things a pass does not rule out.
- Eight Thermal Patterns That Look Like a Leak and Are NotA thermal camera finds temperature, not water. The false positives that get called leaks, the three questions that rule each one out, and why a warm patch alone is never evidence.
- What a Moisture Meter Is Actually MeasuringPins measure resistance calibrated on wood, pinless meters read a field up to 120mm deep, and salts make both over-read. What the number means, and the measurement that settles an argument.
- Mould on a Ceiling: Condensation, or a Leak Above ItThe shape of the mould tells you which one it is. How to read a ceiling in two minutes, what you can fix yourself, and the pattern that means a pipe.
- Low Water Pressure: When It Is the Main, and When It Is a LeakTwo timed tests separate a supply problem from a leak on your own pipe, plus the pressure your water company is obliged to deliver and where that duty stops.
- Banging, Hissing and Whistling: Which Pipe Noise Means a LeakBanging pipes are almost never a leak. A steady hiss with every tap closed almost always is. The table of plumbing noises, and which ones need an engineer.
- Why Your Bathroom Smells of Drains, and What Fixes ItSix causes in the order worth checking, five of which you can fix yourself in an afternoon. Plus the one version that means a broken waste pipe under the floor.
- A Leaking Shower: Tray, Seal, Waste or PipeFour timed tests tell you which of the four faults you have before anyone lifts a tile, and one of them explains why resealing the same joint keeps failing.
- Drying Out After a Leak: What Restoration Actually InvolvesDrying is measured, not guessed. The six stages a competent job follows, what can be dried and what comes out, and what to ask before anyone starts.
The water industry
Bills, leakage targets, metering and who is responsible for which length of pipe, sourced from the companies’ own documents.
6 pieces- The 2026-27 Thames Water Increase, and What It Costs to Leak Through ItThames Water put most household bills up 3.4% on 1 April 2026. Worked against their own published unit rates, the increase is the smallest number on a bill with a leak underneath it.
- Thames Water Missed Its Leakage Target. What That Changes for YouTheir own report puts leakage down 15.1% against a regulatory target of 21.3%. What they are doing about it, and why none of that new detection capability points at your side of the stopcock.
- Compulsory Metering in London, and the Leak the Meter FindsThames Water can meter you without your consent because London is a determined area of water scarcity. The statute behind that, the programme, and what happens when the first thing the meter measures is a leak.
- Who Pays for What, from the Reservoir to Your TapYour water bill is a regulated revenue, not a price. Following the money from Ofwat’s determination to the hole in your front garden, and finding the one stretch nobody has funded.
- What the Water Industry Counts as a Leak, and What You CountLeakage is a volume measured in megalitres per day. A leak is a place. The two definitions disagree in ways that decide who chases your problem, and whether anyone counts it at all.
- How Thames Water Finds Your Leak from a DeskSeventy thousand acoustic loggers, smart meter analysis and a detection accuracy their own report puts at 65%. What the remote stack can prove about your property, and what it cannot.
Cold weather
Freezing, thawing, condensate pipes and empty properties. Written before the season rather than during it.
5 pieces- Preparing a London Property for the First FreezeWhat actually freezes first in London housing, the heating temperatures the water industry publishes, and the six jobs worth doing before the first hard frost.
- Why Your Condensate Pipe Keeps Freezing, and the Fix That LastsThawing it gets the heating back on for a morning. A pipe that freezes every winter fails the manufacturer spec: 32mm, under three metres, a 3° fall and fully insulated.
- Leaving a London Property Empty Over ChristmasWhat insurers require of an unoccupied home in winter, why the 30-day clause turns on the date the leak started, and what the Ombudsman says about declined claims.
- Pipe Lagging That Works, and Lagging That Does NothingInsulation slows heat loss, it does not add heat. Why a lagged loft pipe still freezes, the gaps every DIY job leaves, and the runs lagging cannot save on its own.
- Outside Taps and Garden Pipework Before WinterThe double check valve that keeps your drinking water safe is also the reason the pipe to your outside tap splits. How to drain it properly, in five minutes.
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