Are trade directories worth using?

Yes, in specific cases: when you have no personal recommendation, when you want competing quotes on non-urgent work, when you want a complaints route that exists, or when you want document checks done that you would otherwise skip. They are weaker in an emergency, where distributing your enquiry to several firms produces callbacks rather than one van.

Is it cheaper to go direct to a tradesperson?

Not automatically. A direct firm is not carrying a cost of introduction inside its price, but cost base constrains a price rather than dictating one. What changes reliably is the chain: one conversation, one contract and one party responsible if something goes wrong.

Why is a leak firm writing about trade directories?

Because we are one of the businesses that would pay to be on them, and because the searches exist. We have declared the conflict at the top of this page: we are not listed on any directory, we could join several, and we benefit if you contact us directly. Read the advice accordingly.

Should I use a directory in an emergency?

Use whatever gets a competent person to the leak fastest, which is often a paid listing or a firm with a 24-hour desk. Turn the stopcock off, turn the electrics off if water is anywhere near them, and worry about the cost structure of the listing afterwards.

What is the one question worth asking whoever I contact?

Are you the company that will send the engineer? It decides who you are contracting with, whose insurance responds, who you complain to, and whether the person quoting you can actually tell you what will be done when they arrive.

Should You Use a Trade Directory? Our Position, Declared

Use one when you have no personal recommendation, when you want competing quotes on work that is not urgent, or when you specifically want a complaints route and a body that can remove a member; go direct when you already know who you want, when the job is an emergency and you need one van rather than four calls, or when the work spans detection, repair and making good and you want a single contract for all three.

Leak Fix LondonLast updated 19 September 2026

A Leak Fix London engineer working on pipework in a London home

The conflict, first

We are Leak Fix London. We find, repair and reinstate water leaks in London. We are not listed on any trade directory, we have not paid for a lead, and if you use a directory instead of this website we very probably do not get the job. We could apply to join several of these platforms and may do so at some point. Every sentence below is written by someone with that interest.

We are declaring it because the rest of this cluster is about how funding shapes what you are shown, and it would be absurd to make that argument without applying it to ourselves. If our advice happens to align with our revenue, treat that part sceptically. Where it does not, that is the part worth reading.

Where a directory is genuinely the better route

Four cases, and we think they cover most people most of the time.

You have no personal recommendation, and no way to get one

This is the big one and it is the one trade businesses are least honest about. The standard advice is "ask a neighbour", which is useless if you moved in last month, live in a block where nobody talks, or have a problem nobody you know has ever had. A directory replaces a social network you do not have. That is a real service and it is why these platforms exist.

You want three prices on work that is not urgent

A marketplace that distributes your enquiry generates competing quotes faster than you could by ringing three firms yourself. If your job is a bathroom refit in six weeks rather than a ceiling filling with water, that speed is worth having, and the multiple-callback behaviour that annoys people in an emergency is exactly the feature you want.

You want a complaints route that exists

A firm you found yourself has no external complaints process. A scheme member may have one. Citizens Advice notes that ombudsman schemes are independent, free and impartial, but that for a private-sector complaint you can only go to one where the business is a member of that scheme. Membership is the gate, and joining a scheme is one of the few ways a small firm acquires that gate. If having somewhere to go matters to you, buy it deliberately rather than hoping.

You want the checks done for you

A vetting scheme does, once, the document work most people never do at all. It is not a substitute for the five free checks, and it is much better than nothing, which is the realistic alternative for most households. We would rather someone used a vetted member than used nobody and let a leak run for a month.

Where going direct is better

The job is an emergency

Distribution is the wrong mechanism when water is coming through a ceiling. You want one person to say yes and set off. If that means clicking a sponsored result, click it: we have said the same thing on what the sponsored result costs you, and it remains the right call. The cost structure behind a listing is an interesting question at eleven in the morning and an irrelevant one when a ceiling is filling.

The work spans three trades

A hidden leak is rarely one job. It is detection, then repair, then making good the floor, wall or ceiling that had to be opened. Booked through an intermediary these are frequently three separate engagements with three quotes, and usually only the first was priced. That is not concealment, it is scope, and it is the single commonest surprise in this trade. Our answer is to do all three, which is the reason our reinstatement service exists.

You already know who you want

If somebody you trust has named a firm, ring the firm. Going via a platform to reach a business you have already chosen adds a cost of introduction to a decision that was already made.

The thing that actually changes your quote

Not paid against organic, and not directory against direct. It is whether the listing belongs to the firm that will attend, or to an intermediary that will pass you on. We have set that out in full in lead generation sites versus calling the firm direct, and in how trade directories are funded.

Two questions settle it on the phone. Are you the company that will send the engineer? And will my details go to anyone else? Neither answer is a wrong answer. Both models produce good repairs. But they price differently and behave differently, and you should know which one you are in before you agree anything.

What we will not claim

We have deliberately not characterised any named platform's vetting process, membership fees or scoring method anywhere in this cluster. Each of them runs its own site behind protections that return an error to automated requests, so we could not read their published pages directly, and describing a company's policies from search results is exactly the kind of thing we criticise elsewhere. If you want to know what a particular platform checks and charges, its own site says so and that is the version to trust.

We also make no allegation about anyone's conduct. Directories are large, regulated, mainstream businesses operating lawful models, and since 6 April 2025 they operate under a specific statutory regime on reviews that did not previously exist. The argument in this cluster is structural: who funds a platform shapes what the platform optimises for, and that is arithmetic rather than motive.

What we would want checked about us

Since we are asking you to consider going direct, here is the list we would want a careful person to run on us, and it is the same list we would want them to run on a directory member:

Company number and registered name, on Companies House.
Public liability cover, with the certificate read rather than mentioned, and the insured name matched to the company.
The rate and its structure, in writing, before anyone travels.
What happens to the charge if the leak is not found.
Whether the same firm repairs and reinstates, or whether you will be finding a plumber and a plasterer yourself.
Whether the report is written to support a trace and access insurance claim.

Our answers to three, four and five: £150 per hour, agreed before we attend, with the rate fixed once set and the total depending on how many hours the job takes. If we do not find the leak, you do not pay for the time we spent looking. And we repair and reinstate in-house, which is the entire reason this firm is shaped the way it is. The rest is on the pricing page, and the eleven questions are written to be pointed at us.

When not to call anyone yet

Some of this is not a job for a directory or for us:

A dripping tap or a leaking appliance hose. A washer or a hose clip, and often you.
Damp on a cold wall with no pipework near it. Usually condensation, which is ventilation and heating rather than a leak.
Water that only appears after heavy rain. Roofing, guttering or pointing. A roofer.
A boiler needing a top-up once or twice a year. Normal. Read the boiler pressure guide before booking anybody.
A leak on the water company's side of the boundary stopcock. Report it to your water company, because it may be their repair and their cost.

Frequently asked

Are trade directories worth using?: Yes, in specific cases: when you have no personal recommendation, when you want competing quotes on non-urgent work, when you want a complaints route that exists, or when you want document checks done that you would otherwise skip. They are weaker in an emergency, where distributing your enquiry to several firms produces callbacks rather than one van.
Is it cheaper to go direct to a tradesperson?: Not automatically. A direct firm is not carrying a cost of introduction inside its price, but cost base constrains a price rather than dictating one. What changes reliably is the chain: one conversation, one contract and one party responsible if something goes wrong.
Why is a leak firm writing about trade directories?: Because we are one of the businesses that would pay to be on them, and because the searches exist. We have declared the conflict at the top of this page: we are not listed on any directory, we could join several, and we benefit if you contact us directly. Read the advice accordingly.
Should I use a directory in an emergency?: Use whatever gets a competent person to the leak fastest, which is often a paid listing or a firm with a 24-hour desk. Turn the stopcock off, turn the electrics off if water is anywhere near them, and worry about the cost structure of the listing afterwards.
What is the one question worth asking whoever I contact?: Are you the company that will send the engineer? It decides who you are contracting with, whose insurance responds, who you complain to, and whether the person quoting you can actually tell you what will be done when they arrive.

Sources

No find, no fee · £150 per hour. The rate is fixed before we attend and does not rise for a difficult property, an awkward access or an evening visit. The total depends on how long the job takes; the rate cannot change.