Water leak must be repaired as quickly as possible. Open leaks are easy to see – in this case, the water is gushing out of the ground. But there are leaks that are not so easy to detect.
Quite often house owners do not want to replace old water pipes, based on the fact that the upcoming work will cost quite a bit, and it is quite difficult to perform. The process of replacing water pipes requires the use of specialized tools, as well as work experience.
Old water pipes that have served for decades without proper maintains and repair, in most cases are clogged with rust, slag and other deposits. Inside the pipe there is only a small gap through which the flow of water, and as a consequence, the pressure in the pipe decreases.
There is also another problem with rust on old pipes. Holes are then formed from which water begins to flow. In such places, the wall of the pipe becomes quite thin, and not withstanding the pressure of water, bursts. These places are quite dangerous and extremely vulnerable. Such pipes can at any time break through and flood your property, and with it – and your neighbours.
In the past, you had to dig out the entire pipe path to underground water leak detection. It is time-consuming, troublesome and inconvenient – you need to turn off the water supply, block the road, etc.
Today we have super tech equipment. The optimal solution to a problem always follows from its cause.
Threats of water leaks
Such unexpected leaks and burst water pipes lead to:
- Damage to your property
- Flooding your neighbours
- Mildew
- Overconsumption of water
- significant impact on your family budget
The most dangerous of these factors to human health is mold. Spending a lot of time in rooms with high humidity, each of you risk your health.
The state of a person is adversely affected by pathogenic spores of mold and fungus, which “feel” well in high humidity. As a rule, the nidus of such bacteria are based in places with high humidity, respectively, also near the leaking pipes. Spores enter the human body through the respiratory tract, being absorbed into the blood. Then they destroy beneficial bacteria and suppress immunity.
In addition, mold also literally “eats away” building materials and affects their quality. Thus, you will need not only to take care of solving your health problems, but also to carry out repairs in this room, as well as to think about replacing the plumbing, if that is what caused the pathogenic bacteria.
Fighting mold is difficult enough – both at the level of treating your health as well as the level of repairs done. No medication in this case can help you unless you eliminate the cause of mold and mildew. In that case, you will need to properly identify the cause of the pathogenic bacteria and eliminate it.
There are special remedies that help fight mold and mildew, but it’s not easy to find a one-size-fits-all solution. Without trying several remedies in practice, you will not be able to determine the most suitable option for you. The best solution in this case is a routine check of the plumbing for hidden leaks and the timely elimination of problems.
Separate attention should be paid to destruction of foundation and brickwork in houses (sometimes it happens in apartments as well). Hidden water leaks in this case symbolize those holes, corrosion or cracks that are formed in the pipeline. Water in such cases does not immediately come out, but flow underground, washing its way up to several tens of meters in some cases.
Thus, the water gets into the brick or concrete (depending on what material the house is built of), saturates it, and when it reaches sub-zero ambient temperatures freezes, and then tears the material from the inside. It is worth noting that wet materials also give off heat faster, i.e. wet walls in the house will be colder than dry ones.
How to find a hidden leak
Such leaks are almost invisible to the human eye. They can be identified by indirect signs, such as a drop in pressure in the boiler or wetting of any areas of the wall or ceiling. At first glance, it may seem like a fairly simple problem, but it will last until the leak is 100% apparent. As noted earlier, pipe leaks are dangerous with sagging or complete foundation failure due to soil erosion.
The search for water leaks should be carried out with the help of specialized equipment. But in some cases, you can do without sophisticated tools. Initial inspection at sites with suspected leaks is carried out visually, examining the problem areas. Small or hidden leaks are quite difficult to visualize. The initial inspection of faults can be performed only in case of severe leaks.
Also in their work specialists use method of hidden water leaks detection with the help of building material moisture meters that measure humidity of brick, concrete, screed, foundation and other construction materials at different depths from 10 to 300 mm.
Special construction moisture meters of conductometric and dialectometric types are most commonly used in construction. These devices, which are small for measuring the moisture level of materials for both internal and external works. They are quite easy to use.
An alternative way to determine the problem areas of the pipeline is the use an acoustic water leak detector. These devices with high accuracy are able to localize the place of the leak. When water leaks, it creates an ultrasonic sound which is not perceived by human ear. A leak detector picks up this sound with an ultra-sensitive microphone and plays it back through headphones. The stronger the sound, the closer the leak is located. To search for leaks in underground utilities, in addition to a microphone (geophone), a shaping gas consisting of hydrogen (H2) is used. Hydrogen is pumped into the pipe system. Due to the fact that hydrogen is the lightest gas, it flows out of the pipe crack together with the water and is captured by the leak detector’s chemical sensor.
If you have any suspicions of water leaks or you notice that some parts of walls, floor or ceiling are getting wet, get in touch with us. Our specialists, through the use of high-precision equipment, will help you find even the small water leaks, which may require opening just a few tiles to fix.