Water Leak Underground? Located Accurately Before We Dig in Solihull

How underground leaks start

The pipe between the boundary and your house is out of sight and, in older properties, may be original. Lead and galvanised steel both corrode through over decades. Copper buried in aggressive soil can pit, especially where builders' rubble or ash was used as backfill. Modern plastic pipe is durable but not indestructible: a badly made joint, a stone pressed against it, or movement in the ground can all start a leak.

Ground conditions do the rest. Clay soils shift with wet and dry seasons and flex the pipe until a joint gives. Tree roots find moisture and grow towards a small weep, widening it. Heavy vehicles over a driveway add load that a shallow run was never designed for. Frost can lift and crack a pipe laid too shallow, particularly where it runs under a path.

Why it gets worse

Water escaping under pressure does not sit still. It travels through the soil, following the easiest path, and washes fine particles away with it. That creates a void, which is why paving slabs drop and why a lawn can feel spongy. In the worst cases the void reaches a foundation or a drain, and the repair becomes a building problem rather than a plumbing one.

On a metered supply you pay for every litre. A leak that runs continuously, day and night, shows up on the bill and does not stop until the pipe is repaired. Damp can also enter a cellar or a ground-floor wall, and the constant moisture attracts roots that make the damage worse. None of this improves with time.

How we diagnose it

We start at the meter. With every outlet closed and the internal stop tap open, a moving meter confirms water is being used somewhere it should not be. Closing the internal stop tap and watching the meter tells us whether the loss is on the supply pipe or inside the property, which is the first and most useful split.

From there we locate the run. We use acoustic listening at fittings and at the ground surface, and where needed a tracer gas test to confirm the line of a pipe whose route is unknown. Moisture readings and a thermal view of the ground help narrow the area, and a probe rod confirms how saturated the soil is. The aim is to identify the point to excavate before any paving is lifted.

How we fix it

We excavate by hand around the located point, keeping the trench as small as the repair allows, and expose the pipe properly. A failed joint is remade with the correct fitting for the pipe material. A corroded section is cut out and replaced, with transition fittings where old lead or steel meets new plastic or copper. Where a run has failed repeatedly, or where the route passes under a structure, we may recommend re-routing or moling a new section rather than digging up the same ground twice.

After the repair the pipe is pressure tested, the trench is backfilled in layers and compacted, and the surface is reinstated as agreed. We run the taps and confirm the meter is still with everything closed before we leave.

Prevention

Know where your internal stop tap is and check it turns — in a leak, that valve is what limits the damage. Watch your meter occasionally with everything off; a moving dial is the earliest warning you will get. Avoid planting trees and shrubs directly over the supply route. If your supply pipe is original lead or steel and has already been repaired once, plan for replacement rather than waiting for the next failure.

When to call us

Call when the meter runs with all taps closed, when water is surfacing in the garden or through paving, or when the ground has sunk along the line of the pipe. If water is entering the house or undermining a wall or driveway, treat it as urgent — this is the stage where an emergency leak repair near me is the right call, and we will prioritise the visit the same day. A bill that has jumped without a change in usage is worth investigating before the ground shows anything.

Book a call-out

Excavation and reinstatement beyond the immediate repair are discussed and priced before we start digging.