finding leaks with thermal imaging

Does anyone know of a company that finds underfloor leaks in central heating etc by thermal imaging? Or indeed any other means! Have creeping damp patch on hotpress floor (house is a bungalow and floor is bare cement). It increases a few inches a month roughly. Seems worse since heating season is over.

theod said:

Does anyone know of a company that finds underfloor leaks in central heating etc by thermal imaging? Or indeed any other means! Have creeping damp patch on hotpress floor (house is a bungalow and floor is bare cement). It increases a few inches a month roughly. Seems worse since heating season is over.

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There are 3 ways of detecting leaks in central heating:

1. Thermal image camera with central heating on. This will show up in concrete floors as red/orange area. The problem with this is that uninsulated joints within the concrete show up the same colour and when you break up the concrete, there is no leak.

2. Sonic listening device. Very good but can be deceiving with surrounding noise, such as rain outside. They are very precise.

3. Drain system, fill with gas and gas detecting device sources leakage.

The best is a combination of thermal image camera used in conjunction with sonic listening device.
A guy I know has all 3 devices and is excellent at finding leaks, however, it will depend on what part of the country you are in.

Saying that, if you know where the leak is, and you can see the wet patch, why not break up the concrete in that area and see if that is where the leak is. It will be far cheaper than to get somebody out with the above equipment. The guy I know charges €300 plus any repair works needed.

I had exact same problem - and did as Shane says broke up the concrete around the damp patch with a hammer and chisel took my time not to do damage the pipes & it was straightforward found the source of the leak quickly - it was a pinhole on a solder joint & in fact I left the pipe exposed for over a year without mending it because once the concrete was removed the leak wasn't that bad so I waited until I had to get a plumber in to do another job and got it fixed then.

Just remember that water will travel along pipework and it's insulation showing up in another area. This is caused by the capillary attraction between the close fitting surfaces such as pipe and it's insulation.
The signs of a leak underfloor may in fact be a problem several metres away.
In a lot of cases I have located leaks in heating systems in close proximity to a radiator that needs to be bled constantly.
If the leak is found to be on a domestic service, ie, hot or cold, and your system in well pumped, I would definitly look into getting the pH of your water checked as water with a low pH will attack copper and any of it's alloys, ie, brass, bronze.

You could try some leak sealer in to your system