If you in any way suspect that there has been a water system failure in your home, unfortunately, you will not be able to do without a specialist visit. Before you outsource any work, however, there are a few things you can do yourself to find the source of a water leak in your home.
Remember that the water looks for the easiest way to overcome gravity, so the visible moisture in a given part of the apartment does not have to indicate a failure in this place.
Check The Pressurized Water For Water Leak
Hot and cold water installations are pressure installations, so even a small unsealing can be a source of considerable problems. To check the tightness of the installation, perform a leak test using the water supplier’s meter. Please follow the steps below:
- Turn off all the taps
- Move the lever/butterfly at the water meter to a position perpendicular to the pipe – cut off the water in the premises
- Do not use the water in the property for 3 to 12 hours (if possible). It’s best to try it at night. During the test, it is not allowed to turn on taps or flush the water in the toilets. If any tap is opened, repeat the entire test.
- Move the lever/butterfly at the water meter to a position parallel to the pipe and at the same time observe the meter reading
With very small leaks, just observing the meter will not be sufficient as the leakage may be less than the meter inertia. The suggested water shut-off should be performed for the longest possible time and is the most reliable test in water systems where there is no large pressure fluctuation in the municipal network. After opening the counter, see if you can observe the movement of the code dial (No. 1), and maybe even the movement of the dial on the right side (No. 2). Any movement indicates that your system has run out of water and the meter has counted the flow to refill it.
Check The Heating System
There is a pressure gauge (dial with pointer) next to the stove. Check that the clue is in the correct field. If you have to allow water into the system (the tip goes down) the leakage is most likely from the heating system. After refilling water, bleed the installation and check when the pointer moves noticeably (this shows the size of the leak and the actions that must be taken).
How to find a broken pipe in the floor?
Locating the leak (if we already know that it is a broken pipe) is possible by non-invasive methods. A leak in the floor can be found using a geophone. That is a specialized acoustic microphone connected to a sound processing set. The accuracy of the geophone’s indication is strictly dependent on the amount of water that seeps through the pipe (the greater the leakage, the greater the noise).
However, it should be remembered that the smaller the leakage and the deeper the pipe is, the lower the accuracy of the indication will be. In addition to the geophone, a leak for hot water can be located using a thermal imaging camera. It is also essential to test the moisture content of walls and floors around the damaged area. Read more on how to find a water leak in your floor.
How to locate a water leak in a wall?
Locating leaks in walls is usually easier than locating in the floor. This is due to the smaller thermal insulation of the pipes. Pipes are placed shallower in the walls than in the floor. For non-invasive leak detection, the same methods are used as for the floor. That is humidity tests, thermovision tests and listening with the use of a geophone.
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