Specialty water damage recovery services
Leak detection is a highly specialised service that can pinpoint precisely what is causing water damage to your property. It also addresses what needs to be done to rectify the issue, and what will need repairs to make sure everything that has been affected by the water damage is completely fixed. The unfortunate thing with many leaks is that by the time water damage is visible to you, there’s likely many problems hidden below the surface that have progressed quite far and will cost a bit to fix.
Leak detection and recovery can range from fixing a minor plumbing problem (for example a leaking pipe), to having to rebuild entire walls and floors where ongoing leaks have rotten away sections of your home. It also includes basement recovery where inadequately waterproofed basements have flooded and pooled, requiring more extensive repair and waterproofing work.
In order to best help us carry out these leak detection services, you will need to provide photos of any visible running water from the leak wherever. This will assist in determining an origin point, especially on large-scale water leaks like balconies that may not be apparent except in heavy rainfall, or by flood-testing the area (something we try to avoid while in a drought). This is less necessary for bathrooms, laundries or kitchens where running the tap usually provides enough water for detection.
The initial leak detection inspection may also require some slightly invasive assessment, such as the removal of tiles in order to see how far the damage has penetrated your flooring or walls. There’s no point in only repairing part of the water damage, especially when it’s severe. It’s also not possible to quote repairs accurately if we can’t tell how bad it really is.
Leak detection is a standard part of our basement recovery and water damage recovery services. As these services are time-critical, we highly recommend that you contact us sooner rather than later if you have a problem leak. The best time to attend to water damage is when the moisture build up is slight and doesn’t appear to be an issue. By the time things start to look bad, your repair bill will have already skyrocketed, because the worst issues are most likely hidden from immediate view.
If you're not sure whether your leak has caused any significant damage, it's better to get us in to look at it sooner rather than later. If there's little to no damage, then at least it's a cheap way to get peace of mind and minor repairs. It's much better than the alternative, which could potentially end with us finding it's been left for too long and the entire wall behind your tiling has rotten away.
We start by assessing the leak and checking how much damage has been done to surrounding infrastructure. Once we have determined the leak origin, we fix this first as there’s no point in repairing damage if it will simply reoccur. We then repair the water damage that has been caused by the leak. In extreme cases, this can even mean demolition of an entire area (ie. shower or bathroom), then the subsequent rebuild and waterproofing of the area.
This depends on how much damage has been done to the wall. It could be just a cosmetic thing, in which case only minor repairs and painting might be needed. If the wall is sagging however, or if it’s a shower wall that wasn’t properly waterproofed, we do really need to repair the wall or more extensive repairs will be needed soon.