Survey fees
A survey fee is a measure of how much elimination the building needs
Two properties with the same symptom can be two very different jobs. The number of circuits to isolate, the pipe material under the floor and the depth of written record you need are what set the figure. This page explains each of those, and the table below shows how the time of attendance is banded.
Rates by time of day
Attendance time is banded rather than negotiated, so the same survey does not cost one thing on a Tuesday morning and something else on a Saturday without a reason you can read in advance.
| Service | 7AM – 5PMStandard hours | 5PM – 12AMEvenings | 12AM – 7AMNight / emergency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leak Detection | POA | POA | POA |
| Thermal Imaging Survey | POA | POA | POA |
| Acoustic Detection | POA | POA | POA |
| Trace & Access (Insurance) | POA | POA | POA |
| Emergency Plumber | POA | POA | POA |
“POA” means the rate for that slot has not been published here. Describe the property and we will confirm a figure in writing before anyone sets off.
What the fee buys, stage by stage
A survey is not one undifferentiated block of time. It runs in stages, and each stage either ends the job or earns the next one. Knowing where your job stopped is how you check the invoice against the work.
Stage one: elimination
Establishing which system is losing water before anything is opened.
- Meter observed with the internal stop tap open, then closed
- Pressure decay test run on each heating and supply circuit separately
- Boiler side ruled in or out, expansion vessel behaviour included
- Appliances, cisterns and sanitary ware checked off one at a time
- Written statement of which circuit failed and by how much
Some jobs finish here. A passing fill loop or a waterlogged vessel is not a detection survey and is not charged as one.
Stage two: pinpointing
Reducing the failed circuit to a point a repair can be cut to.
- Acoustic correlation where the pipe is copper, steel or iron
- Tracer gas at 5% hydrogen in nitrogen where the pipe is plastic or under screed
- Thermal imaging to read the heat signature of a pressurised hot run
- Moisture mapping to separate the leak point from where water surfaced
- A second method run over the same point to confirm the first
A finding is only useful if it survives a second method. One reading that nothing corroborates is a hypothesis, not a location.
Stage three: the record
Turning the finding into something a property professional can act on.
- Cause and origin stated in plain terms, with the method that established each
- Moisture readings logged by room with the meter scale named
- Photographs keyed to the marked point and the access route to it
- Scope of opening up needed, so a contractor can price without a second visit
- Findings that exonerate a party stated as clearly as findings that implicate one
Landlords, freeholders and managing agents use this to settle who pays before anyone lifts a floor.
No find, no fee applies to the detection fee on a confirmed live leak. If our methods cannot reduce it to a repairable point, you do not pay for the attempt. We would rather lose a fee than sign a location we cannot evidence.
Four things that move the figure
How much system has to be eliminated
A one bathroom flat on a combi has perhaps three circuits to isolate. A converted townhouse with two bathrooms, underfloor heating on two zones and a booster set has closer to a dozen. Elimination time is the single largest variable in any survey fee.
What the pipe material forces us to use
Copper carries leak noise, so acoustic work is quick. Plastic and PEX absorb it, which pushes the job to tracer gas, and tracer gas means draining the circuit down and waiting for the gas to surface. The material decides the method and the method decides the hours.
What sits between us and the pipe
Resin floors, stone, fitted joinery, listed fabric and communal risers all change how a circuit is reached and how a reading is taken. On protected fabric we plan the access route before the survey rather than during it, and that planning is part of the job.
How far the written record has to go
A verbal location and a marked floor is enough for an owner occupier who is fixing it themselves. A document that will be read by a freeholder, a leaseholder and their contractor needs readings, photographs and a stated method for every conclusion in it. Say which one you need when you book.
Questions about how we quote
Why is there no price list on this page?
Because a price list would make the method a billing decision. If a fixed figure is attached to "tracer gas" before anyone has seen the building, there is a commercial reason to reach for tracer gas whether or not the pipe material calls for it. We quote per property once we know the circuits, the pipe material and the finishes involved, and the rates in the table above tell you how the time of attendance is banded.
What do published market rates actually say?
Checkatrade publishes an average of £162 for UK leak detection, a typical range of £115 to £234, and a full spread of £80 to £1,600 once hard to trace work is included, with hourly rates of £95 to £145. Those are their figures, not ours, and they are worth knowing because they show how wide the band is. A quote near the bottom of that spread and a quote near the top can both be honest: they are describing different amounts of elimination work.
What is confirmed before an engineer travels?
The survey fee, the time band it falls in and any call-out or minimum charge shown above. If the property description turns out to be materially different on arrival, for example a second heating zone nobody mentioned, we say so and re-agree before continuing rather than adding it to an invoice afterwards.
Does the fee change if stage one ends the job?
Yes, downward. If the pressure test isolates a boiler component or a passing valve in the first hour, that is what you are billed for. Dressing up a twenty minute finding as a full multi-method survey is exactly the behaviour that makes property managers distrust detection firms.
Who agrees the fee on a managed block?
Whoever instructs us. In practice that is usually the managing agent or the freeholder where the suspected pipework is communal, and the leaseholder where it is demised. We will say which of those two the evidence points to once stage one is done, but we take the instruction from the party who booked and confirm the fee with them before travel.
Are repairs priced inside the survey fee?
No, and deliberately not. Detection is quoted and settled on its own; the repair is quoted separately once the scope is actually known, and you are free to hand that scope to your own contractor. Keeping the two apart is what stops a survey from quietly finding whatever is most profitable to fix.
Tell us the building and we will tell you the figure
Number of bathrooms, heating type, floor construction, whether it is demised or communal pipework. That is usually enough to quote the survey and say which methods it will need.
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