A stain that comes back is a leak that goes on. We find it before we open.

What you see

A halo on the ceiling that grows after every shower. A stain at the bottom of a wall that dries and returns. Parquet lifting along a partition. A musty smell behind a kitchen unit. Or nothing at all, except a water meter that turns when everything is shut.

The rhythm is the first clue. A stain that grows with the use of a bathroom comes from a drain or a seal. A stain that grows with the rain comes from outside. Constant damp, linked to nothing, points to a pipe under pressure.

Where it comes from

The most common in Brussels: a shower or bath seal that has failed, with water running behind the tiles at every use. Then the drain of an appliance, a trap, a WC connection, a sink pipe, dripping into the floor.

Next come concealed pipes, copper or multilayer, that pierce with time or after a knock, and the heating circuit. And everything that looks like a leak without being one: water coming in through a terrace or the roof, condensation on a cold pipe, rising damp. We do not look for the same thing in each case, and we do not charge the same thing.

What we do

We listen and we look. Where, since when, at what rhythm, after what. We locate the nearest wet room, the run of the pipes, the appliance above. The water meter, shut for an hour, tells whether there is a leak under pressure.

We measure. A moisture meter on walls, ceilings and floors around the stain, to map the damp area and trace it back to its wettest point: that is where the water arrives.

We test. The shower run seal by seal, drains filled, dye in an appliance, a circuit put under pressure when needed. The thermal camera shows the path of a hot pipe or a cold, damp zone without dismantling anything.

We open in the right place, and we repair. One tile, one hatch, one cut in a board, not a whole wall. Then the repair, the drying and the making good by the same group: plastering, tiling, painting.

What it costs

On the Belgian market, a leak search most often costs between 150 and 400 euros excluding VAT depending on the means used, repair on top. That is an indicative range: the quote is written after the first visit, once we know what we are looking for.

Most home insurance policies cover leak search costs as part of a water damage claim, even when the leak itself is not covered. Our report, with photos and readings, supports the claim.