Leak Detection Guides & Advice
Practical guides from MCR Leak Detection: finding hidden water leaks, trace and access insurance, boiler pressure problems, and what Scottish homeowners, landlords and businesses need to know. New guides are added regularly.
7 Leak Detection Myths That Cost Homeowners Money
The stain is not below the leak, sealer is a gamble, and your Scottish water bill will never warn you. Seven leak detection myths that open the wrong holes and sink insurance claims, each debunked with the evidence.
Burst Allowances for Scottish Businesses: How to Claim
A hidden burst inflates a metered business water bill fast, but much of that money can be claimed back. Here is how the Scottish burst allowance works, the 9-month and 50% policy terms, and the evidence that gets claims approved.
How Much Water Does a Leak Actually Waste?
A dripping tap wastes up to 5,500 litres a year, a leaking toilet up to 400 litres a day, and a moderate burst 86,400 litres a day. Here are the sourced figures, and what those litres cost in unmetered Scotland.
After the Leak: Drying Out and Restoring a Water-Damaged Home
The pipe is fixed but the house is still wet. Here is how water damage restoration really works: mapping the moisture, drying to measured targets, deciding what to strip out, and keeping the insurer onside.
Boiler PRV Dripping? What a Leaking Pressure Relief Valve Means
A dripping copper pipe behind the boiler is the pressure relief valve talking. Here is how to tell a failed valve seat from a failed expansion vessel, and why a weeping PRV so often gets mistaken for a hidden pipe leak.
Microbore Central Heating Pipes: Why They Leak and How We Find Them
The pencil-thin 8-10mm heating pipe fitted from the 1970s to the 1990s kinks, silts up and hides its leaks under floors. Why microbore fails, the signs to watch on the boiler gauge, and how tracer gas pinpoints a leak without lifting the lot.
Pipe Corrosion: Why Pipes Eventually Leak
Corrosion is the slow chemistry behind most pipe failures, and Scotland’s soft water gives copper no protective scale. How pinhole leaks form, the early warning signs on visible pipework, and when a weeping joint means repair, treat or replace.
Plastic vs Copper Pipes: Which Leaks More (and How)?
Copper leaks through corrosion pinholes and splits when frozen; plastic pipe rarely fails itself but its fittings do. An honest comparison of how each material leaks in Scottish homes, and why the material changes how a hidden leak is found.
Rodent Damage to Pipes: The Leak Cause Nobody Suspects
Rats and mice gnaw constantly, and modern plastic pipe is soft enough to chew through. Why rodents attack pipework, where the damage happens in Scottish homes, and how a chewed pipe in a hidden void gets found without demolition.
Leaks on Private Water Supplies in Rural Scotland
On a private water supply the owner is responsible for every metre of pipe, from spring or borehole to the kitchen tap. How leaks show themselves on rural Scottish supplies, and how they get found on long, unmapped runs without trenching a field.
Holiday Homes and Empty Properties: Managing Leak Risk
A leak in an empty house has all winter to work, and in unmetered Scotland no bill ever raises the alarm. How unoccupancy clauses change your insurance, the heat-or-drain decision, the key-holder routine that protects a distant property, and what to do if you arrive and find water.
Property Factors and Leak Detection: How Repairs Get Organised in Scottish Blocks
When water starts moving through a factored block, repairs stall until someone establishes whose pipe failed. How factors, title deeds and the Tenement Management Scheme fit together, who instructs the detection survey, and why an independent report unlocks stalled repairs.