- Home
- Case studies
- Factory unit: a hidden leak under the toilet floor
Leak under a concrete floor at a factory unit using 12 litres a minute
The meter showed water running all the time. Isolation tests traced it to a cold feed under the toilet floor, which ADI cut off and bypassed with new pipe.
What was happening
A first meter test at the factory unit showed water going through at 12 litres a minute. The incoming main split to two internal stopcocks, one for the offices and one for the factory, and some other stopcocks on the site had already been isolated.
What the engineer did
An isolation test on the factory side of the supply showed the loss was after the factory stopcock. The engineer followed the plumbing along that line and found a copper feed running into the floor in the men's toilets. Isolating that feed confirmed a large leak.
What was found
A leaking cold-water feed under the screed floor in the toilets. The engineer noted that several copper pipes under the floors on this site had failed and been isolated in the past.
What happened next
ADI cut off about 3 metres of the supply under the floor and bypassed it with new 15 mm pipe and push-fit fittings, then checked that every known outlet still had water. With the leak isolated, the meter showed about 2 litres a minute, which the engineer thought was normal use for the site. The customer was told the old pipe might have fed an outlet nobody knew about, and to report any outlet found without water.
If you run a warehouse or factory
On older sites, pipes buried in screed can fail one after another. Where it is practical, running new pipework on the surface makes the next leak far easier to find, and a meter reading while the site is quiet is the quickest way to tell whether water is going somewhere it should not.
More case studies
Factory: a leaking mains connection under the car park
Water pressure had dropped and the bills were unusually high, with no leak in sight. Pressure testing pointed to the incoming main, where a leaking connection was dug out and repaired.
Factory: rain getting in through the roof and a stairwell window
Rain was dripping into the factory at several points and coming in at a stairwell window. Dye, tracer gas and thermal imaging showed the routes in, for a roofer and a window contractor to repair.