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Water leak detection in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch

Leak detection in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch locates hidden leaks in houses and flats alike, whether the water is escaping from indoor pipework, a heating system or the supply pipe, and whichever company supplies the street. West Country Leak Detection covers every district of the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch post towns, 18 in all.

Bournemouth Water or Wessex Water?

A leak on the supply pipe a block of flats sharesA section through a purpose-built block of flats. One supply pipe runs from the street under the forecourt and divides inside to each flat. Water is shown escaping from the shared length, before it divides.Shared supply pipeFlatsA leak on the supply pipe a block of flats sharesA section through a purpose-built block of flats. One supply pipe runs from the street under the forecourt and divides inside to each flat. Water is shown escaping from the shared length, before it divides.Shared supply pipeFlats
Diagram: a block of flats fed by one shared supply pipe, with a leak on the shared length.
Households in purpose-built flats
26.8%
Against 17.1% across England
Census 2021
Households in detached houses
35.6%
Census 2021
Bournemouth Water's supply from river intakes on the Hampshire Avon and the Dorset Stour
88%
Bournemouth Water

Source: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0

Source: Bournemouth Water, What we do.

Which BH districts fall within the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch service area?

The BH districts within the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch service area are the 18 districts of the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch post towns, listed by code below.

  • BH1 Bournemouth
  • BH2 Bournemouth
  • BH3 Bournemouth
  • BH4 Bournemouth
  • BH5 Bournemouth
  • BH6 Bournemouth
  • BH7 Bournemouth
  • BH8 Bournemouth
  • BH9 Bournemouth
  • BH10 Bournemouth
  • BH11 Bournemouth
  • BH12 Poole
  • BH13 Poole
  • BH14 Poole
  • BH15 Poole
  • BH16 Poole
  • BH17 Poole
  • BH23 Christchurch

Outside the three towns, West Country Leak Detection also covers the BH districts of Broadstone, Swanage, Wareham, Wimborne, Ferndown and Verwood. You will find each of them in the list of every postcode district covered, area by area.

Which hidden leaks does an investigation in Bournemouth, Poole or Christchurch look for?

An investigation in Bournemouth, Poole or Christchurch looks at four kinds of hidden leak: those on indoor water pipes, those on central heating, those on the buried supply pipe, and those an insurance claim depends on.

Each one deals with water in pipes. A roof letting rain in falls outside them, and West Country Leak Detection leaves roofs to the trades that repair them.

  • Water leak detection

    Running water heard with every tap turned off could mean a leak, Aviva says, and indoors that points at the hot and cold pipework.

    Water leak detection for pipes in walls, floors and ceilings

    Pipe
    Hot and cold water pipework and fittings inside the property
    What points to it
    Damp patches or stains, peeling paint or bubbling wallpaper, a musty smell, running water with every tap off
    Methods
    Acoustic listening, thermal imaging on hot pipes, moisture mapping, pressure testing and tracer gas

  • Central heating leak detection

    Vaillant UK's list for a boiler that keeps losing pressure includes rust marks around radiators and bubbling skirting boards.

    Central heating leak detection

    Pipe
    The sealed heating circuit: radiators and their valves, flow and return pipes, underfloor heating loops
    What points to it
    A boiler gauge that keeps falling below 1 bar, damp spots or rust marks around radiators, a wet patch around underfloor heating
    Methods
    Pressure testing, loop by loop for underfloor heating, then thermal imaging or tracer gas

  • Underground water leak detection

    WaterSafe counts an unusually high water bill among the signs of a leaking supply pipe, which matters in an area where every home is due a meter.

    Underground water leak detection

    Pipe
    The supply pipe buried between the property boundary and the house
    What points to it
    A meter dial still moving with the internal stop tap closed, an unexplained rise in a metered bill, wet ground or lush grass outside
    Methods
    Acoustic listening along the pipe's route, and tracer gas where the leak is quiet

  • Trace and access

    Admiral describes trace and access cover as paying for the search for a hidden leak's source, while mending the leaking pipe sits outside it.

    Trace and access for an escape of water claim

    Pipe
    Water pipes, the central heating or the buried supply pipe, wherever the escaping water starts
    What points to it
    A home insurer asking for the leak's source to be traced before the claim proceeds
    Methods
    The method that suits the pipe, with the leak's position, the access needed, photographs and the cause where known recorded

How is the conurbation split between Bournemouth Water and Wessex Water?

The conurbation is split by address: Bournemouth Water supplies Bournemouth and Christchurch, while Poole is divided between Bournemouth Water and Wessex Water, so a Poole household should check its postcode with the companies.

Poole is split: Wessex Water supplies water and sewerage at the central Poole postcodes BH15 2RU and BH15 2JB, while Bournemouth Water supplies the water at BH12 5BB, and Bournemouth Water's own postcode search places BH15 2RU outside its area.

Source: Discover Water, Who supplies my water; Bournemouth Water, Hard water

Bournemouth Water's postcode box sits on Bournemouth Water's hard water page and says when an address is outside its supply area. Bournemouth Water belongs to South West Water Limited but runs as a separate business, and the sewage from its customers' homes goes to Wessex Water or Southern Water, depending on where they live.

Which pipe Bournemouth Water looks afterBournemouth Water's communication pipe runs to the boundary of the street the main is laid in, and it looks after the external stop tap. The supply pipe from that boundary to the internal stop tap belongs to the homeowner.Bournemouth WaterHomeownerWhich pipe Bournemouth Water looks afterBournemouth Water's communication pipe runs to the boundary of the street the main is laid in, and it looks after the external stop tap. The supply pipe from that boundary to the internal stop tap belongs to the homeowner.Bournemouth WaterHomeowner
Diagram: Bournemouth Water's pipe and the homeowner's supply pipe. Parts of Poole get their water from Wessex Water, and its own wording applies there.

In Bournemouth Water's own words, it owns the communication pipe and looks after the external stop tap, while the homeowner owns the supply pipe from the boundary of the street the main is laid in to the internal stop tap, which is usually under the kitchen sink.

Its help with leaks opens with a free leak detection visit of no more than thirty minutes, plus advice on the next steps, and that visit is Bournemouth Water's to give, separate from anything West Country Leak Detection does. Contributions towards a repair or replacement follow, but their amounts and terms differ across Bournemouth Water's own pages, and so do the time limits for its leak allowance. Read them on Bournemouth Water's leak allowance page before relying on any figure.

Meters are spreading too. South West Water's draft water resources plan says the Bournemouth area is classified as water stressed by Defra and that all properties there will be fitted with a water meter to help reduce demand.

What happens when a leak spreads between flats in a Bournemouth block?

When a leak spreads between flats in a Bournemouth block, the water can damage the flat below before anyone sees where it starts, a supply pipe that serves several flats is jointly owned by those it serves, and the freeholder or landlord, the flat owners and their insurers each have a part.

Blocks are a large share of the housing here. In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, 26.8% of households live in purpose-built flats, more than one in four, against 17.1% across England (Census 2021).

South West Water, whose pipe wording Bournemouth Water repeats under its own name, puts the flats case plainly: "If the supply pipe is shared, the responsibility of looking after it is shared between the homeowners it supplies." For a rented flat, the 1985 Landlord and Tenant Act (section 11) places the repair of the home's water installations with a landlord on a short residential lease.

Who pays for damage between flats is for the owners, the landlord and the insurers to settle, and this page leaves it to them. What a trace adds is the source: one pipe, located before plaster or paving is broken, so each party knows whose pipe it was. Water already coming through a ceiling is covered under water leak detection when water comes through from the flat above.

Which rivers supply the conurbation's taps?

The Hampshire Avon and the Dorset Stour supply most of Bournemouth Water's water: 88% comes from river intakes on the two rivers and 12% from boreholes.

Avon water from the intakes at Matchams and Knapp Mill is treated at Bournemouth Water's Knapp Mill works. Its Alderney works takes water from Longham Lakes, treated first at Longham.

Bournemouth Water's postcode search classes the water at the Town Hall postcode, BH2 6DY, as hard.

How do you report a leak to Bournemouth Water or Wessex Water?

Report a leak to the company that supplies your postcode: Bournemouth Water takes reports on its Leaks page, and Wessex Water through its Report a problem page.

Unsure which of the two serves a Poole street? Wessex Water's Find your water supplier page points households to Water UK's postcode checker, and it warns that new builds and homes along the edge of its region can be missing from its own listing. Once the company's pipe is ruled out, the leak on your side of the boundary is the one West Country Leak Detection traces.