Leak detection in Luxembourg City

In a flat: which home is the leak coming from?

Much of the housing in Luxembourg City is flats in co-ownership buildings (copropriétés). The leak often shows up on the ceiling of the flat below, and the first question is not a technical one: who is involved? The neighbour upstairs, the shared riser, the roof terrace?

We isolate each circuit in the suspected flat and pressure-test it, which establishes whether or not it is leaking. We then pinpoint the leak. The report states whether the source is in a private part or a common part of the building: the syndic and the insurers need this to decide who covers the claim.

Newer residences: underfloor heating, service shafts, car parks

In the residences built over the last few decades, in Kirchberg, Gasperich or Cloche d’Or as elsewhere in the city, the same situations keep coming up:

• underfloor heating losing pressure, with heating loops embedded in the screed: we test each loop at the manifold, then the thermal imaging camera reveals the leak;
• pipes in service shafts and suspended ceilings, which endoscopy lets us inspect through a small opening;
• water ingress in underground car parks and basements, through buried walls, slab joints or the roof terrace above: fluorescein links the water that appears to the point where it gets in.

Old buildings: protecting what cannot be replaced

In the Ville Haute, Limpertsberg, Belair or the town houses of Gare and Bonnevoie, plumbing has often been altered over successive renovations. Old sections of galvanised steel, sometimes lead, sit alongside copper or multilayer pipe, and the joints between these materials are common leak points.

These buildings also have parquet floors, mouldings and old tiles that cannot be matched. This is where non-destructive detection matters most: opening up in the right place, over a small area, rather than probing a whole wall or floor.

In the valleys: a leak or damp from the ground?

In Grund, Clausen and Pfaffenthal, houses stand along the Alzette, often built against the rock. Cellar walls there are damp for reasons that have nothing to do with a leak: groundwater, rising damp. Before any work starts, we establish where the water is coming from: moisture mapping, then pressure tests on the pipes. If they are watertight, we tell you, and the report records it.

What we find in Luxembourg City

• Concealed and buried water pipes: in a floor slab, a wall, under the garden.
• Heating and underfloor heating: boiler losing pressure, radiators, heating loops in the screed.
• Drains and sewers: downpipes, connections, buried pipes, sewer smells.
• Showers, baths and leaks under tiles: supply, drain or waterproofing.
• Water ingress: roof, terrace, façade, basement.
• High water consumption: meter turning, abnormal bill, leak with no visible sign.