A letter from Thames Water drops through a Reading letterbox: the new smart meter has recorded continuous flow, water moving at three in the morning when everyone was asleep. Nothing is wet, no tap drips, yet the meter never stops turning. With smart meters being fitted across Reading under Thames Water’s rollout, that letter or app alert is how many households first learn they have a leak they could never have seen.
Finding that leak without wrecking the house is what non-invasive leak detection is for. TrueFlow traces the leak to a precise point first, then opens up only the small area the repair needs. Quotes are free, the firm is fully insured, and the phone is answered around the clock from our Bracknell base.
Victorian floors, cellars and 1,400 shared houses
Solid floors and cellars are what make Reading leaks so patient. Beneath the terraces of Katesgrove, Newtown and the Oxford Road area, supply runs dating from the Victorian boom still snake under quarry tiles and along cellar walls. A pinhole in ageing copper, iron or lead pipework does not announce itself down there; it can weep for months into the ground, or surface only as a faint damp smell nobody can place. Reading’s water is also hard, at around 290 to 330 mg/l of calcium carbonate, and decades of scale and corrosion leave old pipework prone to exactly these slow, silent failures.
Tenure makes it worse. Reading has more than 1,400 licensed HMOs, with additional licensing extending borough-wide to smaller shared houses from March 2026. Tenants report what they can see, so a slow leak in a shared house often goes unmentioned until a stain surfaces, by which point it may be months old. Landlords then need it found fast, with rooms occupied or between tenancies.
How non-invasive leak detection works
We combine acoustic listening, thermal imaging and moisture mapping, adding tracer gas when nothing else can pick the leak up, and narrow the source to a specific point rather than a general area. That means one small, deliberate opening instead of a trail of lifted boards and broken tiles. Once the leak is exposed, we agree the exact repair price before any work starts, and the repair carries our 6-month guarantee.
For landlords and letting agents, we can carry out detection with tenants in situ, agree everything by phone or email, and provide a written report of what was found, where, and what was done. That report earns its keep with insurers too: trace and access cover, where your buildings policy includes it, can take the sting out of the finding stage, though the pipe repair itself usually sits outside it. Ask your insurer or check the wording before assuming.
Reading leak detection questions
Thames Water says my smart meter shows continuous flow. What now?
Confirm it first: turn off every outlet, note the meter reading, and check again an hour later. If it has moved, water is escaping on your side of the stop valve. Call us and we will trace it to a precise point before anything is opened up.
Can you find a leak under the solid floor of my Victorian terrace without digging it all up?
Yes. Acoustic and thermal surveying works from above the floor, so we pinpoint the leak and excavate only a small area directly over it rather than breaking out the whole floor.
I’m a Reading landlord and tenants have reported damp. Can you investigate with them still in place?
Yes. Detection is non-invasive and causes minimal disruption to occupied rooms. We can arrange access with your tenants, report findings to you or your agent, and agree the exact repair price before any work.
Whether it started with a Thames Water letter or a musty cellar in Katesgrove, call TrueFlow on 0808 175 7440. For the rest of what we do in town, see our plumber in Reading page.