Top of main content

Our leak repair process

Over 95% of leaks are never seen by customers. They’re often small, underground and hard to find. Visible leaks – the ones that do reach the surface – are larger, but they don’t normally lose as much water. Our field teams work day and night to find as many leaks as possible.

We're currently fixing more than 1,000 leaks per week across our network. That means, on average, we're fixing a leak every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day.

We repair urgent leaks on the water mains and pipes that belong to us as soon as we can. We also replace pipes in poor condition as part of our ongoing investment programme.

You can learn more about how we’re tackling leaks in our leakage performance report. Plus find out about how we're using artificial intelligence to find and fix leaks quicker with FIDO.

Leak repair process

number one icon

Locate the leak

It's our responsibility to repair leaks on public pipes. Our teams work day and night to find and fix leaks but you can help us too. 

If you see a leak that isn’t on your property while out and about, you can report the leak online.

Report a leak

number two icon

Investigate the problem

One of our leakage teams will check what needs doing to fix the leak and how urgent it is. We prioritise repairs based on the:

  • Amount of water being lost
  • Effect on customers’ water supply
  • Complexity
  • Location
number three icon

Plan the logistics

We may need to work with the council and highways authorities if we need to close a road. If we’re working near other utility pipes, we'll need to coordinate with those companies.

We try to minimise disruption where possible. Closing roads at night helps us to avoid disrupting traffic and water supplies during the day. However, this may create noise when customers are sleeping. We’ll send letters to customers near the site.

number four icon

Repair and resurface

Once the plan is in place, we’ll send a repair team to fix the leak. This might involve turning off the water or redirecting water around other pipes.

Sometimes the repair teams need to dig down to the pipe by hand to be safe. This is usually when it’s in a tricky position and surrounded by other utility pipes like gas mains. 

When the pipe has been fixed, we'll resurface the road.