Leak Detection Southwark

Southwark holds the warehouse conversions of Shad Thames and Bermondsey, the Victorian terraces of Peckham, Camberwell and Nunhead, some of the largest council estates in inner London, and a dense band of new towers at Elephant and Castle and along Bankside. The conversions are the ones that surprise people. Exposed brick and timber look simple, but the services were retro-fitted when the building changed use, so they run in boxed ceiling voids, above dropped sections and through floors that were designed for pallets rather than plumbing. Water travels a long way along a steel or concrete floor before it drops, which means the wet patch and the failed joint are often in different flats. Most of these buildings have management cover overnight, and that cover is usually the only way into the void. Height adds its own complication in the newer buildings around Elephant and Castle and along the river. Water supply to the upper floors is boosted, drainage stacks serve dozens of flats, and communal heating runs through risers that pass every landing. A failure on any of those releases far more water, far faster, than a domestic pipe in a house, and the only effective response is isolation at the riser rather than anything done inside one flat.