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Plumbing

Leak detection near you

Finding slab, wall and supply-line leaks before opening anything up.

Prepared by the TenBestFind Editorial TeamUpdated September 2026

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Enter your city or postal code and we will take you to the plumbing ranking for that market.

  • Part of

    Plumbing

  • Companies offer it

    204

  • Cities covered

    8

  • Last checked

    September 2026

The work

What leak detection actually involves

Finding it without opening the wall

The tools are acoustic listening equipment, thermal imaging, moisture meters and sometimes tracer gas, which is a harmless gas pushed into the line and sniffed out where it escapes. The point of all of them is the same: narrow the search from a room to a square foot before anybody cuts anything.

A leak under a slab or behind a finished wall is expensive mostly because of the opening up. An hour of detection routinely saves a day of exploratory demolition.

You can do the first test yourself. Turn off every fixture, note the meter reading, and check it again in two hours with nothing running. If it has moved, you have a leak on the supply side, and that is worth knowing before you call anyone.

Two jobs

Detection and repair are usually two different quotes

A detection company finds the leak and reports where it is. Whether the same firm then repairs it, and at what price, is a separate question, and one that is easy to assume the answer to.

Some firms do both and credit the detection fee against the repair. Some only detect. Some will repair but subcontract it. All are fine; discovering which after the fact is not.

Ask up front, because the detection fee is usually modest and the repair is not, and knowing whether you will be getting a second quote changes how you plan the day.

Failure points

Two things that go wrong

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  1. A guaranteed find, or a guaranteed bill

    Ask: “What happens if the first visit does not find it?”

    Detection is skilled work and it does not always succeed on the first visit, particularly with intermittent leaks. Firms differ on what happens then: some return at no charge, some charge again, some cap it. Worth settling before rather than during.

  2. Who closes the hole

    Ask: “After the repair, who patches the opening, and is that in the price?”

    Access is part of the job and making good usually is not. The plumber cuts a neat opening, fixes the pipe and leaves; the drywall, tile or render is yours. That is normal and it is also a cost nobody quotes for, so ask where the work stops.

Before you book leak detection

How we rank →

Six checks, in the order they save you the most. None of them takes longer than a phone call, and the first one is the reason two quotes for the same job can be a thousand apart.

  1. In-house or subcontracted

    Ask whether the crew doing this specific work is on their payroll. Plenty of companies list a service and hand it straight to somebody else, which is not wrong, but it changes who is answerable when something goes back.

  2. The licence for the parent trade

    Look the number up with the authority that issues it rather than reading the certificate they send you. What a licence covers, and whether one is needed at all, changes by state and province.

  3. Insurance, confirmed with the insurer

    A current certificate sent to you by the insurer, not a photocopy from the company. Ask for liability and, where crews are on site, workers' compensation.

  4. What the quote leaves out

    Removal, disposal, subfloor or substrate work, permits and making good afterwards are where two quotes on the same job separate. Ask for the exclusions in writing next to the inclusions.

  5. Two warranties, not one

    The manufacturer covers the material and the company covers the workmanship. Get the second in writing, with its length, and ask whether it transfers if you sell.

  6. How a change is priced

    Agree before the deposit how anything found on the way is priced and approved. The moment to settle that is while you are still choosing between companies, not on the day somebody lifts a floorboard.

Where we cover it

Plumbers shortlists by city

Every shortlist →

A company offering leak detection appears in the published list for its own market. Each one names the editor who built it and the date they last checked it.

On the lists

Companies that list leak detection

Drawn from the profiles where this service is recorded, not from what a company advertises.

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Plumbing guides

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Common questions about leak detection

Ask us something else →

  • Who handles leak detection?

    Leak detection is handled by plumbers. Not every company in the trade takes this work on, so each ranking lists the services a company genuinely performs rather than everything it advertises.

  • What should I ask before booking leak detection?

    Ask what the quote includes and excludes, who is doing the work, whether a permit is needed and who is pulling it, and what the workmanship warranty covers. Get the answers in writing before anyone starts.

  • How do I compare quotes for this?

    Put them on one sheet line by line. Differences in price almost always turn out to be differences in scope, material grade or warranty length rather than margin.

  • Is leak detection priced separately from the rest of the job?

    Usually it is a line inside a larger quote rather than its own invoice, which is exactly why the exclusions matter. Ask for it itemised so you can compare that line between companies instead of comparing two totals.

For plumbing

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