Free checklist

The 5-Minute Home Leak Check

Six places your home leaks first · Built by a family that's fixed leaks for 33 years · August 2026

Water damage is the UK's most common home insurance claim — insurers pay out roughly £1.8 million every day for escape-of-water damage (Aviva, July 2026). Almost every big leak started as a small one nobody noticed. This walk-around catches most of them early — no email needed, it's all right here.

1Under the kitchen sink

Put your hand on the pipes and the base of the cupboard. Damp? Swollen chipboard? White salt-like tidemarks? That's a slow leak, not condensation.

30-second check: Press a dry tissue along each pipe joint — any damp spot shows in seconds.

2Around the toilet base

A toilet that rocks slightly, or discoloured flooring around it, is often leaking at the seal on every flush.

30-second check: A few drops of food colouring in the cistern. Colour appearing around the base — or in the bowl without flushing — means a leak.

3Boiler pressure

Losing pressure every few days means the water is going somewhere — often a tiny leak in the system pipework.

30-second check: Note the pressure-gauge reading tonight and again tomorrow night. A visible drop, with no radiators bled, means investigate.

4Washing machine & dishwasher hoses

The most common flood in Britain is a burst fill hose — and they age invisibly behind the machine.

30-second check: Pull the machine out once a season. Look for bulges, rust rings, or drips at the hose ends.

5Radiator valves

Black staining or crusty white deposits on a valve — or the floor below it — means a weep. Small now, ruined floorboards later.

30-second check: A tissue wrapped around each valve nut for ten seconds tells the truth.

6Your water meter — the master check

Every tap and appliance off. If the meter is still creeping, something is leaking somewhere in your home.

30-second check: Photograph the meter, wait 30 minutes using no water, photograph again. Identical = tight. Moved = leak.

And the one thing everyone should know: where your stopcock is. When water is pouring through a ceiling you don't have time to search. Find it today and turn it once so you know it isn't seized.

Stick it on the fridge. Walk the house once a season.

Found something you can't read?

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