Leak Detection Hourly Rate vs the Package: Break-Even Hours

At how many hours does each rate pass the package?

Break-even is the package price divided by the hourly rate. Below that number of hours the hourly route is cheaper, above it the package is. The hours column is rounded to one decimal place and was worked out from the rates in the first column. For tracer gas the cylinder is taken off the package first, because it is charged once on the hourly route. If a published rate changes, divide again.

No VAT is charged, and every rate is a fixed hourly rate that cannot rise on the day. That protects the rate, not the hours, which is the reason the break-even matters.

What does a break-even of about three hours mean in practice?

A single-room check where the pipes are visible, the water can be isolated and a pressure test or a moisture reading points straight at the source can finish inside three hours. On that job the hourly route would cost less than the package.

A leak that sits under a screed or behind a fixed panel, or one that needs acoustic listening, then a gas run, then a second visit to the same wall, will pass three hours. The hourly route then costs more than the package and the package buys certainty about the total.

The break-even does not say which job you have. It says how little room there is: with the standard rate the hourly route stays cheaper only until a little past the third hour.

Which one should I choose?

Choose by how hidden the leak is. Damp that has travelled, a floor you cannot lift, a leak that stops and starts and a flat above or below are signs that a long search is possible, and the package removes the cost risk of that search. A short check on one known joint is cheaper by the hour. A source beyond the property boundary, such as a supply pipe, or two properties in one visit, is outside the package whatever the hours; Thames Water leak or private leak shows how to tell which side a leak is on.

Either way, ask what the hours are expected to be before the visit starts, and ask what happens at the point a long job passes the break-even. For the package the answer is that nothing changes. The scope is set out on the package page, and the heating-season note shows why some searches cannot be timed. Six worked examples of hourly versus package put numbers on real-shaped jobs, and how long a survey takes explains what sets the hours.

How is the tracer gas cylinder treated?

Tracer gas work is charged at the hourly rate plus £80 once for the tracer gas. No VAT is charged. Because the cylinder is a fixed extra, it pulls the break-even down a little, as the table shows.

Under the default scope of the package the methods needed to locate the leak are part of the one price, so tracer gas is included by default and adds nothing to the package. The tracer gas cost page works through a full example.

What the break-even cannot tell you

It cannot predict the hours. It cannot say whether the leak is inside your property, which decides if the package applies at all, and it does not include opening the structure, a larger repair or making good. A small repair, such as tightening a fitting or replacing a small part on the pipe, can be done on the same visit once the leak is found, agreed first, on either route. Larger repairs and making good are separate costs; the access and making good page separates them, and repair after detection explains how they are quoted. Whether an insurer pays any part is a separate question, covered in leak detection cost with home insurance.

It also assumes the same methods on the same job under either route. In practice the methods used are chosen by what the leak needs, not by how the visit is charged.