Unexplained wet spots on your property or elevated water bills are indicators of a leaky pipe. Leak Detection Services Los Angeles use a variety of methods to locate and repair underground plumbing and sewer lines.
Hidden leaks are costly, wasting thousands of gallons of water and causing damage to your home or business. Regular maintenance and annual leak surveys can prevent costly repairs and conserve water.
Before pipe cameras became popular, plumbers had to take a guess where a leak or blockage was located. Sometimes this meant digging a lot of dirt around the suspected area, which could cost a lot and cause a big mess. Now, with a camera inspection, the plumber can see exactly where the problem is and fix it right away.
A video camera inspection will reveal any cracks, broken sections or misaligned joints in your plumbing pipes. This allows your plumber to conduct repairs before the issue becomes serious and expensive. This is especially important if your pipes are old, and you suspect they may be starting to leak or burst.
Another reason to have a video inspection is to check for clogs and obstructions in your drain lines. Often these can be resolved by using a snake to push the blockage out, but it’s hard to know what’s causing the clog without seeing it. With a video camera inspection, you can get a clear view of the whole line from the septic tank to the municipal sewer line, or from the drain stack to the toilet or sink.
With a fixed zoom camera, also known as a pole camera, the high-definition video is collected at one point along the pipe network. The camera head is attached to a pole, which is lowered into the system at surface entry points. The camera can be focused, and lighting devices are built into the head to illuminate the pipe interior. The camera can record up to eight hours of footage, and the images can be saved on a disk or transmitted to a screen for live viewing.
For new homeowners, it’s a good idea to run a video pipe inspection before moving into a home. A video inspection will give you a look at the condition of the sewer and plumbing pipes, and prevent future issues that can become costly if left unattended. If you are buying an older home, a video inspection can check for signs of problems that would be difficult and expensive to detect with other methods.
Sonic Leak Detection
If water is leaking from your pipes and making its way through walls and flooring, it can damage surfaces and cause structural issues in a home. It can also increase your utility bills and result in a costly repair bill. Water leak detection services can help you avoid these problems by detecting leaks in your home and fixing them before they cause serious damage.
Sonic leak detection uses ultrasonic waves to measure the flow of liquid and air through your pipes. This type of detector can detect a leak even if it’s underground or hidden behind insulation. The device is also able to find the exact location of the leak and determine how big it is, which can help in finding the right contractor to fix it.
There are many types of sonic leak detection devices on the market. Some are more expensive than others, but they all work to detect leaks by measuring the flow of liquids and gases and detecting abnormalities in those flows. This information is then sent to a computer that can analyze the data and locate the source of the leak.
Some sonic devices can also listen for leaks in air and compressed gas systems. These can be difficult to diagnose and often go unnoticed. The device listens for escaping gases and converts them into a sound, which is then heard through a headset. The audio output can be adjusted to hear the leaks in quiet or noisy environments, and features like adjustable sensitivity allow users to pinpoint the location of the leak.
Another technology that can be used for sonic leak detection is Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). This is a powerful tool that allows technicians to scan the underground surface of the ground for any changes. GPR works well through different materials, including rock, soil, ice and concrete, so it’s an effective option for both indoor and outdoor applications.
A burst pipe can release more than half a ton of water per hour. This can be a costly issue and can damage items in your home that can’t be replaced, such as photographs, keepsakes and computer hard drives. The smartest water leak detection service will be able to alert you about potential issues with your home’s plumbing and shut off your water supply.
Thermal Imaging
Water leaks and moisture can cause serious damage to your property. They can also be difficult to find, especially if the leak is occurring within structural materials such as concrete, wood and bricks. This is where professional leak detection services come in – using specialist equipment such as thermal imaging cameras to locate the source of the problem and make repairs before further damage can occur.
A thermal imaging camera works by detecting infrared (IR) radiation from the scene being scanned and then displaying this information as an image on a screen. This technology is widely used in military applications, such as long range surveillance and target acquisition for military aircraft. It is also increasingly being employed in commercial and industrial settings for a variety of purposes such as building inspection, gas leak detection, process control, and even drone usage for infrastructure monitoring and surveying.
One of the main uses for a thermal imaging camera is for locating buried pipe leaks. When a buried pipe develops a leak, it causes a change in the surrounding soil’s temperature which can be detected by a thermal imaging utility locator. This allows the technician to locate the leaking pipe more quickly and without the need for extensive excavation which can be very costly and disruptive to the surrounding area.
Another major application for a thermal imaging camera is to identify areas of excessive moisture in walls or floors. Moisture within a wall or floor can lead to the development of mold and mildew which is damaging to your property. A thermal imaging camera will show an area of excessive moisture in a wall or floor based on the differences in surface temperatures that occur when there is a water leak behind the surface.
In addition to finding leaks in a wall or floor, a thermal imaging camera can be used to locate other sources of moisture such as excessive condensation, plumbing problems and even animal nesting. If your home or business is experiencing a lot of moisture then it’s likely that there is an issue with your drainage system, plumbing or roofing. In these cases, it’s best to contact a professional leak detection company who will be able to provide you with advice and recommendations on the most suitable course of action for your situation.
LiDAR
LiDAR is a laser-based surveying technology that can identify both objects and features of the earth’s surface. It’s used in a wide range of industries and applications, including archeology, construction projects, hazard assessments (including volcanoes and earthquake faults), forestry and agriculture, geologic mapping, river and watershed studies, and mine planning.
A natural gas company can use LiDAR to detect the presence of a leak and determine its location and severity. This enables the gas company to create a prioritized list of repair options, which is particularly helpful for situations that may pose a risk to residential areas. Additionally, the ability to survey entire sections of urban areas in a matter of minutes means that insurance claim assessment, one of the most expensive and time intensive aspects of the industry, can be performed more quickly.
Airborne LiDAR is also useful for detecting water leaks in underground tunnels. By scanning the tunnel with a LiDAR system, engineers can identify and extract quantitative information about areas of water ingress based on intensity and spatial data. Water ingress can degrade concrete, causing corrosion and spalling. This information can be critical in determining the scope of repairs and the optimal timing for them.
Other uses of LiDAR include road inspections, mine site mapping, and coastal vulnerability analysis. In fact, the technology is being used to map the jungles of Central America, helping researchers better understand how ancient Mayan roads were utilized by their inhabitants as early as 600 B.C.E.
While some traditional airborne LiDAR systems have a fixed position and take multiple points of data from the same point, lightweight drones can be moved to collect data from different locations and angles in real-time. This allows contractors to locate and quantify potential risks before beginning work, which saves both time and money.
LiDAR data is collected in a point cloud, which is an array of 3D points that represent individual pixels of the data set. This data can be stored in a variety of formats, but the most common is the LAS (Laser) file format, which is viewable by most GIS and CAD software programs.