If your water bill jumped, a wall is damp, or the meter keeps turning with every tap closed, you likely have a hidden leak. Handyman Algarve arranges professional leak detection: describe the problem, get a free quote, and the leak is located without breaking walls open at random.
Free and without obligation.
Leak detection finds hidden water leaks in walls, floors and pipe runs using acoustic equipment, thermal imaging and moisture meters, so only the confirmed spot needs opening for repair. Handyman Algarve quotes leak detection in the Algarve for free, in English or Portuguese, with the price known before any work starts.
One sign is enough to justify checking. Algarve homes add a local twist: many older houses have pipes buried in solid masonry walls or under tiled floors, and terraces and flat roofs can move water a long way from the actual leak before it shows.
The professional narrows the leak down before anything is opened:
The result is a located leak, opened and repaired at one confirmed spot instead of a trail of exploratory holes.
It is the question that usually arrives with the bill rather than with the leak. There is a national rulebook and there is your own supplier's, and it is the second one that decides what you actually have to do.
As of 2026, leak detection in the Algarve is normally priced per visit, and the quote depends on a few concrete things: the size of the property, whether the suspect pipes are in walls, under floors or outside in the garden run, how accessible they are, and whether you want the repair done in the same visit or quoted separately. The quote is free, states the price before anyone comes out, and the price you accept is the price you pay.
Finding the leak is half the job. Depending on what the detection shows, the repair can often be done in the same visit; larger repairs, such as rerouting a pipe run or repairing a terrace membrane, are quoted before going ahead. Either way you decide with the location and the cost in front of you. See how it works for the process from request to finished job.
Free and without obligation.
Leak detection is usually quoted as a fixed price per visit, and the price depends on the size of the property, how accessible the pipes are, and whether the repair is done in the same visit. As of 2026, quotes from Handyman Algarve are free and given before anyone comes out, so you know the cost up front.
Yes. Professional leak detection locates leaks through walls and floors with acoustic listening equipment, thermal imaging and moisture meters. The wall or floor is only opened at the confirmed spot for the repair itself, instead of opening tiles at random until the leak appears.
Many Portuguese home insurance policies cover damage caused by escaping water, though usually not the worn pipe itself, and terms differ policy to policy. A detection report documenting where the leak is and what caused it is typically what the insurer asks for with a claim, so keep it.
Start at the meter. Close every tap and appliance, leave the main valve open and see whether the meter moves: if it does, water is escaping on your side, and closing the main valve shows whether the leak is inside the house or on the run to the meter. Then look for the indirect sign: a damp patch, bubbling paint, a warm patch on the floor or low pressure at one tap. Pinpointing the spot inside a wall or under a screed takes acoustic listening, thermal imaging and moisture mapping.
The consumer ones work for what they are, which is an alarm rather than a survey. A puck sensor under a sink or behind a washing machine tells you water has arrived where it should not be, and a clip on the meter tells you flow is running while the house is asleep. Neither one locates anything. Finding a leak inside a wall or under a screed is a different job with different equipment: acoustic listening, thermal imaging and moisture mapping.
Sometimes, and which supplier you have decides it. The national commercial-relations regulation lists a proven burst in your own pipework among the grounds that may motivate a billing correction, and where one is made it fixes the arithmetic: average consumption at the normal tiers, the leaked excess at a cost-recovery tier instead of the top one, and the wastewater and waste lines treated separately. What the national rule does not set is the proof, the deadline or the form. Your own supplier's regulamento sets those, and in the Algarve they differ concelho by concelho.
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