Leaky Pipe Repair Cost

According to Southern Water, a leak could be costing you up to £500 a year! If your water bill is higher than you think it should be, see how much it could cost for leak detection. If you already know you have a leaky pipe, find out below how much you can expect to pay for a repair.

	Low	Average	High
Labour	£80	£120	£150
Materials	£10	£20	£500*
Total	£90	£140	£300*

As with most jobs, there are lots of things that will affect the cost of repairing a leaky pipe;

• Type of pipe
• Location of a leaky pipe
• Cost of replacement materials
• Plumber Labour/Emergency Call Out Fees

Type of pipe

If an actual pipe is leaking, what type it is becomes very important. Is it a mains water pipe? A sewer pipe/soilage stack? A radiator pipe? Or even a washing machine feed pipe can each have very different costs associated with them.

Something like a washing machine cold water feed could be very simple to fix yourself if you feel confident, in which case (assuming you have the tools) the materials could only cost you a few £’s from somewhere like Screwfix or Toolstation. Most of these pipes tend to be flexible hoses that screw onto the water pipe and the other end onto the washing machine.

However, if it’s the PVC/Copper pipe that the hose is connected to, the PVC replacement again can be something as small as £10 from a DIY store. As long as you’ve got reliable pipe cutters, plumbers glue or similar you could find it a cathartic Saturday afternoon activity for the whole family… although probably not.

Bigger pipes however, like a mains water pipe – depending on whether it is your responsibility or the water companies, are going to be a lot more expensive and you definitely need a professional’s help with. Even if it’s just a small leak you’ll want to get it sorted as soon as possible, you’d be surprised at what damage water can cause to a home.

If it’s an emergency, you can be expecting to pay for the plumber’s call out charge which typically can be between £80-£150 per hour. Along with the cost of materials. If it’s not an emergency call out, the usual hourly rate of a plumber can be around £40-75 per hour.

Location of leaky pipe

You may see the hourly rate of a plumber and hope the pipe can be fixed in an hour, and in some cases, a temporary fix can be applied but that just delays the inevitable – but it may buy you time to get any necessary funds ready. Seek your plumber’s advice though for your circumstances.

For most “simple” leaky pipes the fix could only take a couple of hours – so you can be looking at something between £80-£150 for labour, plus the material cost. As mentioned, a small PVC pipe could only be around £10-£20 once you add any potential markup by the plumber.

Those more complex operations might require taking up carpets, underlay, decking, floorboards, etc. These types of jobs can quickly become one to two-day affairs. Labour alone for a day can be anywhere between £320-£600. That’s assuming the plumber charges you the standard hourly rate for 8 hours, in some cases they may charge slightly less as they won’t be ‘job hopping’ throughout the day, so make savings on fuel/travel time & admin.

Then there’s the mammoth jobs. If you’ve got a pipe in the garden feeding an outhouse – your cost to repair that pipe is going to increase dramatically once you consider the time it takes to dig up a potential trench if the whole pipe needs replacing.

Cost of replacement materials

As mentioned, simple PVC pipe replacements can be as little as £10.

Bigger pipes like water mains pipe can start in the hundreds, depending on the type you are replacing.