Case Study — Buried Leak Detection
The Tramyard, Balham
Dye testing and electrolysis had both failed. Vector's electrical field survey traced the source of the leaks under an integrated green roof and solar array — and the roofing contractor resolved the issues.
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The Tramyard, Balham High Road, London — residential development
Client
Joseph Homes
Service
Buried Leak Location — EFT®/BLD electrical field survey
The problem
Leaking apartments, stalled sales — and two failed investigations already.
The Tramyard's roof is an integrated green roof carrying an array of photovoltaic panels — a buried waterproofing system with follow-on trades, facades and parapets all adding uncertainty about where water could be getting in. Beneath it, water ingress had reached several apartments: damage to the internal building fabric, disgruntled occupants, delayed sales, and mounting frustration at the slow diagnosis.
The specialist roofing contractor had already attempted to find the source twice — by traditional dye testing and by electrolysis testing. Neither method could detect it through the green roof build-up.
The investigation
A fine-grid electrical field survey, straight through the overburden.
Vector surveyed the roof using EFT®/BLD leak detection on a measuring grid of 0.5 m × 0.5 m — without removing the planting or the solar array. The survey mapped the electrical energy pathways through the waterproofing system and plotted them as a contour map over the roof plan, directly relating the roof-side anomalies to the approximate leak area in the level below.
The result
Source traced. Issues resolved. Residents satisfied.
The survey identified two suspicious areas of the waterproofing system and gave the roofing contractor a precise target instead of a whole roof of possibilities. Armed with the contour map, the contractor carried out the repairs — and the ingress stopped.
“We called in Vector to analyse the waterproofing system on a development of ours that had developed a couple of leaks, which the specialist roofing contractor was unable to detect the root cause of, neither by traditional dye testing nor by electrolysis testing methods. Through their advanced technology, Vector were able to trace the source of the leaks enabling our roofing contractor to resolve the issues, thus leaving us and the residents as satisfied customers.”
A green roof leak nobody can find?
When dye testing and electrolysis come back empty, electrical field mapping finds what they can't — through soil, paving and PV arrays.
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