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Water leak detection to Victorian pressurised automated fire sprinkler system.

Author:  Graham Mann.

Quite a lot of the old Victorian mills in and around Yorkshire have now been converted into office business units, the old Victorian mills have automated fire sprinkler systems in case of fire and many take water from highly engineered fire pump and distribution systems and due to the quite outstanding engineering, installation and design many of these system are still in working order today.

Very recently water experts H²O Building Services with their head office based in West Yorkshire but operating nationwide are receiving more and more enquiries relating to the old Victorian pressurised fire sprinkler systems failing to pressurise due to water leakage somewhere along the water distribution network. This is highly specialised work water leak detection, detecting and repairing water leaks on old fire supplies with experience really being key to isolating the problem quickly and at minimum expense.

The first stage was to fire up the old Victorian automatic vertically mounted electrically driven centrifugal fire pump with a capacity of 650 gallons per minute, head at 230 ft.

This in turn abstracts water from the 714,000 gallon reservoir topped up from the rainwater from the roofs and the borehole which fed the Dye House many years ago.

It was clear pressure was not being maintained because of the large water leak in the water pipe, the next stage was to use a listening device attached to each of the 6 water isolation valves located inside the buildings, a loud noise was heard from the first valve.

All the other valves were located and tested for water leak noise, this as the only valve that water could be heard indicating the water leak was in the near vicinity. The most obvious leak point was the length of water pipe from the pump house laid in soft ground adjacent to the reservoir as natural ground movement will place stress on cast iron water pipes. Water was seen rising above ground level, the listening device was placed into the grounds and a loud leak noise was heard, the exact water leak location was marked off for future excavation and repair.