Find the pipe before you open the ceiling

Last updated 31 October 2026.

Concealed means you cannot put a tissue on it. The pipe is in a shaft, a wall or a false ceiling. The stain is somewhere else, often one floor down, sometimes two, because water walks along a soffit until it finds a light fitting. The temptation is to open the ceiling where the paint has bubbled. That is the exit, not always the hole. The existing guide on concealed and exposed leaks already separates three causes: a pressurised supply, a waste or pan collar, and a failed membrane. This page is the visit that does that separation without adding a new price.

Start with the meter, because it is the only instrument the household already owns. Shut every tap, the washing machine, the heater inlet if you can reach the valve, and any pump. PUB’s leaflet says to turn off fittings and pumps and watch the meter. If the dial continues to run, there may be a leak. The leaflet does not print a 15-minute wait. The leak guide on this site does: two photographs, 15 minutes apart, no water used, S$140 to S$220 for that test and the isolation that goes with it. Do both. The photos are what a neighbour and a town council will look at. A glance that “seems still” is not a record. Waste and a membrane do not move the meter. A still meter plus a stain that grows after showers is not a supply leak.

Then isolate. Close the stopcock and see whether an active drip slows. Open it and run only the shower for ten minutes. Then only the basin. Then only a flush. The outlet that grows the stain is the branch you care about. A heater that fills its own tray will mimic a slab leak into the false ceiling. Isolate the heater valve before you blame the bathroom floor. Dye belongs in the waste, not in the supply: a few drops in the pan or the floor trap, then a flush or a pour, and a look downstairs for colour. Colour downstairs means the waste path. Clear water downstairs during a floor pond, with a still meter, means the membrane guide, not this one.

What plumbers add, once the meter has moved and the branch is narrowed, is a way to listen or to see along a concealed run. Acoustic gear, a moisture comparison along a wall, and opening one controlled access are the usual tools. We do not publish a price for a listening stick, and we will not quote a depth or a percentage from a device as if it were a laboratory result. If the pipe is a concealed supply, PUB’s leaflet says unlicensed plumbing work is an offence under the Public Utilities Act. The repair band already printed for a concealed supply fitting, limited opening, is S$450 to S$1,200 on the leak guide, done by a licensed plumber. Wider demolition is quote on inspection. An exposed trap or a pan collar, reseated, is S$140 to S$380. Homey Furnishing can do the simple exposed end. We do not pretend the licence.

False ceilings hide both the heater and the trap. A hinged hatch, S$180 to S$350, is how the next leak is found without another hole saw. Cutting a fresh hole because the old one was taped shut is the ceiling page’s complaint. Do not open a household shelter to follow a wet corner. SCDF forbids hacking those walls and slabs. Do not open a ceiling that is dripping onto a live driver. Isolate first.

The guide already tells the three-pipe story and the goodwill scheme. Use it when you need the write-up. Use this page to book the test. Bring the two meter photos, the outlet you ran, and a picture of the stain with a date. A contractor who wants to hack the bathroom because the ceiling is brown, without those photos, is skipping the only cheap step.

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices permit-exempt leak checks, regrouting, silicone, and making-good after the water has stopped. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices an HDB renovation permit when bathroom finishes are hacked or a new membrane is laid under new tiles. A concealed or new water-supply pipe is a PUB licensed plumber. Homey Furnishing is not that plumber and does not publish a waterproofing warranty term.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking. Fabric window treatments are a different product, and these pages do not quote them.

You can do the meter photographs yourself. The visit is for the isolation you do not want to get wrong, and for the repair that matches.

1. Turn off taps, machine and heater inlet. Photograph the meter, wait 15 minutes, photograph it again.
2. If it moved, you are on supply. Note the last digit. A movement you cannot see in the litres is still a movement if the leak indicator spins.
3. If it did not move, run one outlet at a time and write the clock time against the stain.
4. Dye the pan or the trap if waste is the suspect. Do not dye the incoming supply.
5. Open a ceiling only after the branch is named, and only wide enough. A hatch beats a second hack.

Shafts in HDB blocks and false ceilings in condos hide the same pipes. The person who must repair a supply line is still a licensed plumber.

A moisture meter swept at random, with a single number announced as “the leak”, is not detection. Metal bead, a recent paint film and a cold aircon wall all read wet. Use the meter only to compare a stained bay with a dry bay in the same room. We will not print a percentage that means “leak”. An infrared camera has the same limit: it shows a temperature, which might be water and might be a cold pipe that is perfectly tight. The meter photographs and the one-outlet test come first because they do not need a gadget to be believed.

Smashing a ceiling “to have a look” is not a method. It is a mess, and it can turn one bay of insulation into a second stain. If we cannot name supply, waste or membrane, the honest result is that the test was inconclusive and the next step is quote on inspection, not a larger hole.

The bands are already on the leak guide. This table only stops them being used for the wrong pipe.

Anyone selling detection should be able to say what a negative meter means.

1. Do you start with the meter photographs, and is the price the S$140 to S$220 test?
2. If the meter moves, are you the licensed plumber or are you calling one?
3. What will you do if the meter is still?
4. Where will you open, and how big, and is a hatch part of the close-up?
5. Do you quote a device reading as a guaranteed location? We will not.
6. What is the band if the pipe is the concealed-supply sentence, and what is quote on inspection?

A spinning meter and water you cannot shut off is the urgent version. Shut the stopcock. If water is at electrics, isolate the circuit. Call 995 if you cannot make the room safe. PUB’s plumber search lists leak detection as a water-service type. Use a licensed plumber for the repair.

Do not start the HDB goodwill conversation for a supply pipe inside one flat until you have read HDB’s letter. They declined the scheme for a pipe the owner had trunked inside her own flat. A membrane leak between flats is a different letter. The inspection guide sorts them. A window drip is not a pipe.

How you're charged

A leak or waterproofing job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. Nothing in this table is a fuel surcharge, and the handyman hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. A membrane, a balcony, a planter, a roof, an epoxy-grout system, or a listening survey with no matching row is quote on inspection.

Who is allowed to do the work

HDB’s renovation pages split a coat of silicone from a hacked bathroom. Replacing toilet wall and floor finishes is not allowed for 3 years from the completion date of the block, because a membrane sits on the screed. After that, a replacement uses pre-packed waterproofing screed, a membrane upturned at least 150mm at walls, kerbs and pipes, a UPVC floor-trap grating with a long collar, and a water test. Fines for unauthorised work are already written on the permit guide as up to S$5,000. Homey Furnishing does not sign the permit invoice.

• Regrout, a silicone zone, hollow-tile injection and a stain repaint after the water has stopped stay on the published rows. They do not replace a membrane.
• Opening the bathroom floor or wall finishes is V On Construction when the flat is HDB and the work needs a permit.
• PUB’s leak leaflet says it is an offence under the Public Utilities Act to engage an unlicensed worker for plumbing work. A concealed or new supply pipe is a licensed plumber. An exposed trap is a different visit.
• External walls of an HDB block are common property. The town council on the S&CC bill is the first report, not a private injector.
• SCDF does not allow hacking of household-shelter walls, floor slabs or ceiling slabs to chase a pipe. The leak is found another way.
• A window-frame leak is the window sealant page. Exterior rivets and stays stay with a BCA approved window contractor.
• Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not quoted here.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Photograph the stain, the wet room, and the water meter before anyone hacks. A hack that destroys the evidence is a second problem.
• Run one test at a time. Shower, flush, aircon and rain on the same afternoon make a useless log.
• If the joint is only mouldy silicone, the published zone is S$80 to S$150. That is not a membrane.
• If the ceiling is already dry and the source is fixed, the hairline repaint is S$150 to S$400. Paint on a live leak is how the stain returns.
• Take the two meter photos before you pay anyone to open a ceiling. If the meter is still, say so in the first message.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

These are the leak-guide bands. A listening survey or a long chase with no sentence is quote on inspection. We do not publish an average detection cost.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.

Official pages, not a legal opinion

The meter instruction is PUB’s leaflet. The 15-minute pair and the dollar bands are HomeySG’s existing leak guide, not a PUB fee schedule.

• PUB, find and fix leaks. Dial still running with fittings off may be a leak. Unlicensed plumbing is an offence.
• PUB licensed-plumber search. Leak detection is listed as a water-service type. Check the plumber you appoint.
• HDB goodwill scheme letter. A supply pipe inside one flat was outside the scheme in HDB’s later letter. Read it before you apply.
• SCDF shelter. Do not hack the shelter to find a pipe.

• The three-pipe guide
• Heater and aircon stains
• Concealed heater replacement
• If it is an angle valve
• Handyman price list