When a membrane leaks, the hardest part is not fixing the hole — it is finding it, especially under gravel, pavers, or a garden. Electronic leak detection locates the breach precisely, without excavating the whole roof.
On a membrane roof or deck, water entering one small breach can travel far before it appears inside, so the real challenge in a leak is locating the hole — and that is even harder when the membrane is buried under gravel, pavers, or a green roof. Electronic leak detection solves this by using electrical methods to pinpoint the breach in the membrane precisely, without excavating the entire assembly. It is a reliable, targeted way to find a leak, and it can even be built in as a permanent monitoring system.
The value is in precision. The sections below cover the four aspects that matter most — pinpointing breaches in a membrane, low-voltage and high-voltage methods, testing under overburden and plazas, and permanent leak-detection monitoring — and how ACE approaches electronic leak detection.
These challenges rarely stay in one silo: the same discipline runs through lessons from building envelope commissioning, our guidance on preconstruction mock-up testing, and what we have learned from roof moisture surveys, and it all ladders up to ACE’s broader remedial waterproofing and repair.
Pinpointing breaches in a membrane is the core value of electronic leak detection, because the methods use the fact that an intact waterproofing membrane is an electrical insulator, so a breach that lets water and electrical current pass can be located precisely by the electrical signal. Finding the exact hole is what turns a repair from a search into a fix.
Because water entering one breach can appear far away inside, locating the actual breach — rather than the interior symptom — is the difficult part of any membrane leak, and it is exactly what these methods do.
Once the breach is pinpointed, the repair is small and targeted, which is a fraction of the cost and disruption of removing the roof to search for the leak.
Representative of where ACE uses electronic leak detection on membrane assemblies. Illustrative distribution, not a published statistic.
Low-voltage and high-voltage methods are the two main approaches, and each suits different conditions, because low-voltage (wet) testing uses water and a low-voltage field to find breaches on a horizontal membrane, while high-voltage (dry) testing sweeps a probe over an exposed membrane to find pinholes and breaches as electrical arcs. Matching the method to the membrane and its condition is what makes detection reliable.
Low-voltage methods work well on horizontal membranes that can be wetted, including those under overburden, while high-voltage methods suit exposed membranes and can find very small pinholes directly.
Because the methods have different requirements and strengths, selecting the right one for the membrane type, exposure, and moisture conditions is central to an accurate result.
A membrane leaks and the breach is hidden, buried under overburden, and can only be found by disruptive excavation and guesswork.
Use electronic leak detection to locate the breach precisely through the membrane or overburden, or install a permanent monitoring grid.
The exact breach is found without tearing up the roof, the repair is small and targeted, and future leaks can be caught early.
Testing under overburden and plazas is where electronic leak detection is most valuable, because on plaza decks, green roofs, and ballasted assemblies the membrane is buried under gravel, pavers, soil, or plantings, and locating a leak by removing that overburden is enormously disruptive. Electronic methods can locate the breach through the overburden, sparing most of the excavation.
This is the same difficulty that makes buried-membrane leaks so costly in general, and it is precisely where a method that finds the breach without full excavation delivers the largest savings.
Because the alternative is removing a garden or a paver field to search, the ability to pinpoint a breach under overburden is often the difference between a small repair and a major reconstruction.
Ask about electronic leak detection to pinpoint the breach without excavating the assembly.
Schedule a consultationCall (866) 389-8883Permanent leak-detection monitoring extends the concept from a one-time test to continuous protection, because a permanent grid installed under the membrane or overburden can be energized periodically to check for and locate breaches over the life of the roof, catching leaks early. Building in monitoring is especially valuable on high-consequence buried assemblies.
On a green roof or plaza over occupied space, a permanent system means a future breach can be found and fixed while it is still small, rather than after it has damaged the space below.
The most valuable aspect overall is that electronic leak detection, whether as a one-time survey or a permanent system, replaces destructive searching with precise location, which is decisive on the buried membranes that are hardest to access.
In ACE’s field work, most electronic leak detection problems trace back to a few recurring locations — Buried membranes & plazas, Pinpointing exposed-membrane breaches, and Avoiding excavation — rather than the open field of the wall or roof. The cost of resolving them climbs by roughly an order of magnitude at each stage: a detail corrected during design costs a fraction of the same fix during construction, which is itself far cheaper than a repair once the facility is operating. That economics is why we push envelope decisions as early in the project as possible.
Choose low-voltage (wet) testing for horizontal membranes including those under overburden, or high-voltage (dry) testing for exposed membranes and pinholes.
Use the membrane's insulating property to pinpoint where water and current pass, finding the exact breach without excavating the assembly.
On buried, high-consequence assemblies, install a permanent grid that can be energized periodically to catch and locate future breaches early.
Fill out the form below and we'll get back to you within 24 hours.
We've received your request and will be in touch within 24 hours.
