Catalyst expert ready to reveal big picture on leaks

Paul Duddle, Head of Technical and Network at Catalyst Services UK, will be demonstrating how to detect water leaks at the Subsidence Forum 2022 Training Day.

He is planning a novel and eye-catching approach to showing how expert knowledge, experience and an array of techniques need to be used at the event being held in Hertfordshire on Thursday 13^th October 2023.

The training day is fully booked, reflecting the value professionals with an interest in subsidence put on the insights shared by Paul and his fellow trainers at the annual event.

Impactful training

Paul said: “I’m very much looking forward to revealing, literally, the secrets of leak detection during my training session. I don’t want to say more, because I like to keep delegates guessing as to how the training will unfold. But I’m hoping it will be both interesting and impactful.”

Paul is recognised for the imaginative way he brings to life issues related to subsidence in his training presentations.

At last year’s training day, he used a dynamic computer graphic to show the hidden secrets of household drains and how to spot the telltale signs of subsidence risks caused by drainage defects.

The Subsidence Forum is a national group of organisations, experts and practitioners who raise public awareness about subsidence and encourage competent responses to the issue.

Tackling subsidence

Members include subsidence consultancies, arboriculturists, law firms, surveyors, subsidence repair specialists, engineering companies, claims service providers, like Catalyst, and public bodies.

The forum’s training day is one of its most important events, where experts brief delegates about the latest thinking on subsidence and share expertise and techniques that make them better able to tackle the problem.

Paul, a member of the forum’s executive committee, said: “Leaks, either from drains or clean water mains, are among the main contributors to subsidence.

“They can result in thousands of gallons of water seeping into the soil, washing away substrates, a process that can undermine foundations, causing them to move, resulting in serious damage to structures.”

Growing problem

Under Paul’s direction, Catalyst has come to be recognised as a national leader in investigating subsidence and devising solutions to the problem, primarily on behalf of insurance providers.

Due to the growing influence of climate change, typified by the heatwave experienced this summer, subsidence problems are expected to spread to new areas of the UK, resulting in more insurance claims.