Central Heating - how do I know if I have a leak

[jbaker10]

May seem a silly question, but I have noticed discolouration spreading up a wall recently. I emptied a cupboard nearby today and there was water underneath the boards. I scraped out some earth and it is very wet. However, at some stage recently it must have been worse as there were little pools of water on the floor base. If the rad nearby or the pipe was leaking would it be a consistent flow/drip or would it get worse if the heating was being used? Indeed would the heating work if there was a leak? There doesn't seem to be any drop in the pressure in the system.

Thanks

John

 

[netview]

If it is a slow leak, you may not notice a drop in the system pressure.
Could be a bad joint (very slow drip) and this may not get any worse over time - but it certainly won't get better!

The heating would still work.

 

[ChrisR]

AU contraire mon ami they often seem to get better. Found a classic recently. The endfeed joint had never been soldered and it had obviously leaked quite a bit. It was a pressurised system, not losing pressure, and it was dry. Apart from a lot of green gunk you'd never have guessed.
It just pulled apart.

Some small mains leaks stop themselves too, eventually.

Is there a drain outside the wall at that point - much more likely to give a lot of water!

 

[fitz1]

may be cold main or hot feed.Tell us more.

 

[jbaker10]

I'm not sure where the leak is coming from. I can't identify any correlation between heating on or off or when hot/cold taps running or not. Yesterday evening a little pool built up - not a major flood or anything but enough to be annoying. To be honest my biggest worry is that it a leaking soil pipe as I have seperate works going on with this in the same area. That would smell foul though I guess which isn't the case now.

John

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Dont know where you live but round here the recent rain has 'upped' the water table quite a bit. >>> Could be just ground water.
I live in North East England and my brothers house nearby has just flooded for the second time since he moved in in 1986. After less severe rainfall there is water present in his sub floor void space

 

[jbaker10]

I think I was mistaken. The only correlation I can find is with flow of waste through a soil pipe. I have an upstairs neighbour whose soil pipe runs through my kitchen(which is an estension tacked onto the back of an older terrace). I have had big problems with smells that occur when the soil pipe is in use. I got the soil pipe relined bya contractor who thought that a leak at the base would be the most likely cause of the smells. CCTV had shown up some cracks in the pipe underground before it joined the main drain.

Very annoyingly there had never been any evidence of a leak before the stack was relined. Now it does really leak. I got my neighbour to draw a bath and then pull the plug last night and there was a definite rise in the level of water visible. We are talking quite small amounts overall, a fraction of a pint and it seeps rather than flows so clearly not a big hole. I guess I need to run the test again to double check tonight.

Thing is though the drain contractor assured me that the relining had gone well with a good joint at the elbow, etc. I don't distrust him. But the problem if not completely new is definitely worse. The water that I see though diesn't seem to smell though the resin used to reline the stack does come through in a very powerful way and would possibly mask other smells.

After all of this the sewer smell is worse than ever so not just back to square one but minus one.

If anyone has any thoughts I'd welcome the input.

 

[brumylad]

the drains should be easy to test with a soundness test, your contractor will do that for you. I think relining domestic drains is a bit like chemical damp proof courses, a non-starter, just get the thing dug up and pay once.