leaking pipe under the floor boards.

I noticed a wet patch on my lounge ceiling indicating a leak from the bathroom upstairs.

The bathroom is rarely used, perhaps once or twice a week and had not been used for 4 days when I noticed the leak (it's, ok there is another).

By turning the water supply off overnight to stop drips and have them reappear within 2 hours when the flow is back on, I have worked out it is a leak in the 22mm supply pipework somewhere between the bath and the shower. The point being, it is definitely not a waste water leak as this has not been used.

The problem I have is the leak from the pipe "appears" to be in the corner of the lounge, under a tiled bathroom floor.

I called homeserve, explained the problem, they attended a day later and could not repair it as they could not see the pipe...apparently I or my home insurers need to provide access. My home insurer cannot tell me of I am covered for this until Monday ...So much for piece of mind?!

My dilemma is that I probably do not have enough tiles to relay the floor that matches the remainder, I kept a pack of 10 spare...who knows how many will have to come up to find the leak?

My other option is to go in from the ceiling in the lounge...

As I know a plasterer, this may make sense...Once I have found the leak, will I be able to use a compression joint on the repair.

When the work was dome 5 years ago, all new pipes were fitted, the plumber was very professional, the soldering looked perfect and I saw him pressure test the pipes to the shower and have had no problems up to now.....I am led to believe the 22mm pipe may have a corrosion pin hole as there has not been any movement or diy (nails) close to the area.

So if I can cut the ceiling away, I would be grateful of advice on 22mm fittings to use, space will be limited and I have heard about the difficulty of soldering pipes that are not perfectly dry.

many thanks for any advice.

clubsport said:

many thanks for any advice.

Click to expand...

Take pics. Then cut or smash out a section of the ceiling. Put a bucket down to catch the water. The damage done to do that will be minimal that if you leave it to soak further into ceiling or joists. Then when you speak to your insurers tell them what you have done and get a plumber to fix the leak.

You will probably find it would have been cheaper to do that from the beginning and not tell them about it. ie. the excess to pay for the claim is likely to be be over £100.

going up is a good plan, the leak is likely not exactly where the damp is (it might be, but water is very 'mobile')

water can for instancfe run back down a pipe/flexi hose and down the pipe till is drips off, reaches a joist and wicks off the pipe & so forth. have you checked what is accessible - the bath panel should be removable - a leak will be easy to spot for all the scale & gunk built up.

i would open the ceiling up, have a look and then plan the repair, 22mm compression fittings will be fine, it's fed from a loft tank i assume?

Not sure how true it is but I was told that the insurers will not pay for the leak to be fixed but will pay for the damage the leak may have caused, your leak is more likely to be a connection to a tap/shower ect than a pinholed pipe, so dont put compression fittings where you cannot access them, are you sure there are no access panels in your bathroom?

Thanks very much for the responses.

Good to hear that a correctly fitted compression joint will be ok. The shower is fed by a 2.5 bar Aqualisa pump.

The bath is a stand alone roll top on 4 iron feet, so no bath panel. The bathroom floor is fully tiled, with the correct water resistant rock hard dark grey adhesive (hard to get up).

The 22mm pipes leave the shower pump (situated under the floor with access hatch), go under the bathroom floor where soldered T sections go to supply free standing bath taps....they continue on under the floor to a 90" left turn to the shower room and then turn up vertically to come out of the wall, where an external victorian style mixer is mounted. The fully tiled shower room is effectively the lower part to an L shape, with the bathroom being the upright part of the L, so effectively round the corner from the bath floor.

The shower room is a lagged wetroom, meticulous care was taken when being built and as I say the shower pipes were pressure tested once fitted...the fitter inspired confidence and professionalism.

After your comments,I may well go and take the external shower mixer off to check fittings, I appreciate water flows away from a source, but it would have to flow down 1 meter, turn left for 1 meter, then turn right and go straight for 0.50m to arrive at what appears to be the centre of the damp patch.
I do understand it is difficult to determine the exact point of leak, but if the shower were leaking at the only non soldered union, that of the shower mixer, I would assume gravity might take the flow straight down rather than round 2 corners???..Who knows.

My excess is £250....as I say, my home insurers can't tell me if I am covered until Monday, I have not initiated a claim, only asked if I am covered up to now.

Cheers!

Don't pull the tiles up.

Cut a 150mm x 150mm hole in the ceiling, just enough to put your hand up there. Then you can hold a digital camera and take loads of pictures, working out where the leak is coming from. Then you can en-large the hole to about 300mm x 300mm (or finding the next joist.) Then you can have the pipe repaired and to repair the ceiling would be a square patch of plaster board and decorated to match existing.

Andy

Thanks for that suggestion, good idea with the camera...makes a lot of sense...

I drilled a couple of holes in the ceiling as suggested no water came out and there is no bowing of the ceiling only slight discolouration, I think I caught it in time!

Better not to use compression fittings in a (normally) inaccessible place. Push fit is better, or even better, a solder joint.

I had a toilet ceiling come down due to a small leak in my house once - I got a quote for £ 500 to replace the ceiling and they sent me a cheque. In the end I stuck a new piece of plasterboard up there in a few hours.

They might send the cheque only to a contractor, but anyone can write a quote and come to an arrangement if you 'help' them with the repair.