Mystery overflow pipe

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8 Feb 2011
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Location
Belfast
Country
United Kingdom
Hi,

I'm new to the forum but have used a couple of solutions in the past so hopefully someone can be of help to me this time. We bought out house around 6 months ago, the house was built in the 1920s and has OFCH.

Recently a 'mystery' overflow pipe has started dripping onto our flat roof extension causing us some problems. The pipe is situated just above the ground floor extension between our neighbours house and ours - the house is semi-detached. After we noticed the problem we used a bucket to catch the water and it seemed to only drip overnight and slowed down at the weekend. We called our plumber who changed the ballcock in the cold water tank in the attic and assured us that was the problem resolved. When our bucket continued to collect water I called him again and on a closer look he said that the water wasn't coming from any of our tanks in the attic and must belong to our neighbours. Our neighbours who are very helpful have looked at it with us and they can't see where it's coming from either. The overflow pipe is at the same level as our enclosed hot water tank which is in a cupboard in our back bedroom but the plumber dismissed that as a source. I have very limited plumbing knowledge but logically I think that the water must be coming from that tank.

I'm now stumped as to what to do next. Any idea how to find out where the pipe originates from or how to check if it is running from my enclosed hot water tank? In the last couple of days the pipe is seemingly flowing a lot more meaning we have to empty a full bucket of water in the morning and after work. Thanks for any help.
 
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To reassure yourselves, lift clear the lids of any tanks that are in your loft, and check the water level.
Of course, it could be coming from the overflow from an upstairs toilet....
John :)
 
Thanks John,

The water levels in the attic tanks look fine, it could be coming from the toilet I guess but that's at the other side of the house. Our toilet does 'run' from time to time - we've also had the ballcock replaced in that but it still seems to fill. I'd kinda dismissed it as a source because of the location but it is on the same level. Wouldn't strike me as an obvious place to have run the overflow pipe to though.
 
Well, if that loo has its own external overflow, hold the fill valve down and make it overflow if you see what I mean....you'll soon see if this is the mystery pipe!
John :)
 
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I would feed some single stranded copper cable up the pipe until it stops and keep prodding it, have somebody in both lofts to listen if the end can be heard tapping anywhere. That should find it.

tallandslim
 
No, it's not the toilet either. I'm compltely stumped - is there any way to find out where on earth this is coming from?
 
do you or your neighbour have an unvented cylinder? and what is OFCH.
 
Sorry Oil Fired Central Heating is correct. I don't have an unvented cylinder, I'm not sure about my neighbour but I'd be surprised if he did.
 

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