Hi all
Recently sold my house. Two days before the surveyor comes over, I notice my kitchen ceiling going black in one corner, with some brown staining.
The en-suite is directly above it, with the family bathroom immediately to the left of that.
I cut a hole in the kitchen ceiling against the back wall where the staining was appearing, in case standing water needed letting out. There wasn't any, but the plasterboard is all black and mouldy, and I could see fresh moisture on the joists/underside of bathroom floor. The chipboard of the bathroom floor is pretty wet, on the bits I can see.
The soil-stack runs down that same back wall, between the en suite and family bathroom (6" to the left of the hole I made).
I checked the en suite shower first - all looked fine but I stripped all the seals and re-sealed it anyway. All dry under the tray, and nothing leaking at the in-feeds.
I then realised - I've got mom staying with me, and she has baths - I do not. I ran the bath a bit and sure enough, we get new drips from the hole in the kitchen. I've since confirmed the sink causes the same thing - but I just flushed the loo now and I swear it's done the same thing... but I need to investigate that a bit in case it was still going a bit from the sink earlier (surely that logic wouldn't work... doesn't the U-bend just go straight into the stack?)
Based on soil-stack position, I assume the bath wastepipe runs across the back wall of the bathroom and straight to the soil-stack. In my last house I had a leak EXACTLY like this - I guess heat/weight over time had broken the seal.
I'm hoping it's the same thing, so I'm going to take the bathroom floor up tomorrow and hope to have good visibility and an easy fix...
Any comments/thoughts on this course of action? I'm close to completion on the place so I want to get it done - was half-tempted to call the home insurance and see if I can get it done through them but that seems overkill.
Any thoughts and recommendations warmly welcomed as ever, cheers
Matt
Recently sold my house. Two days before the surveyor comes over, I notice my kitchen ceiling going black in one corner, with some brown staining.
The en-suite is directly above it, with the family bathroom immediately to the left of that.
I cut a hole in the kitchen ceiling against the back wall where the staining was appearing, in case standing water needed letting out. There wasn't any, but the plasterboard is all black and mouldy, and I could see fresh moisture on the joists/underside of bathroom floor. The chipboard of the bathroom floor is pretty wet, on the bits I can see.
The soil-stack runs down that same back wall, between the en suite and family bathroom (6" to the left of the hole I made).
I checked the en suite shower first - all looked fine but I stripped all the seals and re-sealed it anyway. All dry under the tray, and nothing leaking at the in-feeds.
I then realised - I've got mom staying with me, and she has baths - I do not. I ran the bath a bit and sure enough, we get new drips from the hole in the kitchen. I've since confirmed the sink causes the same thing - but I just flushed the loo now and I swear it's done the same thing... but I need to investigate that a bit in case it was still going a bit from the sink earlier (surely that logic wouldn't work... doesn't the U-bend just go straight into the stack?)
Based on soil-stack position, I assume the bath wastepipe runs across the back wall of the bathroom and straight to the soil-stack. In my last house I had a leak EXACTLY like this - I guess heat/weight over time had broken the seal.
I'm hoping it's the same thing, so I'm going to take the bathroom floor up tomorrow and hope to have good visibility and an easy fix...
Any comments/thoughts on this course of action? I'm close to completion on the place so I want to get it done - was half-tempted to call the home insurance and see if I can get it done through them but that seems overkill.
Any thoughts and recommendations warmly welcomed as ever, cheers
Matt
