Help investigating lounge leak, rain coming down soil stack?

[snowscreen]

Ok so to cut the story short, I have a leak that I believe relates to my soil stack pipe.

Noticed it over winter after leaving something heavy on the carpet that it had left a wet patch behind.
Have a baby due in a few months so am trying to get all house jobs sorted asap, including a new lounge carpet (was planned anyway before finding the leak)

Here is the corner of the lounge, I've cut a hole out which shows the central heating pipes and the soil stack 'waste' pipe.
This pipe runs up into the upstairs bathroom and then into the loft and through the roof.


Now, I don't know if the leak is from rain water or not.
When cutting into the box to investigate a couple of weeks ago it was stone dry in there, but as you can see it's previously been quite wet.

I left some tissue in there with a jar on top to monitor things, we had some heavy rain midweek and when checking yesterday the top of the jar was wet.

















Looking up into the box after removing some insulation, the red dot shows where I found some water droplets on a bit of insulation.





Here is the pipe in the loft, it is completely dry to touch so I believe the problem isn't on the roof itself.






Here is the upstairs bathroom, you can see the toilet waste pipe goes into the box.
BUT, I imagine the leak is maybe above this point as otherwise I'd always have a leak all year round and from when the toilet is flushed (I'd surely smell it, and there is no oder)










My thinking at the moment is that rain water is coming down the soil stack and that somewhere there is a poor joint allowing the rain water to drip down the side, through the insulation and finally dripping onto the floor in that corner in the lounge.

Reason being, if it was a leak with central heating, bath, toilet the problem would be bad all year round but it has definately cleared up from how bad it must have once been.

I cut the box open 2 weeks back and it's only in the last 2 days I've seen a hint of any water leak in there.



Problem is, I have a feeling I'm now going to have to also cut open the box in the upstairs bathroom just above where the toilet waste pipe enters.




Any thoughts, ideas?

 

[treerat]

Looking at the top of the stack pipe the black flexy pipe should let the water drip off it befor it reached the gray pipe. Wrap toilet paper round the gray pipe in the loft if it is wet after some rain then you will no if it is runing down the pipe
Also check the. Condition of the wethering slate or mushroom tile outside

 

[snowscreen]

Update -



Only a little rain on and off yesterday during the day, checked the lounge corner and tissue there at 7pm before going out.... all dry.

Got home late and so there was no use of the bath/shower before bed, again corner was dry on checking last thing.





Overnight we've had some heavy rain and high winds, on checking the lounge corner 1st thing this morning the tissue was slightly wet






You can now see the water droplets path down the pipe.

Went up into the loft and the stack seems completely dry, have tied tissue around it at a few different points anyway.







As the soil stack in the roof is dry (plus had insulation tight up to it which seemed unaffected) and the leak seems to relate to rain rather than toilet usage I believe the leak must be somewhere in that upstairs bathroom boxing but before it gets to the WC joint.



Time to start investigating in there.




This is the roof vent I have by the way

 

[treerat]

The mushroom tile looks ok but somtimes they crackalowing water in they are useualy only plastik, that said if you have no water on the skack pipi in the loft it cannot be rain water coming down the pipi.
Unless rain water can get in from some were els you will have to consider that you have a leeky conection to the stack

 

[snowscreen]

Ok so, upstairs bathroom checks showed that there were no leaks around the WC joints.



Attacked the lounge corner and here it is, the leak is from a pipe from what I believe is the upstairs bathroom sink and where it joins the soil stack where the soil strap on is.....



It's a Polypipe SN40 Boss Adaptor



This appears to be a push fit job but the rubber all appears in good condition, it just wasn't flush so had somehow came away slightly.



I'm going to clean this up but rather than just relying on it being a push fit connection can I use a sealant of some sort?









That picture is where I've pulled it away completely and cleaned it slightly

 

[stardanny]

Try clean up and refix, leak sealer or plumber putty might help. You might be able to get a rubber connector if you can see what make the strap on collar is.

Daniel.

 

[snowscreen]

Cleaned it all up and pushed back in, tested, still leaked.

Just got a new boss adapter from b&q for £2, screwfix only had packs of 5 for £7


New rubber feels alot firmer (I guess it's not 20 years old) and is a much more snug fit into the soil strap part.


Will continue to check it after some hot baths this week before starting to repair the 3 holes I've made.



Fingers crossed.
Thanks for the help & for listening to an amateur.

 

[treerat]

Looking at the photo the white pipe has been cut to short.
Make shore that the white pipe goses all the way into the new rubber otherwise it could work out again.
Also the strap boss should have been glued to the stack not the strap going around the pipe just the boss part.

Treerat
RGS plumbing

 

[snowscreen]

Hi,

Sorry that was me moving the white pipe away from the joint rather than the pipe being short.


Here's the new joint, white pipe goes all the way through the new rubber boss

 

[treerat]

Looks good
Hope you get no leeks for many years to come.

 

[jeff the gasman]

Now thank the kind gentlemen!