Probable leak.

[DeanInEssex]

Hi All,

My girlfriend has a shower room, and has called me to say that shes felt a couple of very hot tiles on the floor. As in my crudely drawn pic, you can see that the tiles directly under the towel rad are cool, with a hot spot a couple of tiles further out, then a warm spot, and towards the step is cool, so its pretty specific. I'm guessing that as the heat is constant, it isnt either the shower or the sink which is just out of shot on the right of the pic. I'll get her to turn the heating off for a couple of hours in the morn to see if the hot tiles cool down.
I'm presuming a leak to the radiator pipe under the floor, although from the layout of the room and adjacent hallway, I don't see why pipes would run that way, and not inside the plasterboard cavity wall that the radiator is hung on.
Sods law, the floor is concrete (which I know isn't good for copper pipes).
Anyone advise me on the best way to attack the problem ? I'm not expert obviously but I can find my way around a set of tools.

Is my thinking logical, can it be anything else that Ive not considered ?
No other signs of a leak, no damp/musty smells/pressure loss, just the very hot tiles.

Thanks very much.

 

[dilalio]

Just pretend there is underfloor heating in that spot!

“If it ain’t broke... don’t fix it”

 

[ZmicerMars]

Нi
You have no problem.
One of the pipe underfloor heating lies high.

 

[dilalio]

Нi
You have no problem.
One of the pipe underfloor heating lies high.

No UFH installation has been mentioned by OP.

 

[DeanInEssex]

My mistake, there is no UFH.

 

[Keithmac]

If it was central heating leak then the pressure on your boiler gauge would drop (presuming its a combination boiler with pressurised central heating?).

Our CH pipes run across the bathroom floor, underfloor heating for free!.

 

[Doggit]

Turn the rads off before the heating comes on, and there should be no flow through the pipework, so if it's a CH pipe under the floor, then it's just sitting a little high at that point. But if there's no pressure loss in the CH, then it eliminates a leak by that alone. Copper pipes in Concrete can be okay, so I wouldn't worry too much, but how do you know they haven't used plastic pipe.

 

[Hot&Cold]

My girlfriend has a shower room, and has called me to say that shes felt a couple of very hot tiles on the floor.

Fella,maybe thats a hint to go around and sort out her hot spots

 

[DeanInEssex]

If it was central heating leak then the pressure on your boiler gauge would drop (presuming its a combination boiler with pressurised central heating?).

Our CH pipes run across the bathroom floor, underfloor heating for free!.

I havent had the chance to look at it yet as she lives a fair way away, Im going over there in the next day or two with my toolbag (if youll pardon the pun), but shes got a Potterton Suprima 60L.

 

[DeanInEssex]

Turn the rads off before the heating comes on, and there should be no flow through the pipework, so if it's a CH pipe under the floor, then it's just sitting a little high at that point. But if there's no pressure loss in the CH, then it eliminates a leak by that alone. Copper pipes in Concrete can be okay, so I wouldn't worry too much, but how do you know they haven't used plastic pipe.

I got her to turn the thermostat right down on the boiler, the house rads went cold but the towel rad stayed lukewarm. However there was no change in the floor temp, it stayed hot, very hot. Too hot for it just to be a high pipe, shed have def noticed it before as shes lived there for years. Looking at the layout, the boiler is in a utility room directly behind the towel rail, and the hall radiator is off at 90 degrees to the right, so theres no reason for a heating pipe to run in that direction as Im guessing the run will be through the stud wall behind the rad. Shes now telling me the rim of the shower pan is hot as well (as in the attached pic), so my next guess is a leaking shower unit, running down the wall, under the tray and out under the tiles, which is what Im hoping for. Anything other than taking up a concrete floor. As for plastic pipe, not a clue, its been in for 13 years.

 

[Doggit]

Turning down the thermostat won't do much, as the flow and return pipes will still be hot. Hence I suggested turning the towel rad off to stop and water going through the pipes - although that still may not prove anything. Now if it were a leaking shower, unless there was one hell of a leak, then the hot water from the shower would go cold when it hit the concrete, and be lukewarm at best.

 

[DeanInEssex]

Turning down the thermostat won't do much, as the flow and return pipes will still be hot. Hence I suggested turning the towel rad off to stop and water going through the pipes - although that still may not prove anything. Now if it were a leaking shower, unless there was one hell of a leak, then the hot water from the shower would go cold when it hit the concrete, and be lukewarm at best.

First of all, I appreciate your help. Cheers.
And yeah thats a good point, so the fact that its constantly hot is pointing towards a heating leak.

 

[Doggit]

Not really; you'd have a drop in the pressure of the system - assuming it's pressurised system of course. Try turning down the temperature of the CH (on the boiler) and see if the floor feels cooler.

 

[DeanInEssex]

Not really; you'd have a drop in the pressure of the system - assuming it's pressurised system of course. Try turning down the temperature of the CH (on the boiler) and see if the floor feels cooler.

Ive just told her to do that now, Im sure youll be spark out by the time theres any change so Ill report back and thanks a lot. Pressure seemed steady at 1.4bar, although its dropped a touch when the boiler was shut down.
Update:
Boiler shut down for two hours. Rads cold throughout house. Pressure on hot water tank dropped from 1.4 to 1 bar. Floor............no change, still very hot. So Im guessing that theres a leak in the pipe under the concrete floor between the hot water tank and the shower room sink. Is that a reasonable assumption ? Or am I being a thick amateur ?

 

[Keithmac]

Daft as it sounds have you put your ear on the tile and listened for flowing water?.

Where is all the water going?, you'd surely have a damp patch somewhere I would have though.

Is there any chance of electricity cables run under the bathroom floor?.