Salt/mineral growth in kitchen

[Darren9571]

I have just taken up laminate flooring in our kitchen and had a look under the units and floor. The floor is mostly suspended timber but part of it is a brick base with tiles at the floor surface. It is an Edwardian house.

Part of the exposed tile flooring under the units has a white mineral growth on it. Is this anything to worry about - I have tried to get the best photos that I can? I can just clean it off, but wondered whether it was a sign of any other issues.

Also, under the the floor is a brick pillar with what appears to be salt growth, I guess this is salts coming out of the cement and isn't a concern?

There is a smell of damp in the kitchen, now that I have lifted the floor, and I am trying to find the likely cause.

Thanks in advance

 

[JohnD]

this is very common, and, on a kitchen solid floor, is pretty sure to be caused by a plumbing leak, most likely in the water supply pipe buried in the floor. Is it near where the pipe turns up and emerges, close to where the sink used to be when the house was built?

do you know where the outside stopcock is? usually in the front garden or the pavement next to where the front gate was when the house was built.

 

[Darren9571]

Thanks for the response.

There is a stopcock just outside the property boundary which apparently serves all three houses in the terrace (according to Severn Trent Water) and we would be the first on the run. There is another stopcock in the outhouse that is much newer and is in copper pipe, so I think the main into the house has been re-routed at some point. However, where the growth is seen is, I suspect, close to where the original sink would have been, so it is possible that the main into our house has been re-routed, but the original pipe is still running under our kitchen to serve the other properties.

It sounds like it would be best to just leave it alone and clean off the growth.

 

[JohnD]

to test it, you will need an assistant.
late at night, when all is quiet and nobody is using water, put the youngest person with the best hearing in the kitchen.

the other person must turn the stopcock fully on and fully off, repeatedly

the noise of an underground leak is faint, and not noticeable.

But you will notice it when it goes on and off.

The water co may be interested if there is a leak in a pipe supplying several houses. You do not know how much water is escaping, nor how much it is damaging the foundations of your house.