Hi there, we have been experiencing major problems in the previous 3 months regarding a leak which is causing havoc in our and our upstairs neighbours flats.
We are both private tenants within a 5 storey high council block of flats, we occupy the 2nd and 3rd floors, our neighbours the 4th and 5th levels. Roughly 3 months ago, I noticed some discolouration around my sons bedroom window (his room is located next to our bathroom). This also included what looked like white deposits on the painted walls. These stains have gotten worse and about a month ago we noticed that the painted walls seemed to be bubbling. We were able to peel off the paint like sheets of wallpaper all around the window seal with a radius of about 8 to 10 inches all around the window itself. Damp patches are also clearly visible in the plaster work around the window. To make matters worse, it seems that this leakage is exiting his bedroom by running off through my sons window seal to the outside window seal and dripping off outside.
It was then when I went upstairs to ask my neighbours if they had experienced any leaks coming from their flat. They showed me a damp patch on their kitchen wall / living room wall which had appeared in the last couple of weeks which is roughly about 18 inches raised up from the floor. We have managed to access the flat roof to look at any potential sources of water. We found the open ended cast iron (I think) soil pipe which looked like that the cement raised up around it was cracked. Also there seems to be ventilation pipes set back about 2 meters from the flat outer walls on the roof (Im not sure what purpose the serve but it seemed that the pipe directly above our neighbours kitchen wall / living room wall was missing a cone shaped weather cap). Thinking this was the cause, we called out the council who are responsible for the external maintenance of the building. They have only got back saying that the roof seems fine by their standards.
Whilst waiting for a report back from the council, my partner could hear water leaking down the bathroom soil pipe area (it is a boxed off section running internally straight down all the flats - as in kitchen on the top floor down to the 4th floor bathroom to 3rd floor kitchen etc) Big drops of water are clearly visible leaking from the area between the upstairs kitchen floor and our 3rd floor ceiling (bathroom) in the boxed off soil pipe area. I went upstairs to our neighbours this morning to check their soil pipe in the kitchen and the bathroom but came across nothing out of the ordinary, everything seems dry with no sign of leakage or water damage.
The problem I cannot get my head around is that the water leaks can only be heard or seen in the very early hours up until about 8 am in the morning although there are drips still coming down during the day, they are no way to the same extent as during the night.
The damp patches upstairs in our neighbours flat are not near any appliances that would use or disperse water.
There are no radiators in any of the flats, only underfloor heating which I have been assured by the council is not water run but electric only.
The leaking water seems to be clear and odorless.
It seems to have the same amount of water regardless of rain or clear nights / days.
To get a mental picture of our layout looking from left to right is:
Our son's window, his bedroom / bathroom wall with the soil pipe about 4 inches on the right hand side of the bathroom wall.
Any ideas please would be very very welcome as mould patches are starting to be visible on our sons bedroom wall and we want to try and resolve this a soon as possible.
I have also taken pictures so if anything needs showing in more detail, I will happily post them up for you to see.
PS Sorry about the life story but I thought that I would try to include everything I could think of!
We are both private tenants within a 5 storey high council block of flats, we occupy the 2nd and 3rd floors, our neighbours the 4th and 5th levels. Roughly 3 months ago, I noticed some discolouration around my sons bedroom window (his room is located next to our bathroom). This also included what looked like white deposits on the painted walls. These stains have gotten worse and about a month ago we noticed that the painted walls seemed to be bubbling. We were able to peel off the paint like sheets of wallpaper all around the window seal with a radius of about 8 to 10 inches all around the window itself. Damp patches are also clearly visible in the plaster work around the window. To make matters worse, it seems that this leakage is exiting his bedroom by running off through my sons window seal to the outside window seal and dripping off outside.
It was then when I went upstairs to ask my neighbours if they had experienced any leaks coming from their flat. They showed me a damp patch on their kitchen wall / living room wall which had appeared in the last couple of weeks which is roughly about 18 inches raised up from the floor. We have managed to access the flat roof to look at any potential sources of water. We found the open ended cast iron (I think) soil pipe which looked like that the cement raised up around it was cracked. Also there seems to be ventilation pipes set back about 2 meters from the flat outer walls on the roof (Im not sure what purpose the serve but it seemed that the pipe directly above our neighbours kitchen wall / living room wall was missing a cone shaped weather cap). Thinking this was the cause, we called out the council who are responsible for the external maintenance of the building. They have only got back saying that the roof seems fine by their standards.
Whilst waiting for a report back from the council, my partner could hear water leaking down the bathroom soil pipe area (it is a boxed off section running internally straight down all the flats - as in kitchen on the top floor down to the 4th floor bathroom to 3rd floor kitchen etc) Big drops of water are clearly visible leaking from the area between the upstairs kitchen floor and our 3rd floor ceiling (bathroom) in the boxed off soil pipe area. I went upstairs to our neighbours this morning to check their soil pipe in the kitchen and the bathroom but came across nothing out of the ordinary, everything seems dry with no sign of leakage or water damage.
The problem I cannot get my head around is that the water leaks can only be heard or seen in the very early hours up until about 8 am in the morning although there are drips still coming down during the day, they are no way to the same extent as during the night.
The damp patches upstairs in our neighbours flat are not near any appliances that would use or disperse water.
There are no radiators in any of the flats, only underfloor heating which I have been assured by the council is not water run but electric only.
The leaking water seems to be clear and odorless.
It seems to have the same amount of water regardless of rain or clear nights / days.
To get a mental picture of our layout looking from left to right is:
Our son's window, his bedroom / bathroom wall with the soil pipe about 4 inches on the right hand side of the bathroom wall.
Any ideas please would be very very welcome as mould patches are starting to be visible on our sons bedroom wall and we want to try and resolve this a soon as possible.
I have also taken pictures so if anything needs showing in more detail, I will happily post them up for you to see.
PS Sorry about the life story but I thought that I would try to include everything I could think of!
