Water leak

[leslie50]

Hi
A friend of mine is having problems with a water leak . He lives in a 2nd floor flat, the man right under him has water dripping not flowing through his bathroom ceiling ,my friends bathroom is in the same location , the colour of the water is very slightly brownish , would the colour determine where it is coming from, the pipe work is all boxed in, easy enough to take apart, but not sure where to start.
Any help would be appreciated .

 

[WaterTight]

leaks of this nature are often discoloured, mainly due to what they pass through before appearing - if it were very dark it might suggest a heating pipe. if possible i prefer to go up rather than down. i'd make a hole in the ceiling where it's coming through - it'll need to be re-decorated anyway - and shine a torch up. you may get lucky and see the source immediately or you may end up having to take everything apart / out. generally speaking if it's leaking all the time it's probably a service pipe under some pressure, if it only leaks when the bath/basin/toilet is used - or at least gets much worse - it's more likely on a waste pipe. but leaks are funny things, some of them a serious pain to trace. i had one once where there was a pin hole in a pipe so fine that when i uncovered the pipe it wasn't leaking because a piece of dirt had landed on it. i was about to give up when i stroked the dirt off by chance and recevied a very fine shower.

 

[Paulus]

My first job , many years ago was a leak in a bathroom. I went in and ripped the bath panel off, pulled up a couple of floorboards only to find eventually that the washer on a tap connector hade gone.

I would check out the simple things first such as the inlet into the toilet cistern (may just need a new fibre washer), tap connectors on both washbasin and bath taps.

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

take the bath panel off first i would

 

[mikegas]

also check the pressure on the boiler and ask if hes been topping it up regularly lately, prob a leak on the bath though

 

[WaterTight]

well, yeah - obviously look at every accessible connection first. and if no luck then look at those that need panels and boxing removed in order of easiest access first. but you never know how "easy" it is to remove panels and boxing until you begin and in some cases damage is inevitable, so warn them of the possibility. i'm sure everyone here has found themselves spending longer trying to put a bath panel back then it seemed they spent changing the bath taps.

if no joy from everything you can look at then i'd suggest making whole in ceiling below before mucking round lifting floorboards, making wholes in walls etc.

 

[WaterTight]

It only seems like recently i've decided i'm going to start spelling 'hole' as 'whole.' I swear as I'm getting older I'm getting thicker.

 

[stevetheplumber]

It only seems like recently i've decided i'm going to start spelling 'hole' as 'whole.' I swear as I'm getting older I'm getting thicker.

brain cells diminish as the waist line grows im afraid

 

[heatm8]

1st thing is does it leak down below when in use or if left sit for a day without any thing being used does it stop.Id put it down to a waste if bathroom has not been used and leak stops and if not used and water still coming then its a domestic or a heating pipe.check all seals around bath if shower is above bath ect . One that i always remember about is a bath above a garage and every time they used it it leaked to garage so took bath panel of filled bath and emptyied couldnt see no problem no water leakin ended up that i filled bath with cold water and when people used it they used hot and the pipe under bath in floor was nailed and coroded and when expanded with hot water it leaked and closed over when it cooled. now that one took me quit some time to figure out

 

[Phil]

If a hole in a ceiling has appeared beneath a bathroom, its nearly always the seal round the bath or shower cubicle.