Wet mark – suspicious leaks

[darren mck]

Please help. Wet mark appeared on balcony along side of house upstairs more than 3 years ago. The place is about 8-10 meters away from bathroom and toilet area. The mark appears even if good wether continues. I also checked gutters but it does not cause it. I can not find actual water leaks in the house. I checked water meter but it does not move. However, wet marks also exist in poles underneath of bathroom and toilet area where I can see from downstairs. And I also can see copper pipes and sewer pipes from downstairs. I can not see actual leaks from sewer pipes as well.

Copper pipe of cold water run under the upstairs floor and hot water pipe run above of upstairs floor. I can see the cold water pipe from downstairs but can not see the hot water pipe because it run behind of wall upstairs.

No smell. There are quite bad dump downstairs

Please advise how we know the problem come from, and how plumber should work to find it.

Thank you

[Robert Stephen MortonParticipant]

Momo. turn the hot water service off & see if it dries up, prefferably at a time that you are absent for a weekend.
Bob

[SachiParticipant]

Hi Bob,

The hot water is supplied by gas. If I did not use the bathroom and the toilet, I feel it dries. And also I feel the wet marks appear if I use cold water in bathroom. Do you think the leak come from copper pipes? or somewhere else, for example, from joint of toilet, joint of sewage pipe etc etc? Even if the small dripping leak comes from the copper pipes, can’t water meter detect this leak?

Thank you

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[diggerParticipant]

Take the covers off, check your tap(faucet) spindles in bathroom and check for leaks,washers may be faultys your problem does not show leak on water meter,this type of leak will not register as the leak generally only occurs when the tap(faucet) is turned on when taking long showers

[SachiParticipant]

Hi Stewart,

I already checked any leaks around taps but I do not think the leak come from them. One thing I should mention is that I worry about dripping noise from the wall in bathroom. It starts after I use hot water in bathroom. It sounds like copper expanding noise and also dripping noise as well. I asked one plumber a couple of times before but he said it is from sewer pipes and/or expansion pipes etc and it is not leaking, then he never checked the place at all.

I have had suspicious of leaks on the hot water pipe, but I found that the wet mark recently appeared when cold tap is also used.

Momo

[diggerParticipant]

when you checked the taps did you turn the tap on and note whether it was leaking around the spindle also where is the relief valve drained to from your water heater system

[SachiParticipant]

Hi Stewart

Thank you for your quick reply. I do not really know the plumbing words. spndle, relief valve?? Please let me know how to check it properly.

[diggerParticipant]

Momo

The spindle is the part of the tap that has the handle on the end that you turn to open the tap,when you turn on or off the spindle rotates and opens or closes the tap,in the body of the tap on the spindle is an “O” ring that seals the spindle inside the dody of the tap to prevent it from leaking, this is usually the problem when there are water leaks in bathrooms etc.
On hotwater systems there is an inlet for cold water usually at the bottom side of the tank and an outlet on or near the top of the tank for hot water, but there is also another outlet on the side where the relief valve is attached(looks a bit like a tap)and this valve opens periodically to relieve the pressure in the tank.

[diggerParticipant]

Momo

its BODY not DODY sorry about spelling

[SachiParticipant]

Hi Stewart,

I have gas heating system outside house, where is quite far from the bathroom area (maybe about 20 meters away). I do not think water leaks from spindle and reliefe valves etc, but I will have the double check on this weekend.

I closed main water meter tap (spindle?) in this morning, and opened again about 10 hours later. As soon as I opened the tap, one of the meters’ gauge, for leaking, moved about 2 seconds – maybe about 5 gauges or more. Is it quite normal? I will do the same test tommorrow just in case there was no water dripings from any taps in my house.

The wet marks have stayed since last Sat again. I have tried less water in this area after Mon but it does not dry this time. I have taken statistics but now I’m so confused.

» This message has been edited by Momo on 10 June 2004

[diggerParticipant]

Momo
It now appears that it is a job for an onsite inpection by a plumber whom you should get to pressure test both water and drainage pipes

[SachiParticipant]

Please tell me how the work is to be progressed. I already called a few plumbers and all of them said no leaking without appropriate checking or no checking. One of them checked the water pressure as I requested. He used small gauge to attach to shower pipes one by one, then the meter did not move, therefore, he said it doesn’t leak.

One day I went to plumbing supply shop and one staff said that small gauge does not detect the leaks and we should use special equipment (water in bucket and compress air in pipes, then check meter).

I would like to know proper way to investigate for this problem before I call promber this time.

Thank you

[diggerParticipant]

Momo

The plumber disconnects the water service at the meter and connects a device to the water pipe and pumps it full of water and this device has a meter attached to it to show the pressure and if there is a leak anywhere in the pipe the guage will indicate the loss of pressure,

[SachiParticipant]

And if it leaks, how we can find where is leaking? because my suspicouls place is between the bathroom wall and brick outside. My house is brick venior so also another wall. I can not identify where, so quite wide area. I do not want open walls by mistakes.

Do we have any special leaking detecter for even small drippings?

Momo

[diggerParticipant]

Momo

I can appreciate your problem must be frustrating,but when you have pressurised the pipe and if the gauge indicates a loss of pressure it will be possible to locate the leak by keeping up the pressure with the pump, if that fails fill the pipe with a dye in your water and pump it through and then it will be obovious where the leak is,you will have no choice other than access the pipe either from inside or outside to repair it.

[Retired plbg1Participant]

Why dont you takr down drywall where leaks shows and see what is leaking, an be done with it.

[DUNBARParticipant]

I am with Retired Plumber on this one. I notice this thread but I had no idea that it would get as many responses as it did.

I would of opened up and detected its primary cause and not speculated. Would of saved a great deal of time in doing so.

But, toilet is on fire now.

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“Your best interest is secured by making the right decisions the first time.”

[SachiParticipant]

I am looking for the experienced plumbers for this type of leaking in Sydney.

Please contact me for this job. I would like to start for fixing this problem asap.

Momo

» This message has been edited by Momo on 13 June 2004

[Retired plbg1Participant]

Best thing to do is take down drywall where leak showed up and see what is leaking, instead of fooling around.

[SachiParticipant]

I recently called plumbers and tested the pipe with water bucket and also with gas tank. Water bucket detected the leaks, but the gas tank did not detected. Now we are so confused now. Is gas tank more accurate?

[Author]

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