HELP! Slow leak in wall? Water seeping on the floor.
 

Hey guys, I need a reference to a plumber who doesn't charge crazy long weekend rates - I know it's the long weekend but a $350 min charge is... :yuno:

I came home to find that the area around my storage room and basement bathroom is wet - there's some water on the floor but not that deep, and it is not rising rapidly. We dried it up and in an hour or two the water is coming back. It doesn't seem to be coming from pipes but what do I know...

Need a referral to a plumber who doesn't charge crazy long weekend rates to take a look and figure out what it is. Thanks in advance!

cut open the wall above where its leaking and take a look

No idea about a plumber but consider turning off the water main before going to bed tonight to minimize the damage. Also try to figure out where the water is coming from, if it's just a leaking connector or fixture it might be an easy fix.

There's no pipes in the area that I know of, all the piping is way left (10 feet + ) of where the water is coming from. There is however, a downspout from the eaves trough outside of the house in that area... possible culprit?

Someone suggested that the drain tile might be to blame but it hasn't rained that much in the past few days!

I will cut it open tomorrow... don't have a saw :S I have tools to fix cars but not a saw.

EDIT: Also no one in the house has any clue where the water main is... :S I can turn off the water to the outside taps but no idea where the big valve is.

You water main should be one of the biggest pipeline coming from the outside(through foundation) before it splits itself off to your boiler/watertank whatever. And the shut off shouldn't be too far from where the pipe comes in

you got any pictures?
Are there any faucets or sinks etc. in close proximity to the leak?

You could also turn off the water from the boiler room, hot and cold.

And as stated above the main water line is usually at the front of the house somewhere, along an exterior wall.

anyone reading this thread should make sure you find out where the main shutoff is in your house, you just never know when you might need to shutoff the water.

good luck it sleep.

If there are no pipes close by and a drain spout outside, it could be coming through the wall directly if your perimeter drain isn't keeping up. If that's the case your fucked. You'll need to get your perimeter drain repaired. That entails digging around the foundation to expose the old drain and hopefully being able to find out why it's not draining without having to go around the whole house to find the blockage. Once done you will need to patch the foundation, reseal it, and reinstall drain rock and proper drainage piping.

Good luck.

Berz out.
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If it is coming through your foundation try and route the water coming from the downspout further away from the house for the time being. You can get something that fits over the spout and routes the water away. Hope that helps.

Berz out.
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That and the gas shutoff. I've made sure all the kids in the family know where both are.

This applies to workplaces, too.

A coworker accidentally broke off the sprinkler head in his room a few years back. Nobody knew where the turnoff was. Big lesson learned that day, LOL. By the time we found it, his room was pretty much drenched and the water was down the hall.

Damn, I need to find out where is mines located. Never thought about this before :pokerface:

i work for the dept of water so I might be able to help you out a tiny bit.

first, call the city you live in, call their emergency dispatch line, usually its on your garbage schedule. you'll get patched through to their dispatcher, just tell them you have a water leak and you need to know where your curb stop is (your water shut off at property..all water shut offs are on property line since the city cant build on private property. if your in Vancouver, it'll be a small circle maybe 4 inches wide infront of your fence or a foot or two infront of the sidewalk saying VWW (Vancouver waterworks).)

90% of the time, its directly infront of your outdoor garden hose tap, at the property line.

when the foreman gets there (or whoever it is that shows up), they'll find your water shut off for you (EVERY home owner should know where their shut off is in case of an emergency, and to know where the shut off is in the house where the water line enters). from there, you can ask them to scope it to the house (he'll hook a small electrical current to it and ground it in your lawn, and he'll find exactly where the pipe goes and mark it with spray paint every 3-5 feet all the way up to the wall of where it enters your house. HOWEVER if its a newer house, the builders usually cheap out and use poly lines...and if they did, its untraceable!)

IF the waters coming from the floor...its gonna be pricey...but, if its in the wall, me or my coworkers can fix it for you ;)

anyways...if its in the wall and you want a plumber, no matter what, your gonna need of chunk of wall cut out. you can have a plumber do the job for you and solder new copper on. or you can go to home depot and buy a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" copper, and 2 compression unions...I believe home depot calls them shark-bite fittings, or go to a plumbing store and buy brass fittings(better..but more expensive)....if its a new house...it might be poly water line...if that's the case...you may be in a whooole shit storm since poly is untraceable...all you can do is cut a hole and keep cutting till you find the water.

anyways, its a simple fix, if you want to do it yourself, its not hard(depending on how much you have to go through :p), and when your done, OPEN every tap on the top floor of your house before you turn the water back on that way all the air can escape. once its running fine, you can turn them off. if you want a plumber its less of a headache but $$$.

if you do it yourself and get stuck, give me a pm and ill guide you through it if I can

-edit

PS - IF your house has copper piping, turn off your sink, dishwasher, washing machine etc, make sure the toilets aren't running and put a screwdriver directly on the copper pipe, if you can hear the sound of water running even when all the appliances and taps are off, you know its a water leak, the noise you hear is the sound of water escaping from somewhere...doesn't really matter how far away it is, if its copper and its leaking in your attic, you'd be able to hear it at your property line.

Don't call Mr Rooter, there company moto is "land the dig" aka do exactly what Berzerker referenced. Doesn't matter if there's another way to fix the problem they want to dig up your yard $$$$$.

not only that, but they break every wcb rule while doing it lol...

showed up to a job site one day, there was 3 kids maybe 19..just dig bitches, they were in an 8 foot deep hole with no shoring cages or nothing...anything after 4 feet needs shoring to prevent the walls from caving in and killing you.

So the contractor came by today with the moisture meter... no moisture in the walls but in the floors there are patches of moisture. He thinks it's the perimeter drain and has recommended a plumbing company that can come in and scope it out and clear it out if needed.

Will update on Tuesday...