leaking in concrete condo
 

in the process of looking at purchasing a condo and i noticed water stains on the ceiling of concrete condo. condo is about 20 yrs old.

i'm wondering how this is possible. isn't the advantage of concrete that water does not leak?!?!? showing realtor says that it's from the guy upstair's bathroom, but i don't believe him... the way I understand it

-------bathroom fixture
-------plumbing
-------concrete / my ceiling.


second question: the run from the dryer vent is across a bed room, there is a hairline crack on my ceiling, guy says its a 'stress crack' which is 'common'-- is this true?

third question: the same room also has some water stains along dryer went run. guy says this is because owner did not run the dryer long enough to push out the moisture. again, how is it possible to get water stains? the way i get it

--------concrete / upstair guy floor
--------dryer vent ducting
---------concrete / my ceilling

how does moister go through a metal tubing and then through concrete (same question as #1) and then stain my ceiling?

obviously all these have been fixed but the fixes are what caught my eye.


take me to school.

1) Concrete isn't water proof and is very porous. It absorbs moisture and will eventually shed it at the point of least resistance - typically the bottom of the slab.

2) Is the crack in the concrete or on drywall? Either way, a building - especially one that's 20 years old - will slowly settle and cracks can appear. Normally it's not an issue.

3) See #1. Also, if the exhaust run has a leak or simply vents into the ceiling, that will introduce moisture into the interior of the unit.

#1 rule of buying anything older than a year, read the depreciation report.

if there are any sort of major membrane or envelope issues that have not been addressed, id stay away.

With that said, this sounds more like an interior issue, and all of it really could be a minor/major problem, or it could really be nothing. Really tough to say

Concrete condos do have pipes running between floors behind the dry wall. If they burst, they leak through the gaps between pipes and into the floor below.

Our condo is in the process of getting all the piping switched from copper to pvc after a long time of debating within the strata. Some people say that early (ones 20-30 years old) condos suffer from crappy corrosive copper piping like my condo. Buyer beware.

Did you guys have to pay a lump sum out of pocket for that switch over?

I think we paid by three installments of 10k each, all out of pocket.

Our building is hitting the 10 year old mark and for the past 2 years have been dealing with many pin hole leaks in the copper pipes.
From the research that I have done, our water has a lot of minerals that is corrosive to copper pipes.
We have 2 options rights right now. Change to PVC piping or drain the water, run an epoxy type material through the pipes to add a lining to the pipes and hope it adds more life to the piping.

But eventually, the pipes will fail.

I took some pics of the leaks, tried getting some info from the selling agent, but no luck.

anyone got any thoughs? its 20 yr old building. is this common?

Attachment 25099

:heckno: just wait till u rip out the carpet

Wow... that looks bad. :heckno:

Given that any RE investment amounts to a significant amount of $$ for the average person, my recommendation is to hire a professional building inspector to look through your unit and especially at this leak. If you are interested, I know of a reasonably good one that I can recommend.

p.s. And as per Hondaracer's recommendation, definitely read through the building depreciation report and look through all the known deficiencies.

the weird part is its two different spots. there is no continuous water stain from top to bottom.

the top one is isoloated to the top and the bottom one is just at the bottom.

some theories for the bottom are: carpet cleaning solution got sprayed / over sprayed.

top theories are: above unit flooded and caused small leak. strata piping leaked.
beside the space is a bathroom. the bathroom has no water stain marks.

so freakin weird.

going there with a contractor friend tomorrow before dishing out any cash or making offers.

Is that drywall or painted concrete?

Stay away. I would never buy an apartment that looks like there are leakings. Is such a headache to deal with.

If you really want that place get a thorough inspection done.

leaking pipes 100%