Forum
« FSBO done by friend? (FSBF?) Do I need an architect? »
November 30, 2007
Ten steps to identifying a bathroom leak
Dear homeowners,
We get lots of calls from people just like you with a century old home and the “it’s-raining-from-the-ceiling” story. One of the first questions we ask is “Is there a bathroom above?”
Ten steps to identifying a bathroom leak:
1. Plug the drain as if you were going to fill the tub.
2. Run the water from the tub filler only, using either the hot or cold water, but not both.
3. Check for leaks.
4. Do the same thing using the other temperature of water, either hot or cold, but not both.
5. Check for leaks.
6. Now turn on the shower head using both hot and cold water and let it run for a minute or two. Be particularly careful not to get water on the walls or outside of the tub enclosure.
7. Check for leaks.
8. Now you’ve got a few inches of water in the tub.
9. Let it drain.
10. Check for leaks.
Now you’ve tested the valves in the wall, the connections to the shower head and tub filler and the drain assembly.
If it isn’t leaking now, the problem isn’t with the plumbing.
Take a bucket of water, or use your handheld sprayer if you’ve got one, and completely wet down the walls of the tub enclosure. Splash or spray the water directly onto the shower faucet and all along the seams where the tub meets the walls.
Check for leaks.
Bad tile grout is a sieve, but even a good tile grout job will be somewhat porous.
If this doesn’t expose your problem, flush the toilet 3 or 4 times and check again.
Still nothing? Run the basin for a few minutes.
Check again.
Still nothing?
You’ve got trouble.
A plumber will have to come and make some holes in the ceiling where the leak is showing up. From there he’ll have to follow the water marks to their source.
On the bright side, you were probably going to have to replace that section of the ceiling anyway. Mold will have grown on that wet sheetrock.
Mold’s no good.
Good luck, Brownstoners.
Master Plvmber
Lic. No. MDCCLXXXIV
Comments
Good to know.
Why is your license number written in roman numerals?
Are you a show off?
Posted by: Ysabelle at November 30, 2007 7:08 PM
It kinda goes with the Plvmber theme. No?
And, yes, I am a show off.
I thought that was obvious.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at November 30, 2007 7:24 PM
Thanks, that's really helpful.
Posted by: guest at November 30, 2007 8:03 PM
Master Plvmber, are you single?
Posted by: guest at November 30, 2007 8:09 PM
MasterPlvmber,
Why do you have time to give people free advice on this website when I have been calling you and calling you just to get you to give me a quote?
You come to my house, throwing around all your knowledge and your lingo, waiving consultation fees, killing me softly...
...and ever since I have been asking for the opportunity to give you like ten thousand dollars (I am guessing, I don't know, because you won't even tell me, but I have been mentally prepared to give you ten thousand dollars for the entire month of November!), and I keep getting the brushoff, keep getting promises of emails with quotes, but no quotes come.
By now your secretary knows me. She knows my voice. She keeps telling me that you're "busy," but I know that you are *here*. Making videos. Throwing out advice. To everyone. For free. When I have what you want, what you need! I actually want you to do the work, can't you see that baby?
It kills me, deep, deep down inside, when I see you turning cheap-ass plumbing tricks on Brownstoner instead of returning my calls. Don't you know that I want to take care of you? Take you away from all this?
Whatever. I found someone else. Someone better than you. Someone who understands the meaning of the word "commitment."
He's actually doing it for me.
I'm over you, MasterPlvmber.
Posted by: guest at November 30, 2007 10:42 PM
Sorry, Joel.
Yours is a complicated proposal that I've approached from several angles many times. I just couldn't nail a price down.
All the while, my business has been barely manageable since the beginning of the fall.
Unfortunately, when we get this busy it becomes easier to make enemies than it does to make friends and we need to take care of our service contract customers with emergencies first.
Good luck with your project.
You have some good outside-the-box ideas.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at December 1, 2007 8:47 AM
I second 10:42. He came over in a lovely sports coat and wooed me with his legal pad and note taking. Heck, he could have been a therapist. He looked over my radiators and my windows, the whole heating envelope. It was a lovely first meeting. We laughed, exchanged stories, gosh I felt here was the man who I wanted to have my first mod-con hi-eff boiler from.
And then, he disappeared. E-mails, assurances, we even talked about boiler patterns and makes, but no quote.
Is it me? Tell me, I can take it. Did I say something wrong? What is it? You're killing me with the suspense. Should I move on? Do you have a friend I could call?
Y.
Posted by: guest at December 1, 2007 10:23 AM
A lovely sports coat?
I wore a lovely sports coat to a boiler estimate?
Yeshwant, I thought we decided last year that what you wanted wasn't going to work because of the venting restrictions.
You've got those big windows in the front of your house with no place to terminate the exhaust of a mod/con boiler.
If I'm confused, please email or call me directly and we'll figure it out.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at December 1, 2007 11:26 AM
E-mailed. No problem.
Yeshwant.
Posted by: guest at December 1, 2007 11:44 AM
Master Plvmber--do you come to Manhattan for work? Do you work with apartments too, or just them Brooklyn brownstones?
M
Posted by: guest at December 1, 2007 12:20 PM
You sound like you are looking for a date.
Go away and take your ego with you.
Posted by: Ysabelle at December 1, 2007 12:53 PM
Guest M, 12:20,
Yes. Our work in New York is pretty evenly split between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
By that I mean, we also operate a busy service shop in Orange, NJ, working mostly in the neighborhoods of Maplewood, South Orange and Montclair.
Guest 8:09,
I'm not looking to get into much of my personal life online but I'm very lucky and happy to say there is a wonderful Mrs. Plvmber.
...glad someone's asking, though. I'm not getting any younger!
Posted by: Master Plvmber at December 1, 2007 2:09 PM
Thanks for this posting MP - very informative and clear.
Seems you have quite a few admirers - it must be nice to have folks wanting your services so badly. Well done!
Posted by: guest at December 1, 2007 5:14 PM
SPAM
MP
Posted by: guest at December 1, 2007 7:14 PM
I feel terrible for the people who feel that Master Plumbver has not been responsive re their estimates but I am personally glad and appreciative that he takes the time to post on this site and answers questions.
I have to say that the posts where people were complaining were done in good taste and with much humor and Master Plumbver responded accordingly.
As for Ysabelle, I originally thought people were being too hard on her but have become yet another person annoyed by her posts.
Posted by: guest at December 2, 2007 2:24 PM
10.42, who did you end up using? There was me, thinking ours was the only household disdained by MP. The man is a high efficiency philanderer! Please post if you've had a good experience with someone else... just in case I get tired of hanging on the internet....
Posted by: guest at December 2, 2007 4:49 PM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.