Oh Snappy, it’s a fun story I tell you (I’ll tell everyone).
We found that water was running behind the overflow drain and down the back of the tub because there was no seal between the overflow drain where it connected to the inside of the tub. Fine- we fix that. So now there is no water running under the tub.
2 days later it’s leaking again. We check the seal. It’s fine. space behind/under the tub is bone dry.
We expose all the plumbing from the back by going through the closet walls. No leaks. We pull out the bathroom cabinet and start taking the floor apart because that’s where the waste pipe is running under the floor. We have to go through a layer of tile 4 inches of concrete and 2 sets of wood floorboards. to find it’s a puncture wound in the lead lead waste pipe. O.k., so we put a temporary patch on that and a pot in the floor under it. and turn the water back on.
It leaks again. so we look under the hole in the pipe it’s dry as is the whole run along the waste pipe. BUT WAIT! the wood beam looks wet right under where the shut off valve for the toilet is.
Get this. The incoming water pipe is copper. the pipe coming out of the wall with the valve is stainless steel. We have to now break down the 3 inch thick tiled and concrete and wire mesh wall that the pipe is coming out of to find the stainless steel pipe is no longer attached to the copper pipe it’s broken off completely but because it’s embedded in 3 inches of concrete it’s not moving anywhere. it’s just slowly letting water run down.
So we capped the whole thing off with a massive wad of putty just so we could turn the water on a shower/run dishwasher, fill all pots and buckets with water last night. today the plumber is in to replace all the copper to stainless connections and the hole in the waste pipe. he said we’d have to gut the entire bathroom to replace the waste pipe so it’s a patch (that he said will last a good 5 years at least) until we undertake the gut reno. of this bath.
I must admit we had a high bathroom to family member ratio in the home in which I grew up. However, we still had the problem that if someone was in the shower and one of the others used the faucets or flushed the toilet in another part of the house, the person in the shower would suddenly be hit with scalding hot water for some reason. Even though I don’t have that issue in my current home, I still am very tentative using the water when someone else is in the shower; the voice of my dad screaming at me as he was getting burned has never completely left me. There was nothing worse than the feeling I had as a child after I just flushed and realized I was in for it. My eyes would be wide open and I would freeze right there and then in the bathroom with my hand still on the toilet handle just waiting for my dad to erupt. And that man, bless his heart, could scream!
Thankfully our very lovely and gracious neighbor is home and has offered us full visiting rights.
God – you guys are really slacking today.
Oh Snappy, it’s a fun story I tell you (I’ll tell everyone).
We found that water was running behind the overflow drain and down the back of the tub because there was no seal between the overflow drain where it connected to the inside of the tub. Fine- we fix that. So now there is no water running under the tub.
2 days later it’s leaking again. We check the seal. It’s fine. space behind/under the tub is bone dry.
We expose all the plumbing from the back by going through the closet walls. No leaks. We pull out the bathroom cabinet and start taking the floor apart because that’s where the waste pipe is running under the floor. We have to go through a layer of tile 4 inches of concrete and 2 sets of wood floorboards. to find it’s a puncture wound in the lead lead waste pipe. O.k., so we put a temporary patch on that and a pot in the floor under it. and turn the water back on.
It leaks again. so we look under the hole in the pipe it’s dry as is the whole run along the waste pipe. BUT WAIT! the wood beam looks wet right under where the shut off valve for the toilet is.
Get this. The incoming water pipe is copper. the pipe coming out of the wall with the valve is stainless steel. We have to now break down the 3 inch thick tiled and concrete and wire mesh wall that the pipe is coming out of to find the stainless steel pipe is no longer attached to the copper pipe it’s broken off completely but because it’s embedded in 3 inches of concrete it’s not moving anywhere. it’s just slowly letting water run down.
So we capped the whole thing off with a massive wad of putty just so we could turn the water on a shower/run dishwasher, fill all pots and buckets with water last night. today the plumber is in to replace all the copper to stainless connections and the hole in the waste pipe. he said we’d have to gut the entire bathroom to replace the waste pipe so it’s a patch (that he said will last a good 5 years at least) until we undertake the gut reno. of this bath.
Cripes!!
mopar- well as you can see, my upbringing with only one bathroom has certainly NOT crippled me emotionally 🙂
You guys are so out of it today! What’s going on?
“He married me, so NO he’s not normal.”
^^^^ This is prime for re-write, bashing me. Geez, do I have to re-write my own stuff!
Funny Biff. We had the same problem except the water would go ice cold. That was a shock to the system!
THL! Bedpans??
Bxgrl, I am joking. I cannot stand listings for places with more bathrooms than bedrooms. Rob agrees.
I must admit we had a high bathroom to family member ratio in the home in which I grew up. However, we still had the problem that if someone was in the shower and one of the others used the faucets or flushed the toilet in another part of the house, the person in the shower would suddenly be hit with scalding hot water for some reason. Even though I don’t have that issue in my current home, I still am very tentative using the water when someone else is in the shower; the voice of my dad screaming at me as he was getting burned has never completely left me. There was nothing worse than the feeling I had as a child after I just flushed and realized I was in for it. My eyes would be wide open and I would freeze right there and then in the bathroom with my hand still on the toilet handle just waiting for my dad to erupt. And that man, bless his heart, could scream!
Yikes…THL, how long is it going to take? I guess the leak didn’t get any better?