Leak in the walls
For several months I have been hearing the slow trickle of water behind the wall of my third floor bathroom in my Cobble Hill brownstone. I had Weiss plumbing come once to check it out and the guy basically leaned close to the wall and said ‘I don’t hear anything’. SInce I wanted to believe…
For several months I have been hearing the slow trickle of water behind the wall of my third floor bathroom in my Cobble Hill brownstone. I had Weiss plumbing come once to check it out and the guy basically leaned close to the wall and said ‘I don’t hear anything’. SInce I wanted to believe he was right, I let it go. This was about eight months ago. In my experience, however, it’s not a good idea to let small bad things grow into big bad things. I still hear the water so I tried again today with Gateway plumbing, mostly because the plumber from there sounds so smart on this sight. Once again, the guy stood close to the wall and said ‘I don’t hear anything’. Now I was beginning to feel like a character from Gaslight. It’s subtle but I swear it’s there. We went downstairs to the basement and, finally, he heard it. “Oh yeah!” he said, “it’s like a ‘Drip, drip’.” Sadly, he could not tell where it was, if it was in the pipe going up or the pipe coming down. His proposal–start opening walls–gave me a pounding headache. I did get his boss on the phone who sounded knowledgeable and agreed that ‘leaks can be tricky’. He is coming in two weeks to take a look. I won’t even mention what these diagnostic visits are costing. My point (and I do have one!), has anybody ever dealt with this situation before? Insight (and aspirin) welcome.
Rest easy–Gateway Plumbing is a fine reputable company to deal with. As an ex plumber and now salesman, I’ve encountered problems the same as yours. It can be very frustrating to find these kind of leaks. Alot of the time finding the leak will cost more(time spent finding it) than the actual repair, but if you delay, the damage to walls, etc can out weigh the cost of diagnostics and repairing the leak.
Good luck, Bill
There is another way to trace water/moisture in the walls: Infrared Thermal Inspections. I used this when I need to trace water that was coming in through the Stucco wall on my addition. Here is a link to the company I used
http://www.advpropertyinspections.com/
If the pipes are the problem the reading won’t help you but if there is water back there you will see it. Water damage became my hobby-not by choice. This was the hi-tech answer that finally found the source. Hope that helps you.
I had a similar situation once. It was a toilet that was running ever so slightly on an upper floor. Whenever it did, you would hear the dripping from inside the pipe from where it made a 90 degree bend. Might be worth checking out.
I’ve actually had pipes break more times than I care to remember. In one case, I was lucky. We found it when we were gutting the room. The others were discovered when they caused major floods. Twice it was the original cast iron sewer line (2 different houses).Yuck. But here’s the positive side for you.. we never heard a trickling. They all gave out w/o notice.
You need to see some water or a stain to help you find a leak. If you do have a leak I would say it’s in a drain because if it were a water feed pipe you would have seen the water by now. I would relax about it since you can’t see it and what ever damage it may be causing must be really small. We all know there will be days ahead to fix something, I guess you just can’t wait! : )
I had a sound of trickling water behind the wall next to my bathtub in my house in CA that was there 9 years until I sold the place, that neither of two plumbers could identify and one actually did even bust into the wall. My solution was I never used the tub! If I didn’t run the water into the tub, there were no sounds of water trickling. So I just left it alone.
Is it possible tht it is simply water going through the pipes. If the pipes aren’t pitched correctly, water will drain slowly — hence the drip drip drip. Without evidence of the water coming out somewhere, it is probably nothing.
paying someone at this point is a waste. This is not a plumber’s problem because there is no leak, just a sound.
You will be a better detective than any plumber, even MP. Listen with a stethescope against the wall, and when you’ve found the sound with some degree of certainty, take a hammer to the wall.
I agree with 4:09.. you probably have to deal with the noise until they they leave a spot or you pulled down the walls yourself. Goodluck buddy