Mysterious Leak Older but not ancient porcelin Bathtub
I’m with cate — troubleshoot this. Put in the stopper first. then fill the tub. Was there a leak while the tub was filling? Then it is probably the supply line. to be sure, shut the water and let it sit. Is the water level going down in the tub? Then either your stopper isn’t watertight or there is a hole in the tub. If the water level does not drop, then definitely the supply line. If no leak, then let the water out. If there is a leak once you start draining, then the problem must be in the waste line. If it does not leak under any of these conditions, try again and once the tub is full, have someone get in. If it leaks then, then i don’t know wtf to tell you, except perhaps the extra weight is putting strain somewhere.
slopefarm
in About Brooklyn 10 years and 10 months ago
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redasch | 10 years and 10 months ago
Classic 1880 Park Slope 4-story brownstone. Second floor bathroom has an older porcelain bathtub that when we fill to take a bath and get into the tub (one person) it drips to the floor below. We silicone sealed the overflow drain – not possible water gets through this. No water even comes near the overflow drain (we tested this) or over the tub edges. Water leaks floor below behind entryway huge mirror where there is a dead space. We cannot figure out why it leaks. We had the tub re glazed last year – tub leaked before this. Any insights on this would be appreciated!
GreenThinker | 10 years and 10 months ago
your drain pipe/trap is leaking. The weight applied to a certain 100 year old joint which is now being held together by more gunk than thread causes it to leak water.
cate | 10 years and 10 months ago
Yes, agree, it could be something in the waste line. Likely spots are the threads where the pipe screws into the tub and also the bottom of the trap. Or just right around the drain, if there are cracks. . Does it leak when the tub drains as well as the other times you mention? . Replacements for the waste line are readily available (check Vintage Tile & Tub online, for example) and it’s not even a super expensive repair. But there is a danger than when trying to get the old pipe out, they could rip a hole in the bathtub and then you’d have to junk the whole tub. . Alternatively, you could probably successfully seal whatever it is on the underside of the tub using plumber’s cement — but then for sure you’d never be able to remove the pipe. . Also, have you checked the supply lines? . Feel the pipes and the underside of the tub when you detect the leak. Find the wet spot.
BobMarvin | 10 years and 10 months ago
Can you see water actually dripping under the tub, or does it mysteriously leak only one floor down? When I first bought my house we had such a mystery leak. It turned out that when the tub drain was partially blocked water backed up into the vent stack. When the house was built, in 1899, someone drove a nail through a baseboard into the lead vent pipe which was inside a wall in the closet of a bedroom next to the bathroom. The leak must have always been there, but only showed up when water backed up into the vent stack. Opening the wall, removing the nail, and soldering the nail hole fixed it. The hard part was the detective work done by my late father-in-law who was a plumber.
redasch | 10 years and 10 months ago
Thank you for the comments – the tub looks like this picture, it is built-in and not freestanding. The leak does not occur when the water is drained it is literally when one person is in the tub, not moving around at all after 5 minutes it leaks down the back wall to the floor below which happens to be behind the oversized brownstone entryway mirror. The other part to the mystery is that it does not leak every time she takes a bath.
greenmountain | 10 years and 10 months ago
This is a really nice retro looking bathroom renovation. I am sorry you have this problem. I like the large hex tile, the colors, the shampoo niche. But for all your investment and inconvenience, you did not spend enough time and money on mechanical solutions. I made this same mistake in my own bathroom. I decided to keep my 1930’s tub, because replacing it seemed expensive, and unnecessary. 16 years later, I just completed the job, which means, I demolished most of my original work, and started over. My new enameled cast iron tub is way better than any phony “re-glazed” antique. Schluter Kerdi waterproof fabric membranes cover every wet substrate under the tile, and Kerdi Board insulates acoustically between rooms, and for temperature on the exterior wall. All the pipes, valves and fixtures are new. I used urethane caulk, such as Sonolastic NP1, not silicone. It comes in many colors, but mostly it is under tile and fixtures as a sealant and expansion joint. It bonds to metal, tile, glass, thinset mortar, Kerdi, everything but PVC. Where visible, I cut the excess back with a razor blade. Silicone caulk works about as well as wishful thinking, as in: “I wish I had replaced the tub, not re-glazed it.”
cate | 10 years and 10 months ago
Bob, that is an incredible story. (And how lucky to have a FIL who was a plumber!) Greenmountain, that is an actual authentic vintage bathroom from the 20s or 30s, not new construction. The blue tile behind the faucets could be a later addition — possibly even to fix the very leak the OP is trying to find. . OP, have you tested to see what happens when you fill the tub and no one gets in? Does it still leak? . Could be something behind the wall with the faucets and tap — something to do with a supply line, a valve back there in the wall, a connection, etc. Or, maybe, little tiny cracks around the drain in the tub. . The drain is plugged with just a rubber stopper, right? . Keep in mind that if the floor is not perfectly level, almost any leak will run to the lowest point, then drip down. (In one of our bathrooms, any water from any fixture will end up in one particular corner behind the toilet, then drip down into the hall underneath.) . Can you go through a plaster wall in a closet behind the faucets to open up the area behind the faucets and take a look and feel around? With a flashlight, you’ll be able to see and feel some of the tub and the floor under it.
greenmountain | 10 years and 10 months ago
Well that would be a relief that little new work was done to it. It looks like a 1930’s tub, but other features are not characteristic of apartment buildings of that period. Is this because it was a unique addition to an 1880’s brownstone? Cate, is this the home of a friend of yours? I keep a galvanized steel trap with a rust hole in the bottom from the same period in my shop. It came from a 4 story house. That bathroom had been “repaired” several times. Other traps were heavier and still holding water. Same for the rest of the pipes. Some with other waste lines: some thick and still working, others rotten, often repaired and useless.