dadiOH wrote:
rank beginner wrote:
• I'm almost certain the water I saw dripping out
was not because of a roof leak. First, the bathroom is
on the ground level of the house (we expanded a
half-bath to a full bath in the dwonstairs rec room),
so there is no roof to the exterior anywhere near
the ceiling of the bathroom. Immediately above
the shower is the subfloor of the kitchen.
OK, forget the roof
___________
• The water probably got into the cracks in the grout and started
dripping perhaps through steam from the hot water when showering.
Since the shower ceiling is quite low (little over 6 ft.), the
water/ steam
does not have far to travel. It's possible that the steam penetrated
the crack
in the grout, and then later, cooled down and condensed back into
water.
The drip-drip only lasted for a minute or two, and it started several
hours after
I had showered in it. This fact is what leads me to think that steam
is getting
behind the tiles in the ceiling and then later condensing once the
temperature drops.
The water isn't from steam.
Here's a way you could check...
1. Tape a few layers of newspaper over all the grout crack
2. Tape a piece of plastic or aluminum foil over the newspaper so it is
completely sealed.
3. Don't use the shower for a week. You need a fairly lengthy period of
non-useage as the leak appears to be small and intermittent and may occur
only under a particular set of circumstances...using both dishwasher and
sink at the same time, for example. If there should be a leak in the drain
line, it might only occur when the line is totally filled with water.
4. Remove plastic and newspaper. Is the newspaper damp? Then you
*know* the leak is overhead of the shower...either from kitchen supply or
drain lines or from shower supply line to the mixing valve; if the paper is
bone dry, you can be reasonably - but not totally - sure none of those are
leaking.
If no moisture from above, tape up paper and plastic again and run the
shower - both hot and cold - for 10 minutes or so; keep the temperature
minimal so you don't get steam. Check the paper again after another 15
minutes or so. Damp? If so, the leak is in the shower supply line between
mixing valve and outlet.
If the paper is still dry, run the shower again for 10 minutes or so but run
it hot so you get lots of steam then quickly wipe down the shower ceiling so
it is dry and tape up paper & plastic again. Wait a couple of hours then
remove the paper. Dry? I thought so and that means that stem isn't wafting
up into lord knows where and then later condensing.
If you do all of the above and the paper is never damp it probably means you
have no leaks but do have rodents with uncontrollable bladders
--
dadiOH
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