On 6/30/2018 10:46 AM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 29 Jun 2018 07:30:54 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Friday, June 29, 2018 at 7:00:52 AM UTC-4, micky wrote:
Yesterday, I found water dripping from my dining room chandelier. This
hasnt' happened for 25 years, and when it did, it was after someoen took
a shower in the bathtub. I take showers in the shower and baths in the
bathtub.

The leak will be hard to find. Above the dining room are two bathrooms
side by side, each with a sink and a toilet, one with a shower and one
with a bathtub. Those two things are back to back. No evidence of any
of the leaking, no wetness underneath the sinks, etc. which would put
the leak inside the walls.

I don't think it's a drain pipe because I hadn't used much water prior
to noticing the drip, and I hadn't sloshed any water out of the bathtub
afaicr, certainly not enough to reach the floor below.


How do I find a leak inside the walls? Is there some clever way, like
putting a radio transmitter in the water that will beep when it gets out
of the pipe?

The alternative seems to be to take out the toilet and rip open the wall
behind it and look around. "Exploratory surgery".

I don't want to rip out the dining room ceiling because so far there is
no damage to it. The water exits through the electric box and runs down
the chandelier chain. That's what used to happen 25 years ago when it
dripped then, and there was no damage that showed up later.

Limit usage to as few fixtures as possible, monitor for the leak when
activating one at a time. If it's a supply line leak, then it should be
leaking all the time. I suppose you could put some red food coloring
in the toilet, blue in the tub, etc too. Look for missing caulk in
and around the shower.

My best guess now is that a link I thought had been plugged with my dead
skin and other body dirt was not plugged after all.

When I first moved in, I visited 3 or 4 other houses in this group of
100 which had leaked into the dining room ceiling, and had had one sheet
of sheetrock removed and replaced, maybe partially to repair a leak.

I had the same leak, but only down the chain of the chandelier.

It never leaked when I took a bath, only when my brother visited and
took a shower . I took my showers in my other bathroom, which had a
dedicated shower, and eventually I had him do that too.

For lack of a better reason, I concluded that the suction of the bath
water draining was enough to keep the water from leaking out the drain
pipe, but the water draining from a shower didnt' do that.
Conceivable??????

But I still thought it would have leaked by now. So I concluded that
dirt had plugged the leak.

The house is 40 years old. At age 30 or 35, I had to replace the
washers in the bathtub. But the new ones only lasted the difference, 10
or 5 years. And 3 or 4 times before I caught on, I left the water
dripping. I think all that water filled the floor under the tub, and
some came up beside the tub. This would account for why the floor was
wet there (I didn't mention that before.) Could water seep up from the
floor from an under-tub drain leak?????

Anyhow, my hope is that I can still use the shower stall or take a bath
in the tub, but I'm afraid to do it. If I dont' get up enough nevve by
tomorrow, I may have to join a health club in order to clean up.


I suggest looking at where water goes when showering. How much just
escapes and dribbles outside of the shower onto the floor if someone is
careless? Or, look for possible leak points in wall grout or caulk, or
at covers around the controls or spout.