In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 5 Oct 2019 05:31:10 -0700 (PDT), TimR
wrote:

On Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 8:02:14 AM UTC-4, wrote:

What is on the other side of the wall? Back in the olden days they
used to have a plywood access behind a tub. That practice may have
gone away by the late 70s tho.


What he said.

If you don't have an access panel, cut one in. If space allows, make it 14 x 14, then you can get prefab covers.

That said, I have that access panel and it didn't help my leak. I cut the ceiling downstairs so I could watch, and there were more problems than just one.

The drain footjoint leaked. That is a pain in the butt but I got it sealed.

Well it used to leak when my brother took a shower in the tub***, but
that stopped about 30 years. I figure that crud from my body when I took
baths clogged the leak. I hope I don't start it up again (Several
n'bors had a similar leak when their houses were almost new.)

***He only did this when he visited. When I took a shower it was in the
other shower stall off my bedroom.

The packing on the hot water faucet let a drip out when turned on. I couldn't get it apart, my plumber replaced the stems. Miracle, they still had parts for this one, unlike my other fixtures.

I replaced the stems about 7 years ago, but I should have bought stems
for all the other 3 sinks and one shower, and I only bought 2 or 4.


And then it started dripping only when the bath rather than shower was in use. Hard to diagnose, but my plumber caulked the overflow, we hope that fixed it. Not that water should ever go down there, but it seemed to be the problem.