I have a problem. When I run a shower or when I drain the tub on the
top floor, I hear dripping on the floor below. If i put the plug in
first, and then run the water, I hear no dripping. This leads me to
believe that the problem is not with the water supply but with the
drain. Forgive me if I'm using newbie terms, I really don't know what
I'm doing. A colleague of mine, who just moved into a new house has the
same issue, and he feels that it is just water dripping within the
trap. As info, my house is about 7 yrs old but I've only been in for 2
months, and the dripping has happened the whole time I've been there.

Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance.

bigredmoose wrote:
I have a problem. When I run a shower or when I drain the tub on the
top floor, I hear dripping on the floor below. If i put the plug in
first, and then run the water, I hear no dripping. This leads me to
believe that the problem is not with the water supply but with the
drain. Forgive me if I'm using newbie terms, I really don't know what
I'm doing. A colleague of mine, who just moved into a new house has the
same issue, and he feels that it is just water dripping within the
trap. As info, my house is about 7 yrs old but I've only been in for 2
months, and the dripping has happened the whole time I've been there.

Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance.


A 7 yr old house no doubt has plastic (PVC/ABS) drain piping.

Very often, "dripping" noises can be heard from water falling
*inside* the pipe (not leaking out) because plastic piping
transmits noises so well, rather than absorbing them.

If you don't see signs of wetness anywhere, chances are
this is what's happening.

Jim

On 11 Oct 2005 12:06:59 -0700, "bigredmoose"
wrote:

I have a problem. When I run a shower or when I drain the tub on the
top floor, I hear dripping on the floor below. If i put the plug in
first, and then run the water, I hear no dripping. This leads me to
believe that the problem is not with the water supply but with the
drain. Forgive me if I'm using newbie terms, I really don't know what
I'm doing. A colleague of mine, who just moved into a new house has the
same issue, and he feels that it is just water dripping within the
trap. As info, my house is about 7 yrs old but I've only been in for 2
months, and the dripping has happened the whole time I've been there.

Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance.

Just some thoughts. I moved in to this house 22 years ago, when my
house was 4 years old, and some of them were 5. In the next two
years I visited about 6 houses, 2 of which had already had repairs to
the dining room ceiling because of leaking from the bathtub. I"m sure
they repaired the drains when they repaired the ceilings. And I think
I was told about one or two more, and it's not like anyone knew about
all 100 houses. I have plastic drain pipe everywhere I can see it,
(which I guess is every place but the tub and the shower.) and the
neighbors have the same.

Periodically I would find water in the glass ball that surrounded the
lightbulb at the bottom of a chain (in my ceiling light fixture.) I
emptied it, or it evaporated, and I guess it never got deep enough to
break the light bulb. It's really interesting, since the fixture is
at least three feet from the drain upstairs, and there has never been
the slightest stain on my ceiling.

Until recently, the last time it leaked was 15 years agog when my
brother took a long shower. I otoh use it almost every day to take a
bath, and no more leaking. I'm guessing that when I drain the tub,
there is more water going out and more siphoning suction that lessens
the leaking.

I'm also thinking, since it used to leak even when I used it, that the
hole has been plugged by the crud that comes off my body when I bathe,
mostly dead skin.

For some reason, I found water in the glass globe again recently, a
half inch or so, but only once. I think some of the crud got washed
away by draining water, and then got replaced after my next dirty
bath. After all, the water leaking out would be carrying its own
stop-leak with it.

I live alone and don't have guests in the last few years, but if they
wanted to shower, I might have them use the shower off my bedroom,
where there has never been any leaking (in my house or the others
afaik) But that might not be necessary now.

If I were you, I absolutely wouldn't do anything until the ceiling
below got stained. It might be dripping within the pipe, or it might
be leaking, but I've gone 22 years with no problem and no water in the
globe from probably 14 or 18 years of those 22. Repairing it will
be from the bottom anyhow, so you might as well wait to see if it ever
leaks.

I'm 70 pounds overweight now, 220, and the bathtub makes a snapping
noise on the right front, next to the wall, once each time I get in.
But it hasn't sagged with respect to the wall tile, except maybe an
eigth inch at hte front left corner. I've been watching that for
years and it hasn't increased. So I don't think the wood underneath
is being damaged.




Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

In article , NOPSAMmm2005
@bigfoot.com says...

If I were you, I absolutely wouldn't do anything until the ceiling
below got stained. It might be dripping within the pipe, or it might
be leaking, but I've gone 22 years with no problem and no water in the
globe from probably 14 or 18 years of those 22.

Assuming, of course, that 20+ years of leakage hasn't caused rot.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Updated Bicycle Touring Books List:
http://www.phred.org/~josh/bike/tourbooks.html

Try to localize where you are hearing the sound come from. This happened to
me last year and I discovered a leak from the tub drain trap which was
dripping across a tub support stud, and dripping onto a bottom plate behind
a return vent on the floor below. I had my wife and kids stand around the
perimeter of the room with everything except lights turned off to hear where
it was coming from.

Jon


"bigredmoose" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a problem. When I run a shower or when I drain the tub on the
top floor, I hear dripping on the floor below. If i put the plug in
first, and then run the water, I hear no dripping. This leads me to
believe that the problem is not with the water supply but with the
drain. Forgive me if I'm using newbie terms, I really don't know what
I'm doing. A colleague of mine, who just moved into a new house has the
same issue, and he feels that it is just water dripping within the
trap. As info, my house is about 7 yrs old but I've only been in for 2
months, and the dripping has happened the whole time I've been there.

Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance.