It's seems I have a leaking pipe somewhere, I noticed some water seems to
be in the plaster of a downstairs wall, some bubble in paint and small
seepage
from a couple of small picture frame pin holes, also slight discolouration
of part
of the ceiling above the affected area. It's only a minor leak (at the
moment)
but it has became more apparent when I have had the heating on. It may have
been
leaking for a few weeks as I had noticed a slight damp smell but I assumed
it was
condensation or similar.
Anyway I am pretty satisfied it is a leak in a pipe to the radiator in the
room
above (bathroom) because firstly I turned the main water supply off and that
didn't seem to stem the flow. Then I turned off the hot water to the taps
via
a valve near the hot water tank, that didn't stop it either.
Then I decided to drain the radiators (I had assumed they were on the same
circuit as
the hot taps but I think that was not the case at all).
Anyway I drained a downstairs radiator 'drainage valve(?)' and that seemed
to stop the water seeping out of the wall so I was quite pleased about that,
but then
I began thinking about this meant regarding the boiler (I only had a pretty
basic grasp
of what I was doing!!) I think I was effectively draining the pipe which the
boiler heats inorder to heat the radiators and also the water in the hot
water
tank so I became concerned that this would not be a good idea if the boiler
was on so I did a quick check on the control unit and noticed it had just
clicked
to on for hot water (but not for the radiators) so I quickly switched it
off.
(It seemed a remakeable coincidence that this had happened just as I was
draining it
but never mind it didn't seem to do any harm but I wish I had checked it
first,
I has assumed it was set to off). Would that be a problem if the boiler had
fired
up with out any water in the pipe I assume I had probably drained?). I don't
think I entirely drained it, just enough to stop the very small leak
(trickle) from the wall pin
holes? Anyway I then turned the boiler off completly after about an hour
(pilot light was still
on but I turned that off by turning the gas control knob on the boiler
(glowworm).
It's probably what you would call a 'bog standard' glow worm system that was
installed
about 30 years ago.
So now I need to lift some floorboards to try and fiind the leak and fix it
(never lifted
boards before but I expect I will manage it somehow) I have never fied a
leak
before either, I was thinkning I could wrap something around it which may be
fairly
easy as it low pressure hot water I assume. I just wanted a quick fix which
I may be able to do
tomorrow when I find the cause of the leak, then maybe do something more
permanent
later (or get someone to do it for me). It might take me a few days to get
to the leak
and sort it out, so I would like to be able to maybe put the central heating
on for a while
as the next few days might be a little chilly and I don't think the small
seepage would be too
much of a problem for an hour or two, then I could redrain it again to stop
it seeping
once I had heated the place up a touch.
The thing I am unsure about is how to fix the leak, should I wrap something
around it
it would not take mush as its pretty low pressure (a few feet (8?) of water.
Any comments? does that sound reasonable? It might take me a few days to do
a good job
if I need to buy anything to do a good job?
Comments?
Would having the boiler on (briefly with possibly no water in the pipe it
heats be a concern?).
I assume it won't be a problem (fingers crossed!!)

TIA.