Advice needed regarding possible water leak

ClaireN75

We live on the first floor of a modern block of flats. The floors are concrete with only one pipe feeding our boiler coming up from below and a ventilation pipe going through a corner in the bathroom.

We came back from shopping this evening to find a note on our door from the physiotherapist who has an office directly underneath our flat.

It said he'd switched our water off as he has a "massive" water leak (the water stopcock is in a communal area) and that we shouldn't switch it back on again tonight. He didn't leave a contact number or any more details about the leak.

We have been doing some work on our bathroom so DH immediately checked all the plumbing (we've changed the hot and cold inlets). We can't find any signs of leakage. We put the water back on to a) see if we could hear any leakage and b) see if the water meter is moving (assuming that if there is a leak it will put a demand on the system and therefore show some movement on the meter).

We can't hear/see/feel any leaks. The water meter isn't moving (unless we put on a tap). We've marked the meter reading, left it half-an-hour and still no movement.

Are we being unreasonable to put the water back on? The note seems designed to spoil our evening* as we can't even contact him to find out what's going on and as it's an office I would have expected him to have called out on emergency plumber if the leak was really massive.

Is there a way the leak could come from us without it showing on our meter? Any advice welcome.

*OK, a bit harsh but I'm 38 weeks pregnant and he knows that, so doing without water is particularly awkward at the moment.

cajef

Assuming the stopcock is just for your flat then if the meter is not moving you do not have a leak, if the stopcock is a communal one that covers more than one property then it is possible he may have a leak in his property from his own plumbing.

ClaireN75

Thanks for the confirmation and reassurance cajef. The stopcock is only for our flat. All the stopcocks for one floor are in a cupboard in the corridor. He's certainly heard the DIY-ing so we're the obvious suspects.

We have turned his water off as well (he doesn't seen to have done that). It's annoying not to be able to contact him.

It's a bit of a coincidence but we suppose it must be a pipe in his office that's bust. I've got a list of questions for him tomorrow: where's the leak, when did it start, what troubleshooting did he do to identity our flat as the source? And why didn't he leave us his phone number??

I guess I will tell him to call a plumber and we'll go through the house insurance if it turns out to come from us after all.

cajef

Well you will know in the morning when he opens his door, if his desk floats out he has a 'massive' leak from somewhere.:D

ClaireN75

:rotfl:

Well, he seems to be in no rush to find out. DH has already gone to work - would have thought neighbour would be in bright and early too. Especially considering as far as he knows we've had no water since 6pm with no way of contacting him to find out what's going on.

ClaireN75

Just to close the tale: Neighbour turned up, told me the leak is in a corner of his flat where we have no water connections (although there is a ventilation pipe running behind the wall) and agreed that it was unlikely to be due to us. He's toddled off to call Facilities Management and DH has stopped panicking that he's going to have to pull up the shower basin and tiles that he spent all weekend installing :rotfl::j

Thanks again cajef for your good humoured reassurance :beer:

ClaireN75

Curiouser and curiouser... other downstairs neighbour has just come up saying they also had a leak last night, but on the opposite side to where the other neighbour lives - under our kitchen this time(and still the opposite end of the flat to where we've been doing the work). Still zero flow through our meter, nor any signs of water in our flat.

Both leaks seen to have been short lived as they were dripping last night but only wet spots this morning. All the water pipes are sunk into the concrete floor structure and surely if there was a leak it would be constant dripping downstairs?

The plumber called in by the Facilities Management wants to do a stress test on our system tomorrow - does anyone know what that would involve?

booty40uk

Sounds to me that they are both after an insurance claim and are looking to use your DIY project as the reason.

If your meter isnt turning then you have no leak on your system. I have no idea why the plumber would even need to test your system.

If niether "leaks" are continuous, then they cant be on the hot or cold anyway, otherwise they would still be pouring in. "If" there is a leak, it must be on a waste pipe.

I would ask for a copy of the plumbers report and make sure i was with him while he does the "test".

hth

Andy

WhiteHorse

ClaireN75 wrote: »

We have turned his water off as well (he doesn't seen to have done that). It's annoying not to be able to contact him.

He claims to have a 'massive' leak, yet doesn't turn his own water off? And doesn't leave a contact number either?

Weird.

ClaireN75

I know, that's we thought.

We've seen the damage and I'm not sure either neighbour is sneaky enough to be putting through an insurance claim (2nd downstairs neighbour seems content to let us/other neighbour sort things out). They don't appear to have spoken to each other. Perhaps I'm just being naive

Luckily we will both be home tomorrow. DH is also not keen on having this stress test done. We are also tending towards the waste pipe theory but
a) Would need to be both kitchen and toilet pipes (or do they join up some where?)
b) We don't use huge amounts of water in the kitchen, and if it's linked to the toilet then surely every time we flush things should be leaking, not just a one off?

We really don't want this plumber digging around in our flatas we don't see any reason for it to be linked to our water supply. But we don't want to be unhelpful either. Would it be reasonable to refuse this stress test?

WhiteHorse

The management could probably insist. Make sure that you are present and that you get copies of all reports as well. Might also be an idea to make it very plain that you won't hesitate to get an independent report done if they try to stick the blame on you!