Water soaking brickwork from neighbour's leaking toilet

robgoingcrazy

Well I am baffled now, as I caught him again and got him to look at the water, apparently his toilet is actually in a different place altogether, so unlikely to be causing this leak

I tried to isolate this when I first noticed by turning off my under sink water taps, etc, and hunting around for any water possibly coming from inside but it's dry as a bone.

There are some central heating pipes which I can't see.

If I put my ear close to where the water is coming out, I can hear a slow steady dripping sound, a bit like you hear in a cave.

I have British Gas homecare with plumbing and drains so I guess the next step is to call them out

Any ideas what it might be? I've tried observing whether there is more water depending on whether I use the CH/sink/shower etc but it seems quite random.

robgoingcrazy

I feel daft now I've come up with 5 to the question 2+2 but glad I kept hassling neighbour as now I could eliminate his toilet.

I just double checked and did some more tests, when I run the boiler, lots of water drips out of the metal pipe behind the boiler (condensate pipe?).

British Gas on their annual inspections have told me this is not up to standard when they come, but have said it's not a big deal.

They installed the boiler in the first place and I've had homecare ever since then, do I have any comeback if this is the problem?

I think the idea is the water is supposed to go down the drain underneath the pipe, but it's flowing the other way, at least that seems like the culprit at this point, it's the only place I can see lots of water coming out of.

I'll have to get them out

JohnB47

Sorry but it's not clear to me where this pipe is routed. On mine, the pipe runs from the boiler, through the external wall and simply ends on a downward bend. I think it's a sort of safety overflow and I've never seen any water coming out of it. (Mine is a non condenser combi boiler).

What is the actual route for your pipe?

In any case, if water from it is dampening your wall (inside?) it seems you would have a valid claim to have it routed correctly free of charge. Why so much water is coming out is another question. Is that maybe normal for your type of boiler?

robgoingcrazy

JohnB47 wrote: »

Sorry but it's not clear to me where this pipe is routed. On mine, the pipe runs from the boiler, through the external wall and simply ends on a downward bend. I think it's a sort of safety overflow and I've never seen any water coming out of it. (Mine is a non condenser combi boiler).

What is the actual route for your pipe?

In any case, if water from it is dampening your wall (inside?) it seems you would have a valid claim to have it routed correctly free of charge. Why so much water is coming out is another question. Is that maybe normal for your type of boiler?

I think it's supposed to be normal as it IS a condensing boiler, the pipe is just a little bent piece of pipe on the outside wall, water drips from the bottom of it.

Something else I've noticed is that at some point last year the pressure meter on my boiler kept dropping, I filled it, and it went up, then went back down again. When the British Gas man came to do the annual inspection, I mentioned this and he said it was nothing to worry about I should only worry if it started flashing red, which it never has. However I filled it from 0.6 to 1.5 bar today, and it seems to be steadily dropping again.

So that is also a bit of a cause for concern, though if one of the central heating pipes was leaking it would have emptied the system to a critical level at some point?

Don't know, it seems my assumptions about the problem so far have all been incorrect, but seem to be working towards narrowing it down, I couldn't apologise to my neighbour enough

JohnB47

OK, from what you say about the C/H system pressure dropping, you almost certainly have a leak in that. Mine stays at the same pressure for months/years on end and only drops when I decide to drain the air from the rads. It may be that this leak is the only problem you have and the drip from the 'overflow' pipe is a red herring (although if its dripping a lot onto the wall, it should really be routed to the nearest drainage gully - perhaps using plastic pipe, which you could do yourself).

As for why it's not emptying the system altogether, the leak will be worse when the pressure is greatest - i.e. when the system is hot. When it cools down the pressure drops and the leak lessens or stops altogether. Then when the system gets fully cold, the copper joint (that has maybe not been soldered properly) contracts to the point where it starts leaking again. In other words it's perhaps a combination of the variations in heat/pressure that determines when the leak occurs.

You said earlier that you could put your head to the wall and hear a dripping noise. Can you pinpoint where, inside, the pipes could be running? That's where you need to get to and investigate.

What is confusing me is that you've said that the wall inside is dry. You need to think about all of the C/H pipes that may run near that wall - downstairs and upstairs.

Oh and sorry if you've said this already but is the wall a cavity one, with insulation?

I'm wondering if you have a C/H leak and the water is somehow tracking it's way into the cavity void, (perhaps from the upper floor?) - hence the 'cave like' noise of the drips.

southcoastrgi

if it's a metal pipe bent back against the wall as you say, then it's the pipe from the prv (pressure relief valve) inside your boiler, they are designed to open at 3 bar & rarely re-set themselves as they only need some muck in your heating system to get onto the seating to make them leak, if it has been happening for this amount of time you will have lost most of the inhibitor in your heating system to, you need to get BG back out to replace it & replace the inhibitor, yes it is a big deal, get them to replace it

the condense pipe is plastic not copper & will go to a drain either inside or out

DRP

if you are covered by homecare then keep calling them and getting them out, from your description it may be related to the boiler - in any case, the pressure drop needs sorting...

robgoingcrazy

Thanks for the suggestions. Have gone on to British Gas account and tried to book an appointment for Friday, I seriously cannot cancel the jobs I have this week to wait in for an engineer, being self employed and facing no work/income at all for 2 weeks over Christmas...

This happened last time I tried to book online (when a radiator TRV got stuck), it gave my either tomorrow or a date 10 days in the future, all I've got just now is either Monday, Tues or Weds or Thurs this week, and after that December 30th, nothing in between... like Friday, the one day I can be in this week...

Will have to call them tomorrow then :mad:

robgoingcrazy

Thanks for the clarification on which pipe is which, have done some reading around and it makes sense that the metal pipe is the pressure relief one.

Can't see anything inside as the kitchen sink/cupoard is in the way, I'm not handy enough to take that apart to have a look.

Have been away overnight, can't tell if there's any difference as I put a bucket under the dripping metal pipe, but it's been raining so the ground is all wet and can't really tell if this has led to a reduction in the water (and therefore if it is the dripping causing the water or a combination of that and something else), will keep checking though.

Thanks, I do really appreciate these replies.

southcoastrgi

plastic bag taped over the pipe & see if it gets water in it, if the pressure is dropping on the gauge on the boiler that reqs you to keep topping it up the prv would be my 1st port of call