Leaking pipes

Swanlander

I fear I have a leaking central heating pipe under the floor - the wall outside is wet but not inside. I have lifted the carpet and the floor is dry.
My dilemma is - a builder is coming to look at the wall. If he confirms a leak do I use my British Gas Homeplan cover that covers leaks or go straight to my insurer who also cover leaks.
If I go via British Gas first and they at least fix the problem would I then be able to go to my insurer for more help - perhaps moving me out of the house if the problem is bad?

Jonesya

We need a bit more info:

Do you mean a central heating pipe running under the ground floor, so running through the concrete or under a suspended ground floor? I ask because it's slightly unusual to have CH under the ground floor and if it was upstairs you'd expect to see the leak coming through the ceiling.

You could confirm whether it's coming from the central heating system by checkign the water levels - if it's a sealed system the pressure will be dropping and you'll need to keep topping it up. If it's a vented system with a header tank then you could switch off the boiler system, shut off the cold water feed to the header tank and see if the level in the tank drops over the course a few days.

Crinkmeister

Why would a central heating leak make the outside wall wet, but not the inside? Something missing here.

Swanlander

Its a concrete floor in a bungalow. Crinkmeister you are making me feel a bit better - yes you would think the inside wall would be wet too and it is not. Basically it rained heavily last week and there are two rows of four bricks each in bricked decorative panels built in to the front of the bungalow. They are under the two windows in the front of the bungalow and the these bricks are the top rows of each panel. The panels got soaked in the rain last week and dried out quickly apart from the top rows under the sills. They were drying out but slowly. I put the central heating on last night and this morning the bricks were as wet as ever so just putting two and two together. It did not rain last night so perhaps its something else? In fact because its the top of the panels I am guessing its not the CH now?

uk_messer

Turning the heating on isn't going to dry outside bricks easily, especially cavity walls ones. Possibly silicone around window/sill has failed and rain has got in there?

Problem with the gutter above being blocked and having poured over drenching the wall?

Crinkmeister

uk_messer wrote: »

Turning the heating on isn't going to dry outside bricks easily, especially cavity walls ones. Possibly silicone around window/sill has failed and rain has got in there?

Problem with the gutter above being blocked and having poured over drenching the wall?

Second vote for blocked gutter!

Swanlander

Hopefully! Builder did not come tonight so hopefully tomorrow (he onlt lives around the corner).

uk_messer

Old joke....Guy advertises for a handyman. Fella comes round applying for the job. Guys asks him..."Can you plaster?" "No"......"Can you do carpentry?"..."No"........."Do you know any electrical?"..."No"

"So, what's so handy about you then?"

"I only live around the corner"

Swanlander

No leaking pipes - the problem would be too high for that but I am a born worrier. The builder says the window sills have no end caps on and water has dropped on to the cream coloured bricks at the end of each window sill and wet and stained the bricks.