Mysterious damp patch?

IvyFlood

Hello


We moved into our new (first) home last Saturday and everything appeared fine.


On Sunday morning we noticed a strange damp and yellowish patch on the wall in the hall directly below where the bathroom/shower is which has continued to get worse. We both had showers on Saturday night.


It would appear the issue is coming from the bathroom given the location and timing but I'm not sure if its a leak as there are no marks on the ceiling directly below - just on the wall about a foot down from the ceiling.


Our bathroom doesn't have a bath - just a huge shower. There used to be a bath which the previous owners took out and before that, the whole bathroom used to be a wet room which we have a building regs certificate for, which again makes me doubt its a leak. We have noticed a huge blob of silicone sealant in the corner of the shower which may suggest the previous owners have tired to cover something but surely it would have been more of an issue for them and the wall would have been damp before they moved out?


We also have a vertical radiator in the kitchen which backs on to the area in the hall if that could be causing the issue? But there is no damage to the wall on the kitchen side. I don't know how these things work.


We have a plumber coming round to inspect but as I said I'm not sure its a leak?


Nothing was flagged on our homebuyer report but I'm not sure how useful these reports are sometimes!


Thanks in advance

Doozergirl

This is where pictures help

JohnB47

IvyFlood wrote: »

Hello


We moved into our new (first) home last Saturday and everything appeared fine.


On Sunday morning we noticed a strange damp and yellowish patch on the wall in the hall directly below where the bathroom/shower is which has continued to get worse. We both had showers on Saturday night.


It would appear the issue is coming from the bathroom given the location and timing but I'm not sure if its a leak as there are no marks on the ceiling directly below - just on the wall about a foot down from the ceiling.


Our bathroom doesn't have a bath - just a huge shower. There used to be a bath which the previous owners took out and before that, the whole bathroom used to be a wet room which we have a building regs certificate for, which again makes me doubt its a leak. We have noticed a huge blob of silicone sealant in the corner of the shower which may suggest the previous owners have tired to cover something but surely it would have been more of an issue for them and the wall would have been damp before they moved out?


We also have a vertical radiator in the kitchen which backs on to the area in the hall if that could be causing the issue? But there is no damage to the wall on the kitchen side. I don't know how these things work.


We have a plumber coming round to inspect but as I said I'm not sure its a leak?


Nothing was flagged on our homebuyer report but I'm not sure how useful these reports are sometimes!


Thanks in advance

Water can do odd things - it can track a long way from where it starts to where it exits. Is there any easy access above the damp wall? Can you get a floorboard up? There normally would be a way to get at the pipework under a shower. Maybe the shower base is raised up on a plinth with access by removing a small panel from the side. Your plumber will probably have the same idea.

As for why it wasn't there before - is there evidence of the damp wall having been painted recently? Could be that the previous owners were able to avoid using the shower while the wall dried out then they painted it. Perhaps that's just my suspicious nature.

Could be just some pipework has chosen that moment to start dripping.

Do let us know how you get it solved.

IvyFlood

JohnB47 wrote: »

Water can do odd things - it can track a long way from where it starts to where it exits. Is there any easy access above the damp wall? Can you get a floorboard up? There normally would be a way to get at the pipework under a shower. Maybe the shower base is raised up on a plinth with access by removing a small panel from the side. Your plumber will probably have the same idea.

As for why it wasn't there before - is there evidence of the damp wall having been painted recently? Could be that the previous owners were able to avoid using the shower while the wall dried out then they painted it. Perhaps that's just my suspicious nature.

Could be just some pipework has chosen that moment to start dripping.

Do let us know how you get it solved.

Hi John


Thanks for replying. The plumber has resealed the bottom of our shower as he pulled away the big blob of sealant which revealed a huge hole in the grouting/previous seal. He thinks the whole thing was a botch job.


I'm not sure how the previous owners got away with it as they had two teenage daughters and there was no evidence of the hall below being repainted. Its all very strange!


I was concerned about trapped water underneath the shower as there is no way of getting under it because the floor is all tiled. The plumber didn't seem concerned and says it should just dry out. The wall looked to be fading but we have started having showers again now so fingers crossed it does just dry out!


Although after we've ran the sink tap, the shower plug hole makes a strange draining noise! But not sure if its normal and the pipes are connected?

JohnB47

Thanks for giving us the update. So many topics just fade away.

Glad you've got it sorted. No idea why it suddenly started when you moved in.

As for the gurgling noise. Yes, it's maybe the case that the two pipes are joined before they exit the building. In my experience, when pipework is arranged this way and the pipes have become a clogged with gunge over time, the vacuum caused when draining the sink will cause the water in the u bend of the shower to be sucked down repeatedly. Each time the water in the u bend hits a low point, air is sucked in and undoes the vacuum for a second. Then the vacuum builds up and the cycle repeats. So you get a glug glug glug sound. This doesn't happen in the sink waste when you're having a shower because the water entering the shower waste is more gradual than a sink full being emptied. It doesn't happen often, if at all, when the pipes are fairly clear of gunge. Our new bathroom took around 4 -5 years to get to the glug glug stage.

At this point people head for the chemical waste cleaners but I'm not convinced about them. I prefer to get a physical plunger into the pipes to really clean them out. I've made up a couple of tools for this but you do need to have convenient points of entry. One tool is the type of flexible wire thingy you can buy on the internet - for bendy bits of pipe and the other is a set of pull rods with my own sponge attachment at the end - for straight lengths of pipe.

Have a look outside where the soil pipe and sink/shower waste pipes exit the building. Also look under the sink. Hopefully there will be some access points there, or the means to dismantle the pipework (compression joints) to allow you access.

The only place I can currently not get my plungers in is the kitchen waste, so my next project is to replace all that pipework and build in access points so I can easily get plunging every 2 - 3 years or so.