Perfect brown circle on ceiling

jaimel134

Thanks for the info, I will work on the suggestions and report back.

jaimel134

It is also just a bath
no shower

Section62

jaimel134 said:

Thanks for the info, I will work on the suggestions and report back.

It could be the pipes jaimel134, so the advice you've had about checking them is good.

However the bearer (the piece of wood the bath leg sits on) also has signs of water staining.  As that is higher than the chipboard floor it suggests water has (also?) come from somewhere higher up.  The staining could all be from the same cause, or it could be different causes, with one or more of them previously fixed.

So in addition to the previous idea, I'd suggest some further tests.

You need to find out whether the chipboard floor slopes towards the pipe holes or away from them.  You could use a spirit level if you have one, but an alternative (and in this case probably better) way of doing it would be to get a watertight tray (e.g. a baking tray, icecream tub, biscuit tin lid) which will sit flat on a surface without rocking.  Put just enough water in it to cover the bottom, then place it on the floor in the area within the orange lines on the attached image.  It doesn't have to be that large, you could use a smaller tray and move it around.  Unless the floor is dead level the water will tend to accumulate on one side or in one corner.  Where the water tends to accumulate will be the lowest point.

Based on the shape of the water stain on the chipboard I expect you'll find the lowest point to be where the orange dot is.


The second thing to do is to get some water-soluble non-permanent ink - e.g. a cheap felt tip pen. Test whether the pen you pick has water-soluble ink by drawing a line on a piece of toilet paper or kitchen roll and dipping the end in water - what you are looking for is whether the ink starts moving as the water saturates the paper. See 'paper chromatography' to get the general idea.

Now draw lines on the floor and bearer in the positions shown in blue on the image.  (You don't need to use blue though).  Take a photo of the lines to compare with later.  If you have an ongoing leak in that area, then one or more lines will be affected in the same way as the one on the paper.  You should also be able to tell by which lines are affected (and how the ink has been moved) where the water is coming from and going to.  If they remain exactly the same then there is no active leak there.

The advantage of ink over using paper towels is the ink technique usually indicates direction of movement, and it doesn't change over time if there is no leakage. (left long-term paper towels can absorb water vapour and change texture even if there is no leak)

coffeehound

Don't know if it's related, but there is quite a bit of verdigris on the far pipe

Jeepers_Creepers

Blimey - impressive forensics x 2.

(Must go back to drawing board...).

coffeehound

Is the chipboard warped up behind the pipe too, as though it's got saturated?



Hmm, maybe an optical illusion ..

jaimel134

Hello
thanks for the further information 
mad of yet I have found no leak and no further evidence of there being a leak.
Bath has been filled and drained.
If there was a leak then I surely would have experienced further issues.
my conclusion is split water from bath that has run down the pipe holes and through.
That is what I believe and hope

jaimel134

Chipboard is not warped. Must be the image.

Doozergirl

It could just have been a bit of an overflow from the bath - exuberant children or a hairy person that drips excessively (speaking from experience - I'm not the hairy one, mind!) 

Apodemus

Doozergirl, my thoughts exactly.  Coupled with the OP saying that the bath has been used more frequently recently, my immediate thought was of exuberant grandchildren visiting during the summer holidays!  Looks to me as if it could simply be a single "water overboard!" event, of the sort which I would expect to find under any bath.