Unknown leak 1 month after moving in.

somerandomusername

I am stressing so hard right now, I moved into this flat 1 month ago and I checked around all the radiator pipes for leaks and didn't see anything. Earlier today about 9am I ripped up the carpet in the bedroom and it was bone dry, no evidence of a leak of any kind.

Then about 10am the pressure in my boiler dropped to 0, so I went around again and checked for leaks and could not find any so re pressured the boiler and left it at that.

2pm the carpet fitters arrive the lay the carpet, 6 hours later underneath the radiator in the bedroom, the carpet is soaked! But the pipes around the radiator are bone dry, the underlay is dry, the wood grippers are dry, the skirting board and walls are dry. No leak coming from the ceiling or radiators that I can see.

I checked all the other radiators in the flat and no wet patches. I have turned off the water supply but I am so utterly confused. I think the leak is coming from under the skirting board, like where the carpet fitters have jammed the carpet under the skirting to secure it, there must be a leaky pipe somewhere there and the carpet has acted like a sponge soaking it up.

The surface of the carpet is quite dry, but it's the underneath side of the carpet, I got as much water out as I could using paper towels, have pulled back the carpet to prop it up and using a fan to dry it but I am so annoyed right now.

1 month after moving in, the same day I get carpet fitted! I am going to call the management company in the morning and get a plumber out but if it's a pipe behind the bottom of the wall, they're going to have to chip away at the concrete to see the pipes…

What a headache.

somerandomusername

I think it's coming from the radiator pipe, which is weird because the carpet that was already down was perfectly dry when I ripped it up. Here is a photo of the wet patch.

The red line outlines the patch and the red circle is the little cut out where the radiator pipe goes into the ground. Notice how the water seems to spread out perfectly evenly from that origin point. The pipes are in pretty bad shape to be honest but I'm not sure how the plumber is going to fix it cos the pipes go under the floor, which is solid concrete…

somerandomusername

OK now I've temporarily sorted it, I'm not panicking as much as I was initially. I've dried the wet patch using my fan and I've isolated the water flow to the radiator by turning the shield valve thing.

I've turned the mains water back on for the moment just to monitor the pipe I'm checking it every 10 mins to see, making sure no water is coming into the radiator / leaking from the pipe.

I'll be honest I was really stressing when I first discovered this but I think it's going to be a pretty simple fix. Dig up the concrete floor a bit, replace whatever corroded / leaky pipe / value there is, recement it and lay back the carpet.

I think I'm going to be ok.

WIAWSNB

Hi sru - a busy night for you!

Just some info about your CH system. You say it has a pressure gauge, so that means it's a 'sealed' or 'unvented' system, which in turn means it isn't directly affected by the mains water supply that you turned off.

Once a sealed system's pressure reaches zero, it usually stops leaking, and won't do so again until repressurised. So, whilst you wait to have this fixed, there's no need to shut off your mains.

Hopefully it's an easy repair with an obvious cause, but if the pipe does go into a solid concrete slab, then in theory the leak could be further along where it's buried, and the leak is flowing back on the outside of the pipe until it rises up through the entry point in the concrete. But hopefully it'll be quickly accessed, and an obvious cause - perhaps a dodgy elbow immediately below.

Fingers crossed - please keep us updated.

somerandomusername

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81946966#Comment_81946966

Thanks for that info.

So all night I've been monitoring and the leak appears to be coming from the pipe, not through the ground. So while the pipe does come up through the ground, the water is actually seeping out through the area of the pipe protruding that goes into the actual radiator.

There's some weird kind of "shell casing" stuff around the copper pipe that's peeling away like it's corroded. Here is another picture.

Edit God I just realised how disgusting manky it really is now I've taken a photo with camera flash on. Definitely needs replacing. Also why are all the pipes going into the rads bent like this? None of them are going up straight like normal.

WIAWSNB

That is excellent news, then!

Chances are the pipes in the ground are perfectly fine, and that 'casing' is most likely some form of pipe lagging, designed to both insulated and protect it whilst buried in the concrete. Sounds positive.

Why are the pipes bent? Most likely due to lack of planning or accuracy by the plumber - he didn't position the pipe 'tails' accurately enough. Or perhaps they were laid loose, and the floor screeder just went ahead and covered them where they sat.

You could slightly improve the appearance by having them 'dog-legged', but I doubt it's worth the hassle.

So, where - exactly - is the water coming from? If you use paper towel to completely dry the pipe and valve, and then shine a torch beam at it, you should see the drips as they seep out. Are you DIYish?

somerandomusername

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81947065#Comment_81947065

The water is seeping out of the exact outline where that casing stuff is.

I squeeze a tissue paper around that part and it absorbs a very small amount of water. But the confusing thing is the carpet patch was really quite damp so I'm guessing when that radiator value is on and accepting water, that's when it's bad enough to soak the large area of carpet I showed in the photo.

What I still don't understand is how I ripped up perfectly dry carpet at about 9am, then by 4pm the carpet was fitted, then by 11pm it was wet enough that I had to place paper towels on the underneath of the carpet and stand on it to absorb the water

plumb1_2

most probably be plastic coated ( factory fitted ) 10mm copper (as it should be in concrete) , so you might find it might be leaking several foot away as seeping inside of the plastic sleeve and appears where it been trimmed back.

Hopefully it’s not concrete but softer screed.

somerandomusername

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81947080#Comment_81947080

I'm not sure if it's concrete or screed, it's a flat that was built 30 years ago.

I had the old carpet in here for an entire month and it was completely dry the entire time. When I ripped it up the concrete was dry, it was very cold but it was dry to the touch. It just seems strange that the moment I get carpet fitted, the pipe leaks.

I wonder if the fitter accidently hit the pipe with a hammer or something and dislodged an old weak join or something.

somerandomusername

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81947065#Comment_81947065

Got a plumber coming in a few hours, charges £85 per half hour 🫣 I dread to think how long he's going to be here if he has to dig up the floor. Hopefully no longer than 2 hours.

WIAWSNB

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81947212#Comment_81947212

Any mileage in checking your home insurance policy to see if this is covered? Yes, it'll most likely have a significant excess amount, but it should fix everything - tracing the leak, exposing the pipe, fixing the leak, patching the repair, and even carpet stains!

Always a tough call - the repair could be quite straightforward. £85 per half hour is high, tho' - where do you live, the Moon?

Quite possible that the carpet fitters disturbed the pipe and 'caused' this, and it's impossible to lay a carpet without interfering with rad pipes to some degree. But, pipes should not leak from this, unless the damage was really pretty significant, and that would be obvious.