Huge leak from bathroom I can't duplicate

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MarriedGeek

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I'm baffled by this one. After my morning shower, I went downstairs and noticed a large amount of water all over the floor directly below the upstairs bathroom. I knew it recently happened because it did not sit long enough to ruin the laminate flooring. The weather also recently got warmer.

The water had somehow leaked in between the sub-flooring from the bathroom directly upstairs into the room downstairs. There was puddled water up inside the sheetrock in the downstairs ceiling. There's a faux vent in the ceiling so that I can reach valves, etc. The water excess water had drained out through this vent and onto the floor.

After I dried up the floor and the inside of the sheetrock in the ceiling, I tried running a hot shower again, several times, as well as ran the toilet. No leaks. Dry as a bone. The PVC pipes are dry, as are all the water lines. I see no indication of water coming off a pipe. I saw no signs of water near the toilet drain. My wife is running the dishwasher and says it's still dry. I'm baffled.

My question is, could a change in temperature allow for a PVC pipe to leak, but then re-seal? Could a sudden change in temperature cause this effect?
 

Terry

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If things dry up, then I doubt it's in the supply to the shower.
Some leaks only show up while in use. That can be a loose drain in the shower, or the valve plate needing to be sealed at the wall.
If it's a tub/shower, sometimes the tub spout can force water back into the wall if it goes bad.
I've even had cases where someone was taking a shower with the door open.
 

Smooky

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When you are standing in the shower, water may be splashing off your body onto walls and leaking around the valves or tub spout. If you were not in the shower when you tested it that might be why it did not leak.
 

MarriedGeek

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If things dry up, then I doubt it's in the supply to the shower.
Some leaks only show up while in use. That can be a loose drain in the shower, or the valve plate needing to be sealed at the wall.
If it's a tub/shower, sometimes the tub spout can force water back into the wall if it goes bad.
I've even had cases where someone was taking a shower with the door open.

Thanks for the quick reply. In my case, I don't think it's the drain, since the puddle in the ceiling occurred away from where the tub drain is (and that area, from what I could see, was dry). The puddle had to have occurred somewhere along the path of the PVC drain, which is shared by the sink and toilet. The only drain that is above where the puddle was, was dry.

I also didn't see anything coming from the outside wall, as the puddle didn't appear to come from that location.

This is really strange to me. This wasn't like it was a small leak - but as of something poured out while I was showering. It also didn't appear to be something that was there for a while, as it showed no water damage to the sheetrock - it too cleaned up nicely without leaving any staining, etc. Thanks again.
 

MarriedGeek

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When you are standing in the shower, water may be splashing off your body onto walls and leaking around the valves or tub spout. If you were not in the shower when you tested it that might be why it did not leak.

It's possible, but in my case, the puddling wasn't near the drain area of the tub, but closer to my sink/toilet where the tub, sink, and toilet share a PVC drain (the pipe appeared dry). I didn't shower any differently than I usually do, LOL.
 

Jadziedzic

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Maybe you have a build-up of snow/ice on the roof around the area where the plumbing vent penetrates the roof, and water from melting snow/ice is running down the pipe and finding its way into the area of the ceiling?
 

MarriedGeek

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Maybe you have a build-up of snow/ice on the roof around the area where the plumbing vent penetrates the roof, and water from melting snow/ice is running down the pipe and finding its way into the area of the ceiling?

This actually may be a possibility. We just had a lot of snow recently (we're in MD) and now the weather is quite warm. The vent does run near where the leak was. It still seemed like a lot of water, very quickly, and I was assuming it coincided with my shower.
 

Sluggo

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marriedgeek-
Here's another test for you: turn on the shower and have the spray hit the wall where the tub spout is mounted, do this for several minutes, and then see if you have more water on the floor below. The plumbing penetration for the spout is often poorly caulked or not at all. When a person is in the shower and the splashing gets on the wall it can get into the wall behind the spout and cause problems. I just did a repair for a neighbor whose shower had the same symptoms you described. Here is a short video on this:

Please post back if this fixes it for you.
 

MarriedGeek

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marriedgeek-
Here's another test for you: turn on the shower and have the spray hit the wall where the tub spout is mounted, do this for several minutes, and then see if you have more water on the floor below. The plumbing penetration for the spout is often poorly caulked or not at all. When a person is in the shower and the splashing gets on the wall it can get into the wall behind the spout and cause problems. I just did a repair for a neighbor whose shower had the same symptoms you described. Here is a short video on this:

Please post back if this fixes it for you.

Thanks for the suggestion. In my case, though, this is fully caulked and no water is getting through on the spout.
 

MarriedGeek

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Just an update. This morning I took my usual shower and used all the water facilities, and no leaks. It was bone dry and not a drop to be found.

So, not sure.

Could someone explain a little more how water could get in through the vent? At this point I have no idea where this water came from! Thanks.
 

Sluggo

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marriedgeek-
Here's another test for you: turn on the shower and have the spray hit the wall where the tub spout is mounted, do this for several minutes, and then see if you have more water on the floor below. The plumbing penetration for the spout is often poorly caulked or not at all. When a person is in the shower and the splashing gets on the wall it can get into the wall behind the spout and cause problems. I just did a repair for a neighbor whose shower had the same symptoms you described. Here is a short video on this:

Please post back if this fixes it for you.
Sorry I didn't have an easy fix for you, but thanks for responding. It does sound like the boot for the vent is a suspect. Do you remember if you had much rain between the time you knew that floor area was dry and when it became wet?
 

Jadnashua

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Many places in the northeast have had enough snow on the roof where melting some of it could easily be high enough to be above the top of the seal to the vent pipe!
 
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