RCraig
Member
I received help from a brilliant plumber on this forum quite some years ago. The problem in brief was as follows:
Water comes down into basement whenever someone takes a shower. However, no leaks occur when I pour water (a lot) everywhere trying to figure out what the problem is.
What the brilliant guy figured out over the internet was that the weight of the person in the tub was creating the problem. The solution was to fill the tub with water (weight!) and then caulk the interface between the tub and the tile wall. This solution worked for quite some time.
I have had to recaulk many times. I think this may be because people taking showers every day creates stress on the caulk joint - it eventually develops a bit of looseness.
In any case, the problem has now become incurable. Water comes down into basement when someone takes a shower, but it is very difficult to recreate the situation from outside the tub. My tile floor is rotting away because the flooring gets wet every time someone takes a shower. I don't want to replace the flooring until the water problem is solved.
PROPOSED SOLUTION BY LOCAL PLUMBER: Take out old cast iron tub. Have carpenter replace rotten wood flooring. Put in new acrylic tub.
The old tub may be "giving" when a body steps in the shower-in other words, the tub sinks a bit. This could be due to too much pressure on whatever is holding the tub up. It could be due to the fact that those old tubs are on 4 little legs, and the legs could be digging into the floor after so many years of people taking showers.
I am interested in getting the advice of anyone who might have any thoughts about this. The proposed solution -- Is it likely to work??? It is costly, and will mean taking out some of the fairly new tiling (put in before diagnosis by brilliant internet plumber). Any thoughts on any aspect of this would be very much appreciated.
Ruth
Water comes down into basement whenever someone takes a shower. However, no leaks occur when I pour water (a lot) everywhere trying to figure out what the problem is.
What the brilliant guy figured out over the internet was that the weight of the person in the tub was creating the problem. The solution was to fill the tub with water (weight!) and then caulk the interface between the tub and the tile wall. This solution worked for quite some time.
I have had to recaulk many times. I think this may be because people taking showers every day creates stress on the caulk joint - it eventually develops a bit of looseness.
In any case, the problem has now become incurable. Water comes down into basement when someone takes a shower, but it is very difficult to recreate the situation from outside the tub. My tile floor is rotting away because the flooring gets wet every time someone takes a shower. I don't want to replace the flooring until the water problem is solved.
PROPOSED SOLUTION BY LOCAL PLUMBER: Take out old cast iron tub. Have carpenter replace rotten wood flooring. Put in new acrylic tub.
The old tub may be "giving" when a body steps in the shower-in other words, the tub sinks a bit. This could be due to too much pressure on whatever is holding the tub up. It could be due to the fact that those old tubs are on 4 little legs, and the legs could be digging into the floor after so many years of people taking showers.
I am interested in getting the advice of anyone who might have any thoughts about this. The proposed solution -- Is it likely to work??? It is costly, and will mean taking out some of the fairly new tiling (put in before diagnosis by brilliant internet plumber). Any thoughts on any aspect of this would be very much appreciated.
Ruth