House flooding from nowhere?

[Hakim]

You might want to check the seals and caulking around all of your bathroom fixtures, especially baths and showers (those long "teenager showers" you mentioned ).

We had a leak from an upstairs bathroom around the soap dish (embedded in the wall of the shower. The water actually traveled downward and across beams, to appear more than 30 feet away form the source, in the kitchen.

Similar to the case here, it took a couple of weeks to locate the actual cause. Several plumbers thought it was coming from the water line to the ice maker. Not so.

In the end, it cost almost $30,000 to repair the damage and mold remediation. Hope your problem gets solved in a less dramatic fashion. (Note: the cost was paid by our landlord, not me! ).

But...do check those soap dishes in all baths, showers, etc. I would not have believed it if it hadn't happened to me.

Hakim
TBN Staff

 

[Dutch445]

could the warm floor be a non issue? is it possible
it's warm there because of the fridge exhausting out
the front ????

 

[jinman]

Well, American Leak Detection is onsite, so we should know something soon.

Hakim, that would be a super odd problem if it were something like a soap dish leaking behind tile. I believe the bath in question is actually a modular fiberglass tub/shower, but I'm not completely sure. That will be on my list to check if the leak detection company doesn't find the problem. We have looked and looked for any indication of wet sheetrock and there is just none anywhere that I could see in the whole wall were the leak seems to be coming from.

There is a heat duct in the ceiling above where the warm floor is, but it is directed toward the center of the kitchen. The heat had been off for a whole day when I was there last, but the floor was still warm. The refrigerator is over 6 feet away from where the tiles are warm, and the tiles around the refrigerator are normal temperature. It's wacky how this seems to be only to the side of the dishwasher.

We have had some rain and snow. That's why I had my SIL go up with the plumber into the attic to check vent pipes and hoods. Everything there was dry.

I just can't tear myself away from the warm floor tile. I believe that is going to be the defining symptom here. We shall soon hopefully have an answer to this puzzle. I'll let everyone know soon after I find out.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Jim,

This is a long shot but possible. If the water is only showing up downstairs it is possible it is seeping in from the outside. I noticed from the pictures it looks like there are houses close by. It could be the water is comming from a neghibors house. A busted drain line underground from another house or her house, be it gutter drain or gray water. It could be seeping through the foundation wall or floor. You could take a long piece of rebar and push it down outside the house around the foundation close to the leak and see how soft the ground is. If your not findiing any water leaks inside from pipes or drains I would start checking outside underground. Good Luck.

David

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm still not clear where you are finding the water. Was the water itself warm? or just the floor tiles in one spot? The picture shows the kitchen, but I don't see whre the carpet is that's getting wet.

Back to the dishwasher. If it's the problem, and it's drain related, the running the sink should duplicate the problem. To find the leak in the laudry room that I mentioned earlier, I had to run the water into the drain for half an hour. I was sure it was the problem, but after awhile, I started to doubt myself. Once the water backed up, it was real eas to see the problem. Especially seeing how long it took to drain after overflowing.

I have allot of trouble with your busted drain lines under the house. The slab would really have to move allot for that to happen. While I've heard stories from people, and seen water lines break because of allot of soil movement, that would be a first.

Of course, being winter, and the graound is saturated, freezing conditions do move the ground around allot more then normal.

Eddie

 

[Steve_Miller]

When you were at the house did you by any chance just tap on the tile floor where it was warm? If it were wet or water under the tile you should probably notice the definite difference in the sound as the water would make it sound like a thud as opposed to a ringing sound from a solid object. Maybe you can trace the water across the floor doing this. It's one of those things that most of you know what I mean but can't explain over the phone or by typed words.

Steve

 

[jinman]

David, we walked all around the house looking for soft ground. There is none. The ground slopes away from the house all the way around and there is no seepage or wet soil that the plumber could find by probing.

Eddie, when you look at the picture of the kitchen, you can just see where the living room carpet begins. The carpet also goes to the left in the picture toward the entryway. That entry breezeway carpet is wet and so is the living room carpet out to about 4' in front of the counter/bar. The water is coming from the wall behind the refrigerator. My daughter turned off all water to the house and got it stopped and dry. Then, she turned the water on and started running showers and sinks upstairs. Nothing leaked. Only after doing a load of dishes in the dishwasher did the leak begin. It started in a pantry behind the refrigerator about 1/2 hour after the dishwasher stopped. The water started out cool, but my daughter says my son-in-law detected that it seemed to warm up. All the while, the floor between the end of the counter beside the dishwasher was warm. It was completely dry there and under the dishwasher with only water coming out from the baseboard behind the refrigerator. That's why this is so puzzling. The leak seems to be 10' away from the source.

Steve, the tiles in the kitchen were wet when the leak was first discovered, but after mopping up the water, the tiles dried and there is no oozing of water between the tiles. The warmth seems to be radiating upwards from the slab beneath the tile.

What is frustrating here is that my daughter and SIL have no blueprint of their house or foundation. This is just one reason I will never buy a house unless I have some detailed plans. They have nothing that shows where drains and plumbing tie in within the walls. How can you own a house without knowing this?

 

[EddieWalker]

Does the refrigerator have an ice maker?

Have they tripple checked every possiblity of water coming from the fridge? Ice melting? Ice buildup somewhere that's feezing and melting in some weird cycle?

I had a refrigerator have a fan go bad on the coils and the ice built up so bad that the refrigerator could no longer cool or freeze anything. It was under warrentee, and the guy who came out had to melt all the ice off of the coils to get to the fan before he could fix it. I found it funny that the ice was stopping the fridge from cooling.

What happens when you dry everything out realy good, then run the dishwasher over and over again?

Somehow, there has to be a way to recreate the problem. Until then, I don't know how else to find it.

Eddie

 

[jinman]

Eddie, you are thinking and asking all the same questions I asked. The refrigerator is having a problem, but the floor under it is dry. They say that the water is coming from the baseboard in a large pantry room behind the refrigerator. It is not originating at the refrigerator. I did not check this myself because they said they had moved the refrigerator out and checked it. I also don't see how it could produce between 5 and 10 gallons of water overnight due to freezing up.

I am willing to bet that when they find out why the floor is warm, they will find the problem. I think it is drain oriented because there was no water running --nothing-- at the meter with the entire house pressurized. You just can't get around those two issues.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dishwashers come out pretty easy. Just two screws and they slide right out. I'd pull it out and see what's going on when it drains.

Is there anything else in the pantry?

Where is the AC unit in the attic? I've seen roof leaks that worked their way down the walls without getting the sheetrock wet. In one case, the sheetrock was ruined, but by touching and pushing on it, you'd never know. After opening it up did it become obvious where the leak was and that the paint was allot stronger then we'd ever imagined.

Attic AC units reall do cause allot of water damage. It would be high on my list of things to look at real closely. One of those things that I'd have to see with my own eyes, and not rely on somebody who doesn't know allot about them to tell me that it's dry.

I take it that the laundry isn't anywhere close to this?

Eddie