Leaking shower?

[Timmypig]

G'day folks

I'm renovating/decorating a bedroom in preparation of shuffling the family around with the pending birth of bub # 2. As with other parts of the house (1968 brick veneer, cypress pine floor boards) I've pulled the carpets & underlay (& staples & hammered down nails) and sanding has commenced. The floor boards will be stained & estapolled (sp?) and I'll be painting the walls, ceilings, new powerpts, etc.

This bedroom shares a wall with the laundry cupboard, and the bathroom. Whilst sanding today I noticed some water stains on the ends of the boards closest to the wall adjacent to the bathroom. The shower is on the other side of the wall at this point.

I crawled under the house to check and it's not overly pretty - there are signs of water damage and even the ant cap on top of the pier looks stained and dodgy.

So ..... to cut a long story short..... (or a short story shorter) .... should I call a plumber? A tiler? A builder? I'm not sure who can help me most with this problem, but it's definitely beyond my modest skills.

Any suggestions re where to start?

TIA

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Firstly, you say the shower's on the other side but you don't say whether or not that's the wall containing the plumbing.

If it is, I'd suggest removing the handles and... "barrel covers" (I forget what they're called. Sorry. ) from the shower taps and see whether the water may be gaining access here. This is a common problem and if you're lucky you may be able to get away with sealing 'em up more thoroughly. A tube of silicone may not be elegant, but it works and is the cheap way out. [shrug]

If you can rule that out (or you want to check the level of structural damage more thoroughly) then I'd gird my loins and remove a section of wall lining from close to the floor on the bedroom side of the wall; just large enough to allow inspection of the bottom of the studs, floor-plate and plumbing, but not so much as to make it a major job to replace/replaster. From stud to stud and 12-18" tall should be enough.

Look for water damage running down the studs and/or moisture on the internal plumbing. This'd indicate either pipe leakage or that it may very well be coming in past the handles. If that seems OK but the floor-plate and/or bottom of the studs show water marks, it's probably your shower base leaking.

Once you know what's causing the damage and how sever the damage actually is then you can make the determination whether a plumber, builder or demolition crew is best suited for repairs.

[journeyman Mick]

Further to what Skew said, I've often found that the source of the water has been the tap spindle itself. Where the spindle passes through the body there's a gland seal. On older taps there's a nut on top which can be screwed down to compress the hemp packing. On most taps though there's a groove in the shaft with an O ring in it. As the spindle threads wear the spindle gets a bit of slop in it which chews out the O ring. When the tap os closed there's no leakage as there's no water pressure until the tap is open. Take the hoods? barrel covers? off and open both taps to see if there's any water leaking out. If there is it is possible to dismantle the tap and replace the O rings, but it's usually not worth the bother. If the thread is worn then it won't take long for the new O rings to get chewed out again.

Mick

[Johnny-DIY]

Tend to agree that most leaks are somewhere near the tap spindle so you'll do well to check there first as it may be an easy fix. If there are moister around, dry everything up then check where it may be dripping from. If you detect no leak then stick some dry newspaper in an turn on the shower as the leak may only trigger when the tap is on (be careful not to let the shower wet the newspaper, check the newspaper to see if there are signs of leakage. If you find the leak there, fix it as per the previous post suggestion.

If not, consider removing some plasterboard for further inspection. Remove just a small section near the based to the pipe from the other side of the wall as I assume you will have tiles on the shower side. Remove enough to stick some newspaper in to repeat the leak test. If the leak is detected then you can consider if you are confident enough to attempt a fix yourself (which I suspect will involve more serious plasterboard removal) or get a professional plumber, explain to him what you've found to try to size up the job so you can gauge the damage$$ before commiting, and definately find out if he'll replace any incidental damage to walls that's required to get to your pipes as you don't want to be out of pocket again to get a platester to fix you wall (unless you are happy to do it yourself).

If you still can't detect leaks then it may be an old problem that's been previously fixed .... or your showerbase may be leaking (....more of a tiling job then!).