Leaky ceiling

[doctorcoug]

This is what has become of my holiday day off. Leak in the basement ceiling that was dripping water. I drilled a hole in the drywall and drained the water out. As I'm trying to find the leaking pipe (and after I've ripped out ten feet of dry wall) my wife says, "oh, the bathroom flooded a couple of days ago with a couple inches of water". Nice to know that.

Anyway, I'm not certain why the water pooled at the I beam. Is it because that is likely the area with the most droop, given it is the middle of the room? I thought the water was accumulating there due to capillary reflex between Dry wall and I beam.

I was going to get my house appraised this month. Oh well...

[doctorcoug]

Dried the I beam and pulled out the insulation that appeared to be acting like a sponge. It was still dripping slowly today, so I had doubts about it not being a leak.

I used some deductive reasoning and made an educated guess about which direction the water was coming from (i beam was wet in both directions). I then ripped out one square foot of drywall (enough to fit my head in). When I still hadn't found the source of the leak, I went further and cut out another square foot. And here you have it! I cleaned the pipe off to see exactly where it was coming from, and it started to leak a little faster (one drop per twenty seconds). I snapped a picture, then about two minutes later it started spraying a fine mist. I ran over to the whole house water shut off valve here in the basement (bless the builder of this home, the owner of a hardware store who built this for himself).

Now, I wait until tomorrow to have a plumber fix it, as me and indoor torches just don't mix.

I owe my wife a mental apology (never gave her grief, but my mind did).

[Surfah]

Dried the I beam and pulled out the insulation that appeared to be acting like a sponge. It was still dripping slowly today, so I had doubts about it not being a leak.

I used some deductive reasoning and made an educated guess about which direction the water was coming from (i beam was wet in both directions). I then ripped out one square foot of drywall (enough to fit my head in). When I still hadn't found the source of the leak, I went further and cut out another square foot. And here you have it! I cleaned the pipe off to see exactly where it was coming from, and it started to leak a little faster (one drop per twenty seconds). I snapped a picture, then about two minutes later it started spraying a fine mist. I ran over to the whole house water shut off valve here in the basement (bless the builder of this home, the owner of a hardware store who built this for himself).

Now, I wait until tomorrow to have a plumber fix it, as me and indoor torches just don't mix.

I owe my wife a mental apology (never gave her grief, but my mind did).

I didn't know whole house water shut offs in basement homes were rare. Also, you should never pass up an opportunity to use a torch. I'd rather fix the plumbing myself and pay someone to do the drywall. I hate drywall.

[doctorcoug]

I didn't know whole house water shut offs in basement homes were rare. Also, you should never pass up an opportunity to use a torch. I'd rather fix the plumbing myself and pay someone to do the drywall. I hate drywall.

First home I've lived in that has one. Could be that my dad just isn't handy manny and so we never new they existed when I was a kid (and had to shut off at the main).

[Uncle Ted]

I didn't know whole house water shut offs in basement homes were rare. Also, you should never pass up an opportunity to use a torch. I'd rather fix the plumbing myself and pay someone to do the drywall. I hate drywall.

Amen. Soldering that plumbing is a piece of cake. Drywalling sucks. Just make sure you don't catch that beam or something on fire and have some water handy.

[doctorcoug]

Amen. Soldering that plumbing is a piece of cake. Drywalling sucks. Just make sure you don't catch that beam or something on fire and have some water handy.

My friend here at work did this for a living prior to going to this profession. He said he would help me do this so I can do it by myself in the future. He said the most difficult thing is draining the pipes.