Leaking bathroom/shower through kitchen ceiling

Ekim

Ekim

Ekim

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Joined
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Last week we had a leak coming through our kitchen ceiling. Nothing major but was coming from the place where the shower is situated in the bathroom.

I had a look at the shower in the evening and replaced the o-ring in the shower trap as the old one had become loose. Ran the shower for 30 minutes or so and no leak came though and was fine the rest of the week.

This morning we have another leak coming through the kitchen ceiling, but this a little further down the ceiling, away from where the shower is (but I would guess that the pipes run that way).

Unfortunately I don't have trace and access as part of my home insurance (this is our first home and I didn't know what it was to check that I had it included). I am guessing I am going to have the kitchen ceiling opened up to check where the leak is coming from.

Has any one had similar done, what sort of costs am I looking at?
 
Would it be easier to take the bathroom flooring up and look that way or is the leak past the wall of the bathroom?

Another thing to try would have someone stand in the shower and run it and check for leaks as could be a split in the sealant around the shower tray?
 
Nikumba said:
Would it be easier to take the bathroom flooring up and look that way or is the leak past the wall of the bathroom?

Another thing to try would have someone stand in the shower and run it and check for leaks as could be a split in the sealant around the shower tray?
Click to expand...

I don't have any replacement tiles for the bathroom, figured the ceiling would be better to prevent damage to the floor.

The kitchen and the bathroom have the same footprint so the leak is definitely within the confines of the bathroom.

Will check the sealant today - I would have thought however it would be fine if the leak has moved position over a week?
 
One issue with leaks/water, they can come from anywhere and travel a fair distance before appearing. So just becuase the leak is coming through the roof at one point doesn't mean that where the leak is.

I had a leak into my bathroom downstairs but it was eventually traced to the flat roof on the garage 6 ft away.

Check everywhere you can in the bathroom (side panel of bath removeable?) etc - if not get the floor up. Leaving it any longer will only cause you more issues.
 
Could it be the silicone? If you've ran the shower without anyone in it then it will just be hitting the tray and then going down the plug hole but when someone is in the water will be splashing all over the place and possibly down the side of the shower tray if the silicon has not been put in properly or if it has rotted etc.

Id be surprised if it was the pipes as you would have a constant leak.
 
I am not sure. I will check the silicone tonight.

One bit of information I forgot to add to my first post - the day before the first leak I had plunged the shower as it wasn't draining well. We got the leak the next day so I figured I had done something in the plunging which had caused the pipes to dislodge. After I changed the o-ring and it seemed to fix I guessed that perhaps the plunging hadn't be a problem.

The main confusion for me is that between the first leak and the second leak we have had at least two showers each day and we haven't had any leak coming through.
 
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Could be that the waste has come loose when youve used the plunger then, sadly the only way to know for sure will be to rip the ceiling down. Its not a massive job to be fair if you're reasonably handy but chances are you'll need a plasterer to come in and skim it for you.
 
Having had to deal with water damage in the past I'd have that roof down immediately - not the entire thing, just enough to get access :)

It's often the case that the roof is the best access in the first instance as the prospect of lifting up floor tiles in a bathroom can be a bit of a nightmare scenario - god forbid I've got to lift our new marble floor at some point!

You've got to trace it from somewhere and where it's showing on your roof is as good a place as any. Saying that, give your 100&% best effort to try and find the source without doing anything destructive. Look everywhere you physically can.

After that, start removing anything that gives you a better idea of what's going on. If practical this might be the entire shower enclosure coming off the wall. You might even consider destructively removing something if it's easy to replace and/or has a high likelihood of helping you diagnose.

After that, go in from the roof below.

Plasters around my part will be around £100 per wall for a skim. I wouldn't imagine paying much more than £150 considering the bit of extra work involved filling the hole combined with a base call out charge even if he's not doing the whole wall.

EDIT: Ha yes, roof = ceiling - apologies :)
 
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That did throw me a little too actually, I was WTF, take the roof tiles down?!?! Im assuming he means ceiling though haha
 
Yeah, it's just the kitchen ceiling. Not the roof. The bathroom is directly over and has the same footprint as the kitchen.
 
It's only appeared twice so far in a week, both times after we had taken showers. However we have taken plenty of showers without the leak appearing.

I'll check the silicone tonight, but I expect I'm going to have to take some of the kitchen ceiling down.
 
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