Found a bad leak under my house

nikeman said:

I found a bad leak under my house yesterday that appears to have been leaking for a long time now. I was under the house a month or so ago but the leak must have been covered by the insulation. Now the insulation has fallen down and it looks like a nightmare. I had 2 plumbers come out and look at it yesterday and they both said basically the same thing. They will have to cut some sub flooring out just to get the pipe out. It's leaking at the master shower drain pipe

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Ayuh,... So what's the question,..??

Ya gotta be able to get To something to fix it...

Sounds like it's either tear up the floor, or dig out the crawl space enough to get in there...

YA, so vats da qvestion????

Sorry. The crawl space is plenty big enough. I am 6' and can almost stand up under the leak. Question is, what's the worse case scenario here? It's right under a fiberglass shower and the guys coming to work on it said they will use a sawsall and then a chisel when it gets close to the shower so they won't tear that up and cause more expenses. I know there's a away to tell what wood needs to go by poking it with a nail or something but what are the measurements that determine if the wood needs to go? It's just about a4 or 5' section of one support joist that's soaked and covered in Mold/mushrooms and some weird looking bugs. Maybe sistering that section would be good since its the first joist from the wall? I just want some idea of what's going to happen to my house right at Christmas time because of this stupid leak that was supposed to have been fixed 2 years ago but was obviously rigged to not leak long enough for me to close on the house!!

The biggest problem seems to be how they drilled the hole for that pipe when they built the house. The drilled threw about a quarter of the floor joist and made the hole just big enough to fit the pipe so now its impossible to fix without tearing stuff up. Plumbers said it should have been an easy fix if the builders would have boxed out an area where they drilled the hole for the drain.

Very frustrating!

nikeman said:

The biggest problem seems to be how they drilled the hole for that pipe when they built the house. The drilled threw about a quarter of the floor joist and made the hole just big enough to fit the pipe so now its impossible to fix without tearing stuff up. Plumbers said it should have been an easy fix if the builders would have boxed out an area where they drilled the hole for the drain.

Very frustrating!

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Better late then never- get in there with a sawzall and cut back the damaged joist, sister the joist on each side and box out the drain. You shouldn't leave the damaged joist there.
Is the leak at the drain itself or the pipe?

Thats what remains to be seen, the origin of the leak. If he does what I say, work from the outlet up he can find out. It wont hurt to remove the bad stuff so he can see what hes got though. He should jack that joist on each side, put in a header across joists on each side, and open up under the pan, I agree.

If it matters :laughing:

Both plumbers seem to know the source of the leak and i think it's from a gap between the pipe and where it meets the shower floor. Not 100% on that but I do know both plumbers saw the source pretty quickly. They just can't get to it easily to fix it the right way. I have one of those oscillating tools that I might see if they want to use instead if the sawsall.

Is the PVC your drain or the water pipe?

Is there any rear access to the wall?

(Makes me glad I did copper for all of my water pipes)

Post a picture of the shower pan, and a close up of the drain from the top.

What is the shower pan? Is that the water trap under the house?

Looks like its all PVC which one plumber said wasn't a good idea either for a not so old house.

In many cases there is a fiberglass shower pan at the bottom of your shower stall. There is a metal well into which a rubber doughnut is pressed around the pipe, in your case DWV PVC. If your shwer pan was made of lead, or some type of membrane, your drain has to have a flanged top and a compression ring to seal the lead or the membrane. Thats why I asked fot a closeup picture from the top. Pictures really help those trying to help you. You posted one picture of what appears to be the drain outlet from your shower pan. There is no trap shown here, where there should be one, but maybe they installed a running trap? We need pictures. One thing is for sure, whoever did this work is questionable at best. I gave you leak test instructions above, did you ever try them? This pan could be leaking from anywhere, you have to start at the lowest point and work your way up.

Plumbers just finished up and were able to cut out the old pipe and put in a new one. He said that with my kind of shower the floor tends to drop with weight just a little and it pulls the drain away from the pipe. My shower did not have anything to compensate for this so he put a rubber bumper or something between the 2. He explained it and it made since to me. He also said that the wood didn't seem to be to rotted but wants to let it all dry out good so it will be easier to tell. It appears to not have been as bad as everyone thought. I'm going to put a fan down there for a while to help it dry.

He also said to go under there while my wife is in the shower to look for leaks and to give him a call if it happens to still leak with weight in the shower.

EDIT: Just saw your post above and it seems we are talking about the same thing. Lol. I didn't know the names for everything though.

Also, there is a trap. It's just beyond what you can see in the picture.
Thanks for all the replies. That's why I love these forums! I will keep you posted if it still leaks

nikeman said:

this stupid leak that was supposed to have been fixed 2 years ago but was obviously rigged to not leak long enough for me to close on the house!!

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I dont want to kick someone while theyre down but if this issue was known prior to closing and was suppose to be "fixed"...shame on someone for not doing their due diligence to confirm a repair was proper.

Look at any receipts that were shown to you about this repair. You may be able to go after the seller of the property???

glad to see you have it remedied now

It's sad that people do stuff like that but its been over 2 years since we bought the house. Shame on me for not checking over their work more thoroughly I guess. The plumber have me a break since its Christmas time and the original person did a half added job. He told me it looked like all the person did was spray expandable foam up there to fix the leak just long enough to let us sign the papers. He then put up new insulation to make it look good and clean but that's trash now. We bought the house from a guy who bought it at an auction and fixed it up to sell for a profit. He's well known around here and theirs usually no problems but I'm thinking he's no plumber and wanted to save some last minute money when the inspector found the leak.

Im sorry, but the shower pan is not supposed to drop with weight. It is supposed to be fully supported so you don't have the problem you are referring to. What some of these guys say absolutely amazes me.

Pretty sure he said exactly what you said in even more dumbed down terms for me. What he put in was the compression ring that you mentioned. I will see what happens next time my wife takes a shower and I'm home. If it still leaks then ill call him back. I guess it didn't have a compression ring at all or maybe I misunderstood him. In either case it has everything now and should not leak. I will keep you posted.

Thanks Nike. Re Nike, Sneakers or Missle?