Water leak in the wall, uh-oh..

[traquer]

I've noticed water pooling outside for a few weeks but was down with covid so didn't pay much attention to it..

Today I looked closer and sure enough the foundation is wet on the top and it seems to be leaking from the wall. The pipes outside are dry. This is the same area from inside (second pic, paint is bubbled, I didn't puncture it to test). .

Should I tear out the bathroom or work from the outside in?

 

[4Waters]

The drywall has to come off regardless, fix it from the bathroom side

 

[ltbaney1]

if it were me, i would start inside and tear out drywall. i find drywall (especially behind a cabinet as that looks to be) much easier to patch with no evidence than outside. sucks either way but inside looks like it has damage and would need to come out either way so i would start there.

 

[traquer]

The drywall has to come off regardless, fix it from the bathroom side

Thanks yeah sucks the cabinet with sinks will need to come out. And also these are plaster walls of some sort (I punched a hole elsewhere through it quite easily in anger last year, was real thin lol).

 

[Spudsbud]

Leak in the wall you say?
No drywall. Just white paint on basement wallz so all is exposed.
Guaranteed for life. 5 years now. Dry as a bone.

 

[rrrr]

My Dad's house developed an underslab leak over the holidays. The leak was making the dining room carpet wet. To locate it, he removed the drywall in the dining room, because the refrigerator is in the kitchen on the other side of that wall and water was puddling underneath it.

This revealed the water was coming up under the wall framing plate. A plumber jackhammered up the slab in that area and found the leak in a fitting joint.

The cost to repair the leak and replace finishes is about $2,700.

Ugh.

 

[Rondog4405]

I just went through that a few months back. I noticed algae growing on the outside my mbr wall.. bottom edge along the slab . Showed my contractor.. he cut the drywall out and found the leak . It was from the main water line that run up.my mbr wall and angled into my attic. Had plumbers over to check it out after.. whole house has 70 year old galvanized rusted, corroded pipes . Pin holes everywhere, majority of the pipes were corroded half way or more restricting flow. 9k later..repiped the whole house. Shit was a ticking time bomb.

 

[Orange Juice]

I just went through that a few months back. I noticed algae growing on the outside my mbr wall.. bottom edge along the slab . Showed my contractor.. he cut the drywall out and found the leak . It was from the main water line that run up.my mbr wall and angled into my attic. Had plumbers over to check it out after.. whole house has 70 year old galvanized rusted, corroded pipes . Pin holes everywhere, majority of the pipes were corroded half way or more restricting flow. 9k later..repiped the whole house. Shit was a ticking time bomb.

mine is 40 year old under slab copper. So far so good. I’m saving for a repipe, but hoping I out live it.

 

[4Waters]

mine is 40 year old under slab copper. So far so good. I’m saving for a repipe, but hoping I out live it.

Well, you screwed yourself now

 

[colenighthawk]

If house was build prior 1977 make sure you test for asbestos if your removing drywall

 

[Orange Juice]

If house was build prior 1977 make sure you test for asbestos if your removing drywall

I thought it was lead paint.

 

[Jed-O]

I thought it was lead paint.

That too...

 

[Jed-O]

mine is 40 year old under slab copper. So far so good. I’m saving for a repipe, but hoping I out live it.

Go with pex over head, you will thank yourself. Any charged plumbing under a slab is usually a ticking time bomb and extremely expensive to deal with when it blows. Especially because it's an emergency situation.

 

[Rondog4405]

mine is 40 year old under slab copper. So far so good. I’m saving for a repipe, but hoping I out live it.

I got hit with the double whammy.. re-pipe and had to put on a new roof.. November-December was a mother fucker!

 

[Orange Juice]

I got hit with the double whammy.. re-pipe and had to put on a new roof.. November-December was a mother fucker!

I got a new roof, insulation, new air conditioning system, and new windows, couple years ago. After I completed it, the house had a good feeling too it, it didn’t have before.

My electric bill went down $100 mo the last two summers, and the Heater turns on maybe twice, in the winter.

Both my bathrooms are going to need remodeled I might convert those bathrooms to the overhead piping, and figure out how best to fix the rest.

 

[traquer]

If house was build prior 1977 make sure you test for asbestos if your removing drywall

I thought it was lead paint.

You should see the Italian-made military grade full face respirator I bought when I first found out about covid in 2020!

I'll read up on mitigating asbestos though and will minimize dust, or at least keep it sealed off to the bathroom. Good call

Edit, with pic: Is this good enough for asbestos lol? I'll see what kind of canisters I have. I know one of them is good for radiological threats...

 

[Orange Juice]

I looked at the pictures closer.

I would attack this at the outside, if that siding can be removed, with out destroying it.

Those outside pipes coming up through the slab look like and idiot installed them…. That can’t be right? I’m not a plumber, but it doesnt look right. Also, look where the crack in slab is running through the pipe opening. That one valve has to be old.

 

[braindead]

I looked at the pictures closer.

I would attack this at the outside, if that siding can be removed, with out destroying it.

Those outside pipes coming up through the slab look like and idiot installed them…. That can’t be right? I’m not a plumber, but it doesnt look right. Also, look where the crack in slab is running through the pipe opening. That one valve has to be old.

Repairing this from the outside is the best way to spend twice as much time and money as possible.
Don’t give advise on shit u know nothing about!

The drywall on the inside needs to come out, along with the cabinet in front of it and the insulation!
if you have homeowners insurance you better give them a call first, then do a search on here and pull up the previous posts from other members and heed the advice that has been already given from other inmates in the biz to make sure your ass is covered, insurance money that is. there is loads of good advice on here, you just need to do your due diligence and look for it!

And once again do not do what orange juice says!

 

[colenighthawk]

I'm in OC, if you need help, I can help. I do water mitigation.

 

[colenighthawk]

You should see the Italian-made military grade full face respirator I bought when I first found out about covid in 2020!

I'll read up on mitigating asbestos though and will minimize dust, or at least keep it sealed off to the bathroom. Good call

Edit, with pic: Is this good enough for asbestos lol? I'll see what kind of canisters I have. I know one of them is good for radiological threats...

View attachment 1082755

Asbestos and lead, but lead is not as dangerous as asbestos. You should check for both. If you removing drywall and want to save the money by not testing for asbestos, make sure room in empty. Put a air scrubber while you do the demo and get a pump sprayer type from home depot and spray the drywall prior to cutting. Have a vacuum sucking up the dust while you cut it with a sawzall and wear a tyvac suit and a full face respirator ( like you have ) After your done place the suit and the debries in plastic bags inside the room and tape it shut before walking it thru the house. Spray walls and ceiling, wipe it off with a damp rag. Bacarefull where you dispose it. Don't get caught if it's asbestos. Big fucking fine.

 

[Rondog4405]

Absolutely tackle this from the inside.. drywall is easy and cheap. As said above.. try to get the homeowners insurance to get out and take their pics asap b4 you start cutting in. . if not take a shit ton of pics along the way.. although I wouldn't rely too much on those guys helping much. I got a whopping $600 check for my wall leak

 

[CarolynandBob]

If you can take care of this yourself, I would not contact the insurance company. Back in 2000 we had a leak in the dining room. Called insurance USAA. They came out and cut a hole in the ceiling. Said it was leaking from around the bath tub from upstairs MB. They said the rubber seal that was suppose to be there was not there and it is a builder error. Builder was bankrupt. I had never heard of this. but they denied the claim. I ended up gutting the whole bathroom and remodeling it.

3 years later when we moved to a new house in 4S ranch, we got hit with a huge homeowners rate increase over what it should have been. Upon investigating, we were put on a "water claim" list or whatever they call it, but all the insurance companies new about the claim. Anyway, Allstate was the only one that actually looked at the documentation and insured at the normal rate. I immediately moved all of my insurance out of USAA and into Allstate.

 

[Ziggy]

Inside job for sure.
.
You didn't have crown moulding installed recently, have you?

 

[boatdoc55]

Inside job for sure.
.
You didn't have crown moulding installed recently, have you?

I see what you did there!!

 

[Mr. C]

Can you see under the cabinet at all? depending on how long you had the leak
( could of been slow for a long time and you never noticed) there might be mold under it.
we had this with our kitchen just recently, water damage sucks, i feel your pain.

 

[traquer]

Inside job for sure.
.
You didn't have crown moulding installed recently, have you?

I remember that! Guess what I did before the drywall went up on my new house. Took a bunch of pics of the walls and ceiling lol!

 

[Orange Juice]

Repairing this from the outside is the best way to spend twice as much time and money as possible.
Don’t give advise on shit u know nothing about!

The drywall on the inside needs to come out, along with the cabinet in front of it and the insulation!
if you have homeowners insurance you better give them a call first, then do a search on here and pull up the previous posts from other members and heed the advice that has been already given from other inmates in the biz to make sure your ass is covered, insurance money that is. there is loads of good advice on here, you just need to do your due diligence and look for it!

And once again do not do what orange juice says!

I see a foundation wall, and a pipe coming up through it. Then it goes straight through. Is there a crawl space under the bathroom?

I’d fix the mess outside, and then remodel the bathroom.

 

[Orange Juice]

I see a foundation wall, and a pipe coming up through it. Then it goes straight through. Is there a crawl space under the bathroom?

I’d fix the mess outside, and then remodel the bathroom.

Also don’t see pipe wrap

 

[braindead]

I see a foundation wall, and a pipe coming up through it. Then it goes straight through. Is there a crawl space under the bathroom?

I’d fix the mess outside, and then remodel the bathroom.

No mess, that’s how they did shit back in the day, they also didn’t wrap pipe when coming through concrete.
He needs to start on the inside because you can’t get drywall dry, it needs to be replace, so even though the outside, in your opinion looks like crap, it’s a waste of resources to work from the outside.

Not to mention the cold water supply line is rusting out and might blow at any minute, plus he can upgrade to quarter turn angle stops

 

[petie6464]

Easy fix: Cut it, fix it, patch it.

 

[Javajoe]

I had a slab leak in the line that went from my bathroom to my kitchen sink. About a 30’ run. It was under the toilet area. Opened the wall at the angle stop and found 3 copper pipes running up from the slab. Located the correct pipe, cut it in the wall under the kitchen sink and in the bathroom and shoved PEX thru the copper pipe and reconnected it at both ends. 1/2 a day job and only drywall repair. Wife wondered why the tile around the toilet was warm. Hot water line slab leak. No water came up anywhere. Just a hot tile area. Used a listening device to pinpoint the leak under the slab. This was about 5 years ago.

 

[rivrrts429]

I see a foundation wall, and a pipe coming up through it. Then it goes straight through. Is there a crawl space under the bathroom?

I’d fix the mess outside, and then remodel the bathroom.

You have to stop. You’re trying to troll this guy and giving him horrible direction.

 

[CoolCruzin]

I’ve had slab leaks three times .
The last one was way to difficult to fixed
30 yr old copper
Now we have pex tubing thru the house . Cost me $9500.
I can’t see this last 30 yrs
Reg pipe goes bad
Copper goes bad
Plastic pex - well we will all find out