Hi, I've recently moved to a townhouse and after taking a long shower in the upstairs bathroom I noticed that the A/C vent in the kitchen ceiling (photo) was leaking water. Can anybody advise what the problem could be? I am likely to call a plumber in the next few days but I'd like to know what the problem is up front. I really appreciate the help I get from this forum. Regards
Check for any cracks in the shower base (if solid), and and cracks between the base and tiles etc. If no obvious cracks, probably failed water proofing membrane or leaky pipe (less likely). You can do a short term fix by sealing the grout and any cracks, but in the longer term probably need to rip off the tiles, reapply the waterproofing and retile. How old is the townhouse? The Y-man
I don't think it will be the pipework as it would be leaking slowly all the time. Maybe it's within the shower and how well it was sealed .
These were the tests we came up with after my nightmare of a leaking rental town house if you want to try working it out. 1) Run the shower straight into the drain to test if leak is from the supply lines or waste 2) Flood test the shower to test if water is from the shower recess 3) Use a hose from a different tap into the drain to test if leak is from waste 4) Run water on the walls of the shower. I rented a place with a leaking ceiling on the ground floor. All plumbers said what you mentioned that if pipework was leaking it would leak all the time. Leak continued sporadically even though we stopped using the shower and only used the toilet and sink. Also leaked when it was sunny so unlikely to be external ingress. Fancy leak detection with pressurised gas didnt detect a leak. Waste pipes were ruled out as they went straight down out of the unit and can be seen outside of the unit. As all other possible causes was ruled out, the plumber put in new supply pipes to the bathroom and the leak stopped. Best guess on the cause was the plastic pipe going from the ground floor to the first floor through a conduit was bent too much so the strain eventually caused a small cracked. The crack would only leak as the was pressure varied as taps was turned on and off, or possibly warmed up with the hot water or maybe it was something else.
