As house problems can manifest in many ways, I recall reading some basic advice “if water is ending up in the wrong place, it’s in the plumber’s domain”.
Exceptionally, if water appears on the ceiling of the top floor, I would skip the plumber and call a roofer. But what about showers?
This is a bit of a mystery:
A shower is leak is manifesting two rooms away from the shower. It’s clear that the shower is the source of the leak because water only leaks when the shower is running. The plumber claims to have fixed the drain pipework. But it still leaks, just at a very slight trickle or drip. So apparently the pipework was leaky and the fact that it’s significantly less water leaking means there is still another problem. Plumber made a 2nd visit and claims the new pipework is solid up to and including the drain, and makes a vague statement: “replace the shower pan”. When someone stands on the showerpan while showering, water leaks at a higher rate. The shower pan flexes when standing on it, which suggests that maybe the bedding is rotted wood due to the leak. We put wood planks on the shower pan to prevent the showerpan from flexing while showering. That reduces the leak. But the leak is still there. I wonder if water is hitting the outside of the drain pipe and clinging to the drain pipe due to water tension, and running along the outside of the pipe until the pipe takes a turn 2 rooms over. I can only guess.
The shower pan itself has no holes. We will redo the silicon caulking around it in case the leak is around the sides.
Anyway, I don’t want to get too far off into woods with speculation. I’m mainly just trying to work out: is the plumber competent? Are plumbers expected to accurately diagnose this sort of thing? Or are plumbers only responsible for pipework and water penetrating walls and showerpans is beyond their expertise?
It’s hard to find good plumbers and I wonder whether I should call this plumber back in the future.
You may want to call a tile setter or kitchen and bath remodeler. Tile setters build concrete (mud pans) and install fiberglass pans. Remodelers often install fiberglass pans. Either trade should kinda specialize in this. Plumbers only care if pipes are leaking not if water is penetrating walls. Also fiberglass pans are supposed to be set in concrete (mud set) so they dont flex and leak. Good luck.
When this happened to us - water dripping from the shower head - the fix was to replace the cartridge. It’s a part behind the shower knob; I don’t know what the purpose of the cartridge is, but I think it’s what they call the valve on a single-control shower; we got that replaced and it fixed it. The other thing I’d suspect is the valves themselves, if you have separate hot/cold controls. We had a valve simply stop closing completely on our dishwasher intake. I replaced that myself, but that was in an open space.
Valves go bad, especially if you have hard water.
Just coming to say this. Our hot water heater was turned up too high so the hot water melted the plastic cartridge over time and then it leaks and makes the hot cold combination incorrect.
That’s hard to imagine. I would expect the plastic parts to withstand near boiling temps. The temp should drop some along the route. Often the the problem is people have their hot water tanks too low (to save energy), and then bacteria lives in the tank. So ideally the tank should be out of survivable range of most bacteria, and then showers should have a thermostatic mixer to prevent scalding. OTOH, if it’s a tankless boiler, you can probably get away with lower temps. So I would be tempted to conclude the cartridge you had was bad quality.
Your prob right but the cartridge was defiantly melted.
That’s a different kind of leak. A leaky valve isn’t my issue. But indeed it is nice to have replaceable cartridges so when a valve goes bad it does not require digging up the wall and replumbing.
OK - I was only referencing where you said you also had a persistent drip from the shower (faucet?) head. That’s almost certainly a valve issue. Pipes leaking is a different, non-valve issue, I agree.
I’m afraid you misunderstood. The leak in all scenarios is in the same place - water enters a room two rooms over from the bathroom. It’s unclear whether it’s seeping in around the showerpan or walls.
