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Posted by wordkyle on July 12, 2006, 8:42 pm
We've lived in our 90-year-old home for 4 years. We have a basement
bathroom with shower, toilet, sink. The bathroom is on an 18-inch
platform.
Last New Years Eve, water flooded the basement from underneath the
bathroom, probably 20-30 gallons. We suctioned it out, no further
problem. A few weeks later, it did it again. A few weeks later,
again. At this point we called plumbers out to take a look, and they
could find nothing wrong, and had no explanation for what was
happening.
A few points:
1) The water is cold, not hot. My first thought was the water heater
(which is also in the basement, in another area) had spilled, but
that's not it.
2) The water is clean. There is no smell or debris in the water. (No
toilet overflowing, etc.)
3) It floods all at once. We checked for some kind of leak that might
be building up, but there was none.
4) The flooding happens at night (or very very early morning), so the
water is not in use at the time it floods.
5) The flooding is irregular; that is, we can't predict when it's going
to happen.
6) We had not had the problem for 3 1/2 years....why did it start now?
No construction or anything like that going on.
We need some advice on how to stop this flooding; it stumped our two
plumbers (who seemed competent in all other ways.) Thanks for any
help.
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Posted by Jeff on July 12, 2006, 9:10 pm
Buy a flood alarm and put on floor where flooding occurs. This way you can
watch when it happens again.
show/hide quoted text
> We've lived in our 90-year-old home for 4 years. We have a basement
> bathroom with shower, toilet, sink. The bathroom is on an 18-inch
> platform.
> Last New Years Eve, water flooded the basement from underneath the
> bathroom, probably 20-30 gallons. We suctioned it out, no further
> problem. A few weeks later, it did it again. A few weeks later,
> again. At this point we called plumbers out to take a look, and they
> could find nothing wrong, and had no explanation for what was
> happening.
> A few points:
> 1) The water is cold, not hot. My first thought was the water heater
> (which is also in the basement, in another area) had spilled, but
> that's not it.
> 2) The water is clean. There is no smell or debris in the water. (No
> toilet overflowing, etc.)
> 3) It floods all at once. We checked for some kind of leak that might
> be building up, but there was none.
> 4) The flooding happens at night (or very very early morning), so the
> water is not in use at the time it floods.
> 5) The flooding is irregular; that is, we can't predict when it's going
> to happen.
> 6) We had not had the problem for 3 1/2 years....why did it start now?
> No construction or anything like that going on.
> We need some advice on how to stop this flooding; it stumped our two
> plumbers (who seemed competent in all other ways.) Thanks for any
> help.
>
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Posted by rb608 on July 12, 2006, 9:37 pm
> A few points:
You say cold, not hot; but do you really mean cold (as in fresh from the
tap) or simply "not hot" (i.e. room temperature)? If the latter, are you
certain you have found the flooding soon after it happened, or is it
possible you're finding hot water that cooled down?
Any correlation with weather (e.g. rain)?
Any correlation with the use of the facilities (shower, toilet)? For
example, any chance there's some shower overspray that's collecting
somewhere to dump when it reaches a certain level? (I had a really weird &
hard to trace leak problem that turned out to be something similar. The
shower leaked when someone was using it, but not when no one was in the tub.
show/hide quoted text
That one took me a couple weeks to find. <g>)
Have you actually witnessed the flooding?
Is 20-30 gallons perhaps an overestimation? Any chance it's the same amount
of water that's normally in the toilet tank? Does the toilet run during or
after the flooding incident? Does it happen quickly (say, in a minute) or
does it take a few minutes or hours?
Do you have young kids who might know they're doing something to cause this
but are afraid to fess up?
I'm mostly stumped too, but I have to think the toilet is suspect #1 if it's
coming from the bathroom platform. I don't know what might cause it,
though.
Joe F.
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Posted by wordkyle on July 13, 2006, 4:07 am
Several good responses, I appreciate all of them. Let me address some
of the points, expand a bit on the original post.
1) The water is "cold" to touch, but bare feet are not good
thermometers. We have two sons whose bedrooms are in the basement, and
they caught the water mid-flood a couple of months ago. The water was
flowing from under the bathroom platform, and the water was cold, not
hot. The water heater was the first thought because of the pressure
release valve, but it's located in another room 25 feet away. Some
water seeps into that room, but looked like it was water spreading from
the point of origin in the bathroom area.
2) The amount of water was based on a half dozen or so dumpings of the
shop vac used to suck up the water; i.e., 3-5 gallons per load x 6
loads = 20-30 gallons of water. This amount has been consistent.
3) No correspondence with weather at all. New Years Eve night was cold
and dry here. Another time it had rained the night before.
4) No correspondence with water usage, other than it's when water is
NOT in use anywhere in the house, very early in the morning. The
plumbers checked for leaks from the shower, and around the toilet
(which I had already done.) The flooding appears to happen very
quickly, within a few minutes. I'm also pretty confident it's not
kid-related. Our kids are teenagers, and the boys, who have best
access to the bathroom, are the ones who clean it up every time. (We
even keep the shop vac downstairs for them. LOL)
5) Have already thought of the flood alarm, but the chlorine tester
might be a good idea.
Thanks for the brainpower guys, I've run out of ideas, other than
overhauling the entire bathroom. I really believe that the sudden
onset of this problem holds the solution. Just wish the pros had been
able to figure it out.
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Posted by Nick Hull on July 13, 2006, 6:49 am
show/hide quoted text
> Thanks for the brainpower guys, I've run out of ideas, other than
> overhauling the entire bathroom. I really believe that the sudden
> onset of this problem holds the solution. Just wish the pros had been
> able to figure it out.
Do you have a water pressure gauge? Often city water is at VERY high
pressure during times of low usage and valves, joints, etc leak. If so
you need a water pressure regulator.
--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/
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> bathroom with shower, toilet, sink. The bathroom is on an 18-inch
> platform.
> Last New Years Eve, water flooded the basement from underneath the
> bathroom, probably 20-30 gallons. We suctioned it out, no further
> problem. A few weeks later, it did it again. A few weeks later,
> again. At this point we called plumbers out to take a look, and they
> could find nothing wrong, and had no explanation for what was
> happening.
> A few points:
> 1) The water is cold, not hot. My first thought was the water heater
> (which is also in the basement, in another area) had spilled, but
> that's not it.
> 2) The water is clean. There is no smell or debris in the water. (No
> toilet overflowing, etc.)
> 3) It floods all at once. We checked for some kind of leak that might
> be building up, but there was none.
> 4) The flooding happens at night (or very very early morning), so the
> water is not in use at the time it floods.
> 5) The flooding is irregular; that is, we can't predict when it's going
> to happen.
> 6) We had not had the problem for 3 1/2 years....why did it start now?
> No construction or anything like that going on.
> We need some advice on how to stop this flooding; it stumped our two
> plumbers (who seemed competent in all other ways.) Thanks for any
> help.
>