we have a water leak in the wall ajacent the bathroom I thin...

[cheri777]

we have a water leak in the wall ajacent the bathroom I think its the water waste pipe. there is a cap. could it be a blockage of some sort of a back up of pressure causing a leak?

[cheri777]

leak in the wall

[cheri777]

is there anyone here

[cheri777]

I cant afford a plumber. I need to find a way to fix problem via advice.

[Jim Smith]

Hi Cheri

1) Determine which type of pipe is leaking. One key thing to look for is an increase in water consumption, which will show up in your bill. Most people's water usage is fairly stable for a given month. If the leak is in the water supply line, there will be a continuous hissing, sizzling or gushing sound, depending on leak size, as long as the water mains are turned on. Listen for this sound by turning on the main water supply valve during a quiet time of day/night. Leaks in supply pipes, if fairly substantial, can usually be heard anywhere in a quiet room that has a water supply going to it. Just listen to where the sound is the strongest. If you think you hear this sound, turn the main water supply valve off and listen again to hear if it goes away. You can purchase a tool for about $12.00 to turn off the water at the main valve (best turned off where the meter man checks). If this location is inaccessible, there should be another main shut-off valve somewhere between the city mains and your house, usually on the outside of your house. Make sure you get a tool that fits the valve stem for your city or locale.

If you never hear the hissing sound, your leak may be in a drain/waste (DW) pipe. Leaks in DW pipes are much rarer than water supply pipes, but do occur, particularly if you are on a septic system, the DW pipes are metal, you have allowed the septic tank to fill up, and/or have had repeated septic backups. This allows uric acid and other corrosive substances, albeit diluted, to stand in the metal DW pipe and eat away at it over time. Plastic (PVC) pipe itself is not affected by sewage corrosion, but depending on the system, there are sometimes compression coupling rings that can deteriorate and cause leaking.

Verifying a DW pipe leak is trickier. There may be a fine line between smell that comes from sewage and old rotten water that's been standing, particularly if the sewage is in a location where it is in direct contact with soil, which tends to break down the sewage into an "earthy" odor. If you are certain that you are smelling raw sewage in a location that has visible stains or other signs of wetting, you probably have a DW pipe that has opened up. You'll want to inspect all visible pipes & junctions you can access with the naked eye. If you don't see anything, what you might want to do is spike your toilets/tub/sink with food coloring and flush/drain them immediately to prevent discoloration to the ceramic. It's best to drain everything at once, so try to get some friends to time your flush/drain all together. It doesn't have to be a lot of coloring; just enough to see. If you see that color on the wall/floor etc., then you know it came from a DW pipe and not a supply pipe.

2) Now the problem of determining EXACTLY where the water or sewage is coming from. How do you keep from breaking up a large section of your wall or house to fix the plumbing? You must open up a panel that gives you just enough space to work, no more, no less. I recommend using a borescope. But wait, aren't they expensive? Yes; that's why unless you have a neighbor that will let you borrow one, you're going to use a combination of a "snake USB webcam" ($17.00) and a "snake LED light" ($3.00). You will need to drill a 3/4" hole as near as possible to where you think the actual leak is. Slide the webcam through, then the LED. Since both are on flexible necks, you can angle them to see exactly where the leak is. You can now cut the smallest possible access point to do your plumbing work. Accessing the leak and patching/cleaning up will take most of your time. Repairing the leak is easy.

Good Luck.