I'm ideally looking for reassurance my own non-invasive investigations have reached a conclusion that makes sense before I engage a professional. And I'm looking for guidance as to who that professional should be - I'm obviously thinking Plumber right now.
I have a bathroom with toilet, sink, bath and shower. There is no evidence of water marks or leaking above these 'appliances' in this room - so I have 1) ruled out any kind of roof problem (this has been a long-running test, since the beginning of the year).
Under this bathroom, there is another bathroom and the ceiling and the wall under where the pipes would be upstairs shows plenty of staining and is even wet when the upper bathroom has been used some time before. I drew a line on the ceiling and if the upper bathroom is used normally for a period of time - I saw that stain creep and get larger.
I then stopped using the upper bathroom. When the upper bathroom is not used for long periods of time the staining does not move anywhere and the wall seems to dry out almost, it's now a bit mouldy in the corners and the paint is kind of flaking in places.
At first I thought I should try 2) identify which of the toilet, shower, bath and sink was leaking... but as it doesn't seem to continue when the top bathroom is not used can I jump to 3) and conclude it might be something related to waste (looking from the outside I've concluded the sink, bath and shower share two thinner waste pipes that go into the big downpipe and the toilet has its own? I can confirm there is no evidence of leaking on the outside wall.
If I talk to a Plumber what should I be looking for? Would a good chap be wanting to expose the gap between floors by taking some plasterboard off, or creating an inspection hole in the lower bathroom... or is there a way that some kind of snazzy inspection camera can be used to probe into pipework directly and see if there's any kind of obvious reason for the leak? How do I get a good vibe someone is more competent at this than me? How invasive should remediation actually be?
Currently my thought process - which could be entirely wrong - is that if the upper bathroom isn't seeming to leak when the appliances aren't being used - then surely it's an amount of water going down the waste(s) when they are being used that must be going down the inside of the wall. If the toilet was leaking then surely it'd exhibit something, like the water in the bowl would eventually disappear (it doesn't).
I have a bathroom with toilet, sink, bath and shower. There is no evidence of water marks or leaking above these 'appliances' in this room - so I have 1) ruled out any kind of roof problem (this has been a long-running test, since the beginning of the year).
Under this bathroom, there is another bathroom and the ceiling and the wall under where the pipes would be upstairs shows plenty of staining and is even wet when the upper bathroom has been used some time before. I drew a line on the ceiling and if the upper bathroom is used normally for a period of time - I saw that stain creep and get larger.
I then stopped using the upper bathroom. When the upper bathroom is not used for long periods of time the staining does not move anywhere and the wall seems to dry out almost, it's now a bit mouldy in the corners and the paint is kind of flaking in places.
At first I thought I should try 2) identify which of the toilet, shower, bath and sink was leaking... but as it doesn't seem to continue when the top bathroom is not used can I jump to 3) and conclude it might be something related to waste (looking from the outside I've concluded the sink, bath and shower share two thinner waste pipes that go into the big downpipe and the toilet has its own? I can confirm there is no evidence of leaking on the outside wall.
If I talk to a Plumber what should I be looking for? Would a good chap be wanting to expose the gap between floors by taking some plasterboard off, or creating an inspection hole in the lower bathroom... or is there a way that some kind of snazzy inspection camera can be used to probe into pipework directly and see if there's any kind of obvious reason for the leak? How do I get a good vibe someone is more competent at this than me? How invasive should remediation actually be?
Currently my thought process - which could be entirely wrong - is that if the upper bathroom isn't seeming to leak when the appliances aren't being used - then surely it's an amount of water going down the waste(s) when they are being used that must be going down the inside of the wall. If the toilet was leaking then surely it'd exhibit something, like the water in the bowl would eventually disappear (it doesn't).
