water defying gravity

[Norfolkjack]

Hope someone can shed some light on a very worrying problem that we have.
A few days ago we noticed a wet patch on the bathroom carpet, upon lifting the carpet the floor boards were saturated. It is an area about a foot square. There is no water dripping from above and no water marks or damp patches on the ceiling below. This area is constantly wet and I can't figure out how it is getting there. If there was a problem with a pipe or a joint surely water would be visible downstairs as it is so bad that the boards are at saturation point and anything placed on the carpet above the boards gets very wet. We put a towel there and within an hour it was soaked.
Any advice or explanations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[sooey]

My advice would be to.........lift the feckin board and see what's going on.

 

[Norfolkjack]

Thanks. Was going to do that in the morning. Only problem is its not an easy board to lift. One end disappears under the skirting board and the other end has the toilet sitting on it. The damp patch is about a foot from either end. So the toilet isn't to blame. Its going to be one of those pain in the arse ones where I've got to saw the board in half!

 

[sooey]

Nobody said it was eassyyyy

But if it's too difficult to get the boards up you could always go in from below, and patch the ceiling afterwards.

 

[RigidRaider]

It's probably a rust pinhole in the upper surface of a pipe.

Go and buy a 15mm pipe repair kit then hire a small circular saw, set the depth to "conservative" and saw away, watching out for nails.

 

[rjm2k]

Could be the board wicking a small leak in a pipe which is in direct contact with it.

 

[Nige F]

Could be the board wicking a small leak in a pipe which is in direct contact with it.

that`ll be a wicki leak then

 

[DaleRCL]

Have you removed the bath panel? You may have a leak under there which is bad enough to soak the carpet and boards but not bad enough to have made it through to downstairs yet. I doubt the leak would be coming from anywhere below the boards if they are soaked and ceiling below is dry.

If not under the bath, then maybe a pipe buried in the wall somewhere.

 

[SimonH2]

Only problem is its not an easy board to lift.

Is there another board that's easier to lift ? It might be that by lifting another board, you can see underneath (with torch and mirror) and either sew that there is a problem worth lifting the difficult board for, or there's nothing under there and you've saved the effort.

 

[Norfolkjack]

Thanks for all the advice people. Bit the bullet. Plumber coming in the morning. I am no diyer and chickened out

 

[DaleRCL]

What was it?

 

[HERTS P&D]

A leak!

Andy