the mystery deepens

[rmd]

so, i thought i had a roof leak, but the roof guys say that while there's some stuff that needs to be done, it's not enough to explain the level of water we're seeing in the basement.

so, now it's a mystery.

the only wet thing above the area of greatest wet is a radiator that doesn't seem to be the source of the leak.

the second floor bathroom gets its plumbing through the chase with that chimney, but i'd expect the main bulk of the water to come down the chase with the pipes if that were the cause. the 2nd floor kitchen is up against that side of the chimney, but there's nothing wet, there.

i'll have to get into the tenant unit and take a look at what's going on there. and then, i guess i start tearing off walls and figure out what the HELL is going on.

bonus question: how much subfloor in the first floor kitchen is rotted out?

ETA: Anyone local have a moisture sensor frob i can borrow to try and hunt where the wet is?

Comments

[milktree.livejournal.com]

is it possible that with all the rain, the chimney is simply filling up with water and it's leaking out the bottom?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

that's what i was thinking, but the roofing guy seems to think that there is more water than would result from that.

i'll take a look at the first floor kitchen tonight.

[pale-chartreuse.livejournal.com]

I do not have a moisture frob. If you find one at a good price, please let me know.

[muffyjo]

Is this the same leak that claudiaclaudia and I found that had travelled the pipe into the bin?

So I called Home Depot in Somerville and asked the rental folks if they had moisture meters for rent. They said they didn't rent anything like that but to try Taylor Rental. I checked Taylor's website and didn't see anything like that but they're closed at the moment so I couldn't find out for certain. 617-666-7368 is their number if you wanted to give them a jingle in the brighter hours of the day.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah. except it doesn't seem to be travelling the pipe, so much. i pulled all the insulation away the other day, and the pipe has a bit of moisture on it, but the flooring above the insulation was *soaked*. there was also water on the side of the chimney facing the pipe and a bit on the beams around the chimney on that side and to the right of it (the driveway side). which is why i figured it was dripping down the outside of chimney from bad flashing or something. but, apparently not.

i got into the tenant unit last night, and the radiator above the wet spot doesn't appear to be leaking (it had even been on recently), and the vinyl floor under it isn't wet and doesn't look to have been wet recently, as far as dust patterns go. there's no water stains on the wall, there, but there might not be as i think there's a layer of light paneling somewhere in the layers of wall covering, there.

there's no active plumbing on that side of the chimney. there's an access panel in my bathroom on the second floor that opens onto the driveway side of the chimney chase, and my tub is up against the front of the chimney chase. so this morning i took a good long look around inside the access hatch before and after running all the various water sources in the bathroom. there was a little bit of a drip - maybe a teaspoon-full at most - from the drain closer thing on the tub, presumably from when i toggled it in the shower. but nothing from the faucets or drain or shower head that i could see.

so, the mystery continues.

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be handy to build houses with interstitial moisture (and perhaps also air leak) monitors between the walls and in the roof, broadcasting to your computer where the leaks are? We're dealing with our own mysterious leak in the bedroom. After initially thinking we could just fix the damage we decided to hire a pro to find and fix the leak.

Splash over

[kellyjmf.livejournal.com]

Does it coincide with using the shower? I remember an "Ask This Old House" episode where the mystery water turned out to be water splashing past the shower curtain and soaking into the floor where the tub joins the floor.

Re: Splash over

[rmd.livejournal.com]

that was one of my thoughts, but the amount of water on the floor in the bathroom after i (or clauclauclaudia) shower is more like "a couple of damp footprints" rather than "giant splashing".

and this morning i did a bunch of peering in the chase before and after my shower and didn't see any smoking gun (or leaking gun)