Not again

[pegkerr]

Today (well, yesterday, technically, but I haven't gone to bed yet) was already a really bad day.

Now there is water coming out of the ceiling of the kitchen, dripping from the overhead light fixture. Is it from the bathtub? (I'd just finished taking a bath). Rob pulled the back panel out in the bathroom and doesn't think it is anything in back or underneath the tub. Or is an ice dam formed on the roof?

Comments

Sorry about your leak

[one-undone.livejournal.com]

We once had water come from the light fixture; the bathtub had overflowed upstairs.

What is an ice dam? We don't get ice on the roof down here in the South.

Re: Sorry about your leak

[jbru.livejournal.com]

As snow on one's roof melts, the water flows to the edge, naturally enough. It is colder out on the eaves and so the water freezes; this is the same kind of thing that generates icicles. If the process continues long enough, the accumulated ice acts like a dam (hence the name) and the water backs up under one's shingles and through the roof, causing havoc.

[nsmom.livejournal.com]

Check the tiles in the bathroom. We had some cracks in the grout that let water through every time we took a bath or shower. We retiled the whole shower, only to have the problem come back. The cracks that caused the leaking were actually in the floor.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was the cause the LAST time we had water dripping through the kitchen light fixture. We had the tub regrouted about a year ago.

[naomikritzer]

Dang. I was going to suggest the grout, too (that was our problem). Check the grout around the spout and knobs and stuff, too (our other problem).

I hate, hate, haaaaaaaaaaate plumbing problems.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I'm voting for ice dam. Do you know the trick of filling an old nylon stocking with ice-melting stuff and flinging it over your ice dams? the nylons let the water through, allowing the ice to melt and carve a channel through the dam for the water to escape rather than back up into your roof. Handy when it's too icy to drag a ladder out and crawl up there to do anything about it.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Back at Toad Hall, it was an ice dam, and the water dripped from the dining room fixture. But the bathtub was not immediately overhead, and hadn't recently been used, and there was already an ice dam causing problems with the dining room window, so the cause was more apparent.

Jeff installed those heating cables the next winter and they solved the problem for us. (I understand they don't for everyone.) The trick with the ice melt stuff and panty hose that jbru mentioned sounds worth trying if you do have ice dam problems.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Ouch! My pantry ceiling was leaking last year and had to be completely replaced. Water is extremely clever at finding a way through if there is one.

[adjudicated.livejournal.com]

We had the same thing happen to us in our townhome. Water was dripping down from the light fixtures (recessed, fwiw) into the kitchen. It turned out in our case that the big smitty pan under the hot water heater had rusted out just enough that it wasn't holding the condensation/run-off water from the central heat/ac and hot water heater anymore. It was running under the smitty pan and leaking through the areas in the subflooring that was cut for pipes. In our case, the hot water heater/ central furnace was above the kitchen.

[glissando.livejournal.com]

I hope that your Saturday was better than your Friday. I just popped over to say that I tried the microwave chocolate pudding recipe and it's great! What a fantastic dessert to make with stock-cupboard standbys (and I'm a student, but possibly the only student with a baking box).

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Another convert. Spread the word!

[glissando.livejournal.com]

I very much plan to do so! It's already been copied into my cookbook (http://www.dodopad.com/cookbook/cookbk1.htm).