Water seepage into stall shower
 

We seem to have a water problem.

In an 11 year old Begonia noticing water spots on the floor of our stall shower.

Initially figured it was shower head dripping and splattering but that is not the case.

The shower is located on the other side of our hvac equipment but see no evidence of a leak in there.

It is near our laundry room but no evidence of water there.

Shower is about 5 feet inside our house and water seems to be coming in from one corner. Directly outside the house where the shower is is our outside hvac equipment.

Thinking it might be coming in from outside wall but see no evidence of crack in wall.

Has been a lot of rain in the last few days.

Question is what type of contractor to call
HVAC
Plumber
Other?

Not a lot of water coming in but on its own is not going to get any better.

Any recommendation on specific contractor?

Thanks for your help.

Stu, if it were me, since it's water I might start by having a plumber take a look...another option might be having a home inspector take a look at it

I think I would call a plumber. But first before you go to bed turn off your water. Open a spigot and dry up all the wet spots. In the morning check again. There may be a broken pipe in the wall or floor.

Thinking about this.

Is it possible a drain in the hvac system is clogged?

There is no water supply to the outside HVAC equipment, so I wouldn't call an HVAC company. Usually, rain leaks come from a window, the roof, or they seep in from under the concrete slab. A window installer or handyman may be able to determine where the leak is located. You may want to spray water onto the exterior wall and nearest window to see if you can duplicate the leak.

Stu, check your irrigation system, especially the spray head just outside of your shower location. True story: We had our house built, was empty for about 4 months before we moved in. A week before the actual move I came down to a soaked bed room carpet. It turns out the sprinkler head had failed, and the irrigation water was going straight up, hitting the soffit, getting into the the block wall and draining into the bedroom. Took 5 people to eventually determine where and how the water was getting in, including the builder.

The only drain in the HVAC system is the condensate drain in the fan unit inside your garage. That is a white plastic pipe that you can easily verify a clog by pouring water into it. The outside HVAC unit has no water supply or drain.

Poured a quart of water down the drain and it went down quickly so not an hvac problem.

Now to figure out how to put sprinkler on now

Thanks all for help

If it is a Hunter, open the panel door, press and hold the "right" arrow near the top, and the system will start and run manually through each zone.

Figured out how to get to the correct zone and spraying horizontally to bush right outside bathroom.

Not scheduled to run again till Tuesday so if we cannot get plumber or handyman to look at it in next few days will skip the run and see what happens.

Thanks for suggestions

Handyman answered back and thought plumber was answer and he recommend Mike Scott so have call into them.

Thanks all for help in narrowing down the problem.

Please let us know what you find, thank you.

Yes,sounds like the sprinkler head is gone and water going straight up to the soffit..

Is water there when shower off overnight? Yes? Plumber
Is there a vented exhaust and vent pipe above and water appears after rain? Roofer ( can you peak in attic?)
AC unlikely but is drain clear and functional?

Good luck

Sprinkler head is putting out water in right place so not it.

See page is continuous now.

Drain is good poured at least a quart of water down and went right down.

Have call into Mike Scott and hoping he comes today and it is simple fix without ripping out floor of shower.

I always call the warranty women. I tell them I know this isn't under warranty but what person does she recommend calling. I also thank her for her patience dealing with sometimes impatient people day after day.

Those women have always, always, always been a source of help to us.

You might have a hairline crack in the stucco on a wall or around a window somewhere near the shower. Water can enter the wall from outside and collect in areas along the baseboards or drywall or in your case shower floor. Look closely, these cracks can be hard to find.

Observation :Is the shower valve control on the same side of the of the water problem that you see appearing ? It may be that when you shower..... water is getting behind esscussion plate and seeping into wall cavity... accumulating.... You might want to use another shower in the home and observe to see if the water problem stops ... if it stops leaking with out use.... then use it again ...and see see the problem appearing....then call your plumber.

Unknown Water in the shower
 

I have heard water drippings in my shower, then I found water in the washing machine. The washer company said it might be a pressure surge in the houses fresh water.

So dry up the shower and put a bag over the shower head with a paper towel in it.
In the morning see if shower pan is dry and if paper towel is wet.
If so it is a pressure issue.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the description of where it's leaking, but sounds like a shower pan leak to me.

Rain seeps under concrete slab ?
Makes 0 sense

Well, he didn’t explain what type of shower he had pan or tiled. Agree if pan the first thing I would check be drain socket seal. If tile I would sop up water, then using magnifying glass see if I could see the seepage, cracks, and look along walls where it meets floor. IMO this would tell if it’s pressure leak or rain water leak?

It keeps seeping 24/7 so think it is either pipe or coming from outside.

Called plumber this am and gave me rates and said they would rip up the floor looking for leak but gave me another suggestion.

A local company called Sleuth has a device that will find the source of the leak so that the plumber can than fix. They do this for $ 300 unless they find nothing and need to go on the roof at which point you get to pay more. They either find source or do not charge for their services.

So tomorrow leak detection will be done.

O contra, water can wick up through crack in slab when water is standing even or higher than slab especially where the slab meets the framing at bottom.

Water travels in strange ways which is why we agreed to pay $ 300 to find the source of the leak and not have house broken up looking for it.

You may want to notify your homeowners insurance company before doing any tearout work. Most of any damage to the house will be covered by insurance.

say your resolution. You could also dig with a small shovel outside the wall and see if the soil is damp.
Could also turn water off to home and see what happens. Good excuse to go on vacation for a couple of days to see if it dray's out.
Guess I would also turn off lawn sprinklers too.

Did that earlier today but thanks for asking

Soil would be damp with all of the rain we have been having.

Tomorrow should tell the tale with the leak detection company

Anybody who's ever owned a boat--especially a sailboat--knows that water can flow up. And over. and around and down and...

As it turned out the drain in the HVAC line was clogged.

Sleuth searched the shower using a camera in the wall and could find no evidence of a leak. Thought it was the toilet and no leak there. Than looked outside and not there.

He listened and listened and said where is hvac. Went out there and found the problem.

Seems like pouring a half gallon of water down drain did not do anything as water drained but under the filter was about 2=3 gallons of water which we got rid of using shop vac.

Do not have snake and hvac has not had a pm for some time so will call in morning.

Thanks for guidance learned a lot today.

Glad you found the issue and that it was a “relatively “ inexpensive fix !

You might have a way to use a garden hose and force water into the drain pipe. This might clean out the line. On my heater you pour vinegar and or water in a top drain. Do not use this. I have a horizontal pipe that goes into the drain line. It has a place next to the heater where I can use a garden hose. Might start at the outside drain pipe with the garden hose and have some watch the heater to tell you when water starts coming out. When I did it I let the water run on high for about 5 seconds. Let drain out and kept repeating. Then did it from the inside to flush the line. A shop vac can also be used at the outside drain or an air pump.

Thanks for the advise but think it is time to let a professional hvac guy get involved. We do need a pm on the system so that would kill two birds with one stone.

Thanks

Funny you said that. I was walking today and noticed how the height of the A/C drains on newer houses vary on how high before the elbow turn down. Some was sticking way up 12 to looked like 14 inches, or more over the slab level? And height varied like there was not standard height?

I thought to myself that may create clogging condition or make it clog faster cause of the amount of water in line and the gravity pressure it takes to flow out onto ground. I measured mine and it sticks up about 9” to point the water flow (drips out).

IMO very puzzling?

IMO full pressure with water hose could cause it back up the drain and could get all way up in the A coil drain pan? My 5 dollar fix fixed that problem to get full 55 psi down the drain and out through the access Y fitting with the cap, I added cut-off valve above the access port clean out.

Agree you have to be careful and only put in a little water at a time. Adding a cut off value and hose bib is the best way to go.

On my system the horizontal drain pipe that gets the winter heating condensation (feeds into the A/C drain pipe) would let the water flow out and onto the floor and avoid the backing up in the A/C unit or heater.

Another update.

We did clean that pipe somewhat and no more leaking into stall shower.

Having Munn's coming Friday for pm (overdue in any case as we have no idea how often previous owner had it serviced and as part of their pm service no charge for eliminating clogs.

Interesting how the leak detection company was hired to find the leak and turned out to be a clog. Money well spent as a plumber might well have taken down a wall looking for source of the leak.

Souds like both the pan & the pile need a cleaning. Munns will do that.