Plumbing problem with own home...Mystery Water Problem

[Michael Larson]

Stephen,

There should be thick gasket between the tub and the overflow flange where it is leaking.

See if you can tighten the two screws and tell your kids not to fill the tub so full.

[Wayne B. Wilson]

I was close

[cjustason]

Had that issue here at my house recently. Turns out there was avery small gap between the spout and the tub. Water was leaking down along the length of drain line until it reached the ductwork and came out a register. Caulked around the spout and problem solved(until the kids stand on it). If you had the presence of mind to observe if the water was fresh or soapy that might help point in the right direction.

[Chuck Evans]

New gasket and keep the cover tight. I check these whenever possible on inspections. As you discovered in your test, the water level does not need to rise above the overflow for them to leak. Showers or kids hands at the tub spout are capable of causing a decent amount of splash around the cover. If the gasket is mispositioned, dried out or not held tight by the cover screws it will leak.

[David P. Valley]

Originally Posted by sshockley

Got home this evening and with some assistance, took a pitcher of water and poured directly into the tub drain lever area. Watching from the other side of the wall through an access panel (I just installed) I immediately saw where water was getting through the drain pipe. I found the attached diagram of a tub drain and marked it up in MS Paint to show where the water was coming through. Makes sense now because all of the wet fiberglass insulation was at this point and below.

I started searching the web to see if anyone had ever experience a similar problem with a P-trap freezing and water backing up a drain and found quite a few.

http://www.home-built4u.com/house-insulation.html

Nice find.....

Weren't those small lower holes being utilized?

Those are used to secure a temporary U-shaped support bracket which braces the head fitting against the tub end wall while the leak test is performed and before the finish cover plate is secured to the head fitting.

Here's a better image...

[Stephen P. Shockley]

David,

Thanks for the detail. I was looking for a better image like this yours, but only came up with what I had posted. I haven't had a chance to disassemble the drain yet to see if there were any screws in those holes. I can say that there were no screws protruding from the back side where the water was coming out. I don't really want to remove anything until the insurance company comes out and has a look, which won't be until Friday evening.

Also, I'd like to dispel any notions that my kids filled that tub up beyond the 4 - 5 inches that I had mentioned. Not that anyone on this group would have known prior to this post, but my 7 year old son is autistic and if anyone knows anything about raising an autistic child they would know that a manifestation of their disorder is being very literal. That is, if they say something it is very exact. They are even very insensitive at times (not intentially) but they don't understand. For example, if someone gets near my son with bad breath, he will come out and tell them that they have bad breath, no matter what or where the situation is. If there were any water drained from that tub prior to my wife draining the tub, she would have heard it because she was downstairs next to the wall where you can hear everything that drains out of the second floor drain system (i.e. no insulation inside the interior walls).

I truly believe that the water sitting in the bottom of the P-trap was frozen enough to block anything from going down that drain, hence the back-up. I don't believe a naturally clogged drain would of magically un-clogged itself an hour or two later when I tried filling the tub again and draining to find the leaks, which there were none because any ice in the P-trap would have melted by the heat coming through the ceiling below by that time (where I had opened up the ceiling).


Regards,

Steve