Trace and Access Experts were called to out to a first floor flat where the occupants of the ground floor flat below had complained of large damp patches appearing on their kitchen ceiling.
On arrival at site, and after a preliminary investigation, a water leak from pipes running in the void space between the floor of the first floor flat and the ceiling of the ground floor flat was suspected.
The engineer decided that the best way to examine the pipework and pinpoint any leaks was to use Endoscopy Leak Detection Method. This is a small, six millimetre diameter, high definition camera and light on the end of a thin flexible tube.
This allowed the engineer to see what was happening in the void by drilling some very small and easily repairable holes through the chipboard floor and completely avoided the need to destroy large sections of flooring.
After some careful investigation, water dripping from a 15mm copper pipe close to a timber joist was observed: the leak had been detected.
The leak had been caused by an errant screw piercing the pipe – the body of the screw had largely blocked the hole it had created allowing just a slow drip of water to escape and this had built up in the void over time and eventually soaked through the plasterboard ceiling of the flat below. The below image shows the screw entering the pipe (Yellow Square) and the exiting the pipe (Red Square).
The below image shows the screw being removed (see the red square)
It was then a simple matter to remove just a small section of flooring to access the leaking pipe and enable a quick repair.
Remedy For the problem
The exposed section of underfloor void allowed us to inject warm low humidity air into whole area around the leak and dry out the wet timbers and plasterboard ceiling of the flat below; this avoided the need to remove and replace the ceiling.
If you suspect that you have a moisture issue, damp issue, drop in water pressure or unexplained damp patches, these are possible signs of a water leak? Give us a call or email us at Trace and Access Experts, we'll be able to advise and help.
