Plumbing Question, what is this drip?

[angellonewolf]

only thing i can think of mates house has a out side drain for heating system and cold/hot water system so if you need to work on it you can easy drain either system some type of same ?

 

[Carl Wilson]

Sure there's not a cold water storage tank up there? The fact that the flow stopped when you turned off the mains in feed and resumed when you turned it back on would indicate to me that there must be one somewhere? Mind you, I'm not a plumber or heating engineer.

Definitely no tank in the loft.

 

[Carl Wilson]

When you turned the water off did the drip slow down immediately?

If so then I would expect it is a drain off for a cold water loop or cold water storage tank overflow.

Where is the drain pipe for your hot water cylinder?

The drip slowed down almost immediately.

 

[RWD3M]

The drip slowed down almost immediately.

That suggests to me that it's leaking/venting from a closed system of some sorts somewhere rather than a header tank where I think there would/could be quite a delay.

We gotta find this!!!

 

[Carl Wilson]

Assuming your metered it's gonna keep turning the clock

How many litres a day over a year?

It's not on a meter. My water is paid in with my council tax.

Roughly 28 litres per day.

 

[Carl Wilson]

so theres a leak under your floor and someones put some pipes in to stop it building up under the house out of sight out of mind just turn the stopcock off in the street to your house and your inside stop tap see if it stops not exactly hard to do

I doubt very much that if there was a leak under my house the building company would have put pipes in to vent it off. The house was built in 2004. The three vent or drain or whatever they are pipes have been there since new. The one I'm talking about here has only recently begun to drip in the manner I've described.

 

[Kayos]

If i was losing 28 litres a day I would want to know why

 

[Carl Wilson]

I do.

 

[julianf]

If you are putting that much oxygenated water through anything steel (like a heating system) you will have troubles if it's not sorted.

 

[Arc Tourist]

If you have access to a stethoscope, have someone constantly tap on the pipe in question, while you check all piping inside your house to see if you can find the terminal end.
I believe there is also a " Tone Devise " designed to trace things like this. I seem to remember one being used on a job I worked on at an industrial facility remodel, but its been so many years ago I can't recall the name of the devise.

 

[Newlands]

I wouldn’t want 28 litres a day soaking my foundation thanks very much. Metered or not, if you don’t sort it there will be a big bill at some point.

 

[RWD3M]

I wouldn’t want 28 litres a day soaking my foundation thanks very much. Metered or not, if you don’t sort it there will be a big bill at some point.

How do you keep the rain away?

 

[Newlands]

How do you keep the rain away?

Gutters, down pipes, gulleys and drains.

 

[angellonewolf]

rivers where cut with running water leave water running long enought and it will eat the mud away possably causing problems with your footings on the house and its lightly to get worse as well if its running now

 

[brightspark]

How do you keep the rain away?

put a land drain round your house . I have one and did daughters house as well . got inundated with her neighbours to do theirs .I did one side because the water at the back of house was coming from his garden used 75mm perforated pipe and 20mm gravel .well sorted

 

[Carl Wilson]

I wouldn’t want 28 litres a day soaking my foundation thanks very much. Metered or not, if you don’t sort it there will be a big bill at some point.

I've currently got it plumbed into a nearby drain.

 

[Newlands]

I've currently got it plumbed into a nearby drain.

Ah ok. Job done then.

 

[brightspark]

when I bought my house the whole aria was waterlogged .seemed to be coming of the railway the council the waterboard and the railways didn't want to know it baffled them that was when I dug round the house and fitted the land drain and ran it to a sump near by. about 200 gallons a day went down it for 6 month till it got sorted my old water feed went on to the railway station before coming back on to my property apparently I put a new main in and the water stopped in 15 minutes

 

[RWD3M]

Carl,

Just had a thought, assuming you are not in the middle of nowhere, are the houses around you the same (as in built by the same developer)? Perhaps chapping a few doors might reveal something. If you have his problem perhaps a neighbour has had it too?

 

[Morrisman]

Do you have any neighbours in identical houses, who might have some idea?