Handyman advice (Austin, Howe: house, tile, cabinet)

[Trainwreck20]

We have some kind of water incursion in a wall in our house - we aren't sure if it is coming from the expansion joint in the exterior wall, from a leak somewhere below the tub/shower in the adjacent bathroom, or possibly from some other water source (AC drain line, pipe in the wall, etc). It isn't catastrophic, but it needs identifying and fixing.

I am a little reluctant to call a random company to come and look at it; I need someone who can assess what the source is and I find that skill much more rare than someone who is really good at fixing 'known' problems. We have done our own basic assessment and it doesn't appear to be obvious. I really would rather not have someone just start fixing things semi-randomly until the problem goes away, or tearing up the whole bathroom to then identify the problem as the expansion joint.

Any recommendations on a more-competent-than-average problem solver?

[Austin97]

you have to open up the drywall, there is no other way to diagnose. You can do that yourself and it will likely be pretty obvious.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by Austin97

you have to open up the drywall, there is no other way to diagnose. You can do that yourself and it will likely be pretty obvious.

It might be; we have opened up a small area of drywall, but it backs right up to the tub, and the tub has some kind of board under it, so there is zero visibility beyond the first inch or so. The water appears to be coming from under the board, but that could be the tub drain (nearby), the shower drain (7' away or so, but could travel that way), or the expansion joint (abuts the side of the tub).

[Austin97]

is this a second story bath? can you give a little more description of the structures?

[ATX Wahine]

Oh goodness, the SAME thing happened in our house. The main hall bath is next to our master bedroom and I noticed wet carpet near the wall separating the two.

Hubby did some investigation and discovered that it was water leaking from the tub/shower next door.

Being both handy and too stubborn to call anyone in, he cut a neat square out of the drywall from our bedroom wall, which gave him access to the tub. He found the leak, repaired it, but rather than re-drywall our entire bedroom wall again, and suspecting that the problem could return some day, he simply covered the hole in the sheetrock with a small cabinet door and handle, so the space can be accessed again. The cabinet door is small, unobtrusive, painted to match the wall, and you can’t see it anyway due to a dresser being in front of it.

[ATX Wahine]

PS: the leak by the way was in the grout where the tub and tile wall met. It had deteriorated and become really porous. We were planning to remodel the bath before too long anyway, which is why we just went with the minimal solution that we did. The LOL part is that had we just been able to figure the leaking out from the bathroom side, we would have never needed to cut into the wall. That fact still drives my husband nuts.

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

We have some kind of water incursion in a wall in our house - we aren't sure if it is coming from the expansion joint in the exterior wall, from a leak somewhere below the tub/shower in the adjacent bathroom, or possibly from some other water source (AC drain line, pipe in the wall, etc). It isn't catastrophic, but it needs identifying and fixing.

I am a little reluctant to call a random company to come and look at it; I need someone who can assess what the source is and I find that skill much more rare than someone who is really good at fixing 'known' problems. We have done our own basic assessment and it doesn't appear to be obvious. I really would rather not have someone just start fixing things semi-randomly until the problem goes away, or tearing up the whole bathroom to then identify the problem as the expansion joint.

Any recommendations on a more-competent-than-average problem solver?

Can't provide a specific recommendation for a service provider. However I would recommend finding a competent Thermal Imaging company who can help localize the issue, possibly even identify it, before you start tearing anything out. A good Thermal Imager can help you significantly.


To find one just Google "Thermal Imaging" & "austin, tx".