How To Tell If Pipes Are Behind A Bathroom Wall

The diy experts at stack exchange provide tips.

How to tell if pipes are behind a bathroom wall.

Most times shower valve leaks behind the wall are very slow. How to fix a leaking pipe behind a wall. When someone is showering you might see water dripping from the ceiling. A vibrating tool with a circular blade will make nice clean sharp easily patchable holes without cutting so deep as to risk cutting the pipes.

If you have an upstairs bathroom you may notice dried water stains on the ceiling below the shower. There is no way to trace the water pipe behind the walls with any certainty without using a hole in the wall. It is possible to follow the water lines from the basement or crawl space to help determine the most likely path to sinks tubs toilets radiators and washing machines. The basement is the place where the pipes are usually exposed and not behind a wall.

A wall that is warped or stained for no apparent reason. Old accumulated water from a leaky pipe tends to have an odor. If none exists you will have to make one plus. One rule of thumb is to be especially careful when drilling into any walls that connect to your bathroom or kitchen basically any wall that s likely to have pipes.

Therefore you will easily see if there s a leakage or anything wrong with them. Drilling into a wall doesn t have to be a guessing game. A buckled cracked or water stained floor or ceiling especially in your bathroom. Peeling paint or wallpaper on your walls.

However you won t know the exact location of the water lines in your walls until you use a pipe detector. Since water that leaks into walls never has a chance to dry out the walls will begin to give off a humid musty odor. In cases where a leak behind a wall isn t visible you may be able to detect the leak using your sense of smell. One of the tell tale signs of a water leak coming from a shower valve behind the wall are water stains.

Musty smelling walls will often be accompanied by other signs of a leak e g discoloration. There are easy and effective ways to know what s hiding in your home. Try to look for corrosion and leakage since these two are the best signs of a broken pipe. And if it s behind a wall it never has a chance to dry.