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Water problem in finished basement (From furnace/AC drain hose?) *PICS!*
Figgy
Fighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered User regular
Fighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered User regular
I noticed a small wet spot on the carpet in the basement this afternoon. It was about 3". I thought maybe the cat peed there, so I shampooed the area a bit and left it to dry.
When I got home from work, I noticed the spot was now enormous. About 6" x 12" with a few random quarter size spots around it. It is sopping wet.
About 2 feet away is a door to the furnace/laundry room. It is not carpeted--concrete basement floor. I looked along in there where the wall meets the floor and it's kind of damp all in that area, where there is a plastic sheet going under the studs and I'm assuming partway under the carpet in the main basement room.
Beside there is a grey tube running from the furnace. It eventually goes into what seems to be a hole in the conrete floor.. made specifically for this tube. It is very wet around this area, and I think that's where the water is coming from. I've got a towel there now to try to sop some water up as it drips.
Right now I've turned off the central air and I have a dehumidifier set up beside the wet spot. Any ideas what's actually going on here? I have a nagging suspicion there is a leaky pipe two floors up where I had some plumbing work down a few months back, and it's somehow travelling down the pipe, down the studs of the wall, and into the carpet? Does that sound impossible?
Or it's something with this tube running into the floor. Why would it suddenly be leaking? Could it be somehow backed up? Is there a break in the tube at the joint where it goes into the floor maybe? Do I need to chaulk around it or something? I can't look clearly at the moment. I'm going to get a trouble light in there tomorrow and have a better look.
We're going away on friday for the long weekend and I'd like to get a handle on this before then.
When I got home from work, I noticed the spot was now enormous. About 6" x 12" with a few random quarter size spots around it. It is sopping wet.
About 2 feet away is a door to the furnace/laundry room. It is not carpeted--concrete basement floor. I looked along in there where the wall meets the floor and it's kind of damp all in that area, where there is a plastic sheet going under the studs and I'm assuming partway under the carpet in the main basement room.
Beside there is a grey tube running from the furnace. It eventually goes into what seems to be a hole in the conrete floor.. made specifically for this tube. It is very wet around this area, and I think that's where the water is coming from. I've got a towel there now to try to sop some water up as it drips.
Right now I've turned off the central air and I have a dehumidifier set up beside the wet spot. Any ideas what's actually going on here? I have a nagging suspicion there is a leaky pipe two floors up where I had some plumbing work down a few months back, and it's somehow travelling down the pipe, down the studs of the wall, and into the carpet? Does that sound impossible?
Or it's something with this tube running into the floor. Why would it suddenly be leaking? Could it be somehow backed up? Is there a break in the tube at the joint where it goes into the floor maybe? Do I need to chaulk around it or something? I can't look clearly at the moment. I'm going to get a trouble light in there tomorrow and have a better look.
We're going away on friday for the long weekend and I'd like to get a handle on this before then.
Figgy on
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That might be what's happening, but you should have a secondary drip pan underneath the air handler that has a cutoff switch or a secondary drain line. Is that filled with water.
The hole in the concrete may just be a floor drain--one without a cover plate, but a floor drain nonetheless. You could get one of those hand-cranked pipe snakes at Home Depot for a few bucks and see if you can clear out any obstruction down there.
And lemme ask if your water heater is anywhere nearby, and if maybe it's gone kaput.
We just had this happen recently on the house we sold (you're supposed to poor a cap full of bleach down the drain line every 2 months to keep growth out of there.
Generally there's a float switch that'll cut power to the A/C, but ours didn't/couldn't have one installed, so it overflowed and required drywall replacement -_-.
Now that I have more light down there, I can see that it is a grey PVC pipe running into the ground. There is a black nipple-like hose that fits tightly around the pvc pipe that goes into the ground. It is a tight hole in the concrete, so I don't think I can just yank it outta there to snake it out.
I cleaned the filter thoroughly for the furnace/AC and am letting that dry right now.
The PVC pipe itself comes from above the furnace, runs along it, then bends a couple times before going into the floor. It looks like there are two spots where it "collects" water from the furnace unit. There is a spot where it runs vertically that is open, I'm assuming for ventilation for quicker draining. I poured some water down there and watched. Water drips from the connection right before it goes down into the drain, but it also drips from a small little "nick" in the black rubber nipple that comes out of the ground.
I tried tightening the connector, but it doesn't look like any pieces are adjustable now that the pipe is all in place. I would have to take the entire thing apart and I'm assuming replace it, all joints but one look like they're sealed/glued instead of screwed in. The one that does look screwed in (where it's leaking) can't be tightened because it is an elbow meeting a 10" straight length of pipe that then meets to another elbow, which is glued.
I took some bathroom caulking and put it where the nick in the black tubing is, and I put some around the threading where it also looked to be leaking. I'm going to go back down in half an hour or so and check for more dripage.
It's a furnace, with I'm assuming the AC unit in there as well. I know next to nothing about this stuff. I don't see any drip pans where it would be overflowing, but the water is definately coming from the pipe itself where it bends. It seems like such a slow drip though and am surprised it caused such a huge mess.
The water heater is nearby but no water is coming from it. That's the first thing I checked. The floor around it (and leading to the furnace/wall) is bone dry and actually still dusty.
It has, but it's also been running for the past few months as well.
This is where the pipe originates out of the top of the furnace
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1118/furnace.jpg
This is the pipe running along the furnace and down into the floor. The red arrow is where it goes into the ground.
Here is the problem area, I think. The white gunk is bathroom caulking, which doesn't seem to be working, likely because I'm trying to put it on there while it's wet. Any better solutions to seal this up?
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3091/stain.jpg
Here is the other side of the wall for reference, where the leak was.
Update: Breakthrough! I took my snake down there (:winky:) and started trying to feed it through the top of the hose, but of course it would not get past the 90 degree elbows. So, I got down and starting yanking on the PVC elbow that goes into the black hose. It came free! Of course, I smashed my hand into the concrete wall in the process and started bleeding everywhere, but it came free!
Immediately I noticed black sludge in the black rubber hose. I fed the snake down there until it wouldn't go any further and started jerking it off. I didn't get much out, but I think I may have loosened it up enough for it to drain properly now. I cleaned out the elbow, fed the snake through the other end of the PVC pipe, and put it all together. I gave the threaded elbow an extra turn too so it wouldn't leak from that part, at least.
There is still the little nick in the rubber hose going into the floor. It looks like it's caused from when the elbow was stuck into it, it's exactly at the end of the plastic elbow where it jams in.. if that makes sense.
Here's a picture I drew to explain:
So, should I be doing something to fix that? Some sort of putty? I'm assuming I can't exactly replace that rubber hose, since it goes down into the ground. I don't want to try to yank it up and fucking something up royally.
I'm guessing the problem came about because I didn't clean my furnace filter regularly. I'll admit I was rather delinquent in that regard. It's one of those washable ones. So, I filled up the laundry tub with hot water and laundry soap and dunked it in that over and over. The water turned black. I did the same thing again with clean water to rinse it out. Is there a better way to get these things clean? Can I just start using the disposable ones instead?
You can try some plastic epoxy. Caulk is definitely the wrong solution there. Can you drain the system? Neoprene couplers are also a possibility. I'd go the epoxy route first, get all that caulk off there and put a bucket directly underneath the pipe to see if that's what is really leaking.
I updated above you as you were posting. The plumber I mentioned was a different situation, upstairs in the bathroom. Nothing related to this PVC pipe has been touched since we bought the house exactly one year ago. I did put the caulking on there, but I've since removed it. It wasn't working and I did a shitty job anyway.
I did verify that was where the leak was coming from. I guess my next step is to fix that black rubber hose (explained above).
If you can I'd unscrew the pipe you tightened and put some plumbers tape on the thread. That would seal it better than potentially over tightening, which can lead to leaks of it's own.
I'll swing by after work tonight. I've got a towel wrapped around the joint now to soak up any moisture that comes off, but it seems good. I have a feeling it has always been a little drippy, but it's just never been clogged and come pouring out like it has the past day or so.
I imagine that is exactly what it is down there, but I'm nervous to yank it out and find out something else. I'd rather just fix the little nick that's there.
I'll put some teflon tape on the thread when I get back. That's okay to use for a plastic/plastic joint?
As as far as caulking goes: this isn't a sewage drain, just a moisture drip. Hardly anybody seals these things in the same fashion as a sewage drain, and for damn good reason--if there's a backup in the line somewhere, you'll definitely want the water to spill out at that hose, rather than all the way back in the furnace. You were right to remove the caulking, too.
It is along these same lines that you never want to completely caulk the base of a toilet. A professional will leave the back end uncaulked, so that if there is a major stoppage the water has somewhere to go. Granted, if a toilet were fully sealed then the water would just spill out of the bowl, but water-over-the-bowl could mean multiple things. Water-out-the-back means one or two things, and they are very specific things. But I digress...
Anywho, try and clear out as much of that drain as you possibly can. Keeping the filter clean will likely solve the problem in the future. To be honest, I have no idea why the contractor didn't just install a standard floor drain instead of this janky rubber-hose nonsense, but hell, you can't lose sleep wondering over people's dumb decisions.