Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with leak

Some questions about excess gas

Acari — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:24:35 -0800

I have dropped and broken a 20 pound container of CO2 in my basement. It was terrifying. While I air out the basement, I have a few questions: - other than bringing a big fan in and having the doors open, is there anything else that will help disperse this gas faster?
- the air intake for my furnace is also in the basement. Is this a problem?
- are there any other sorts of things that might be affected that I am not thinking of? The only thing I can kind of think of is that it will slightly acidify the water in the toilet and floor drains, but that isn't actually a big deal.

[the tank was behind a blanket and was knocked over when I dropped the tabletop I am making. It did not rocket through any walls like in mythbusters.]

How to repair my Sigg water bottle?

Skyanth — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:18:11 -0800

A few months ago I finally found the water bottle I'd coveted for so long. A few weeks ago, I lost it, along with everything else that was in my bag. And the bag itself. And my BLACK BELT. Anyway, after searching online for days, I finally found a shop in Poland that still had one. I ordered it immediately. I have it now. It's leaking. The hole is *tiny*, invisible to the naked eye. I'd say it leaks about one drop of water a minute. I'm sad and angry and disappointed, but as this bottle is apparently the last of its kind that was on sale, I'd really like to fix it. Any ideas how to go about it? Note: I'm in the Netherlands, so I'm kind of hoping for a miracle cure that will be available to me here...

How can I fix/prevent damp car interior?

srs airbag — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:45:16 -0800

It's a 1999 Honda Civic Hatchback. Apparently cars of this type and age have a tendency to develop a leak around the tail lights. This leak was fixed recently but the car either hasn't dried out from that yet or is damp *again.* The windows are perpetually fogged up and often need towelling and the seats (fabric) are suspiciously cool. How to dry it out and keep it that way? Thank you!

How can I fix an air mattress without ordering a patch kit online?

needs more cowbell — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:22:52 -0800

Can I patch a tear in an Aerobed with a vinyl pool liner repair kit? If not, what else can I buy today in the SF Bay area to repair very it with? Other stuff:
-East Bay stores are preferable. I have a car.
-I know patch kits for mattresses are available, but I only see them sold online and I need to fix this today.
-The tear is big enough that it needs a patch, not just sealant.
-Tape does not hold securely.
-If you have an alternate idea, please let me know if you've actually tried it or if it's a guess.

The Watercourse Way

Mertonian — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:41:20 -0800

Should we tell our landlord we're smelling wood rot after a leak he already knows about? Early this fall our kitchen hose underneath the sink sprung a leak and the water ran moderately fast for somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes. It took three thirsty bath towels to mop up the water on the cupboard floor and we wondered how much had drained through the hole to whatever is below it. Now, in very cold weather, we're catching a faint smell of rotting wood in that area of the kitchen and especially underneath the sink.

We're renting, and we sense that cash flow is an issue for our landlord. If we try to live with it for his sake is it likely to do any structural damage or otherwise harm his investment? He was involved in the repair and knows about it. Basically, we don't want to bother him unless it's necessary, for his sake or for ours.

Sandy got me all wet

k5.user — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:55:27 -0800

Sandy's dropped almost 3 inches here already. Our roof (over 22 yrs old, original, already had quotes to replace it in the past 2 weeks) decided to leak. So I'm looking for general knowledge/hints/tips on fixing things after a roof leak. We will obviously be replacing the roof.

I've got a bucket under the drip. The water marks on the drywall span about 3 feet long, maybe 2 inches wide except for the drip area.

The leak is in the bonus room ceiling (room above garage), house is ranch style. So access to the attic area is possible, just tight. Leak is at the joint of the ceiling and the 45-degree wall that follows the roof pitch (between/connecting the knee-wall and the ceiling), so the water stain/marks seem to follow the drywall seam :/

So what do I do when all is said and done ? Cut out and patch/replace the drywall ? Should I replace insulation in the attic ? Do I need to ventilate anything ?

What is the legal situation with regards to my ceiling falling in?

Kirn — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 03:57:21 -0800

My kitchen ceiling just fell in, as a result of a month-long leak that has been building over time. About 2-3 square metres of inch-thick plaster came down at once - would certainly have caused injury if not worse had we been underneath it. The owners of the flat above have repeatedly stalled in taking any action - as far as I know they have still not called a plumber. They explicitly stated on Thursday that they were getting an emergency plumber in and hoped for Saturday morning but weren't sure. This is Tuesday and we haven't heard anything. Prior to this they were repeatedly contacted by our letting agent but claimed that they'd "been having trouble with" both their mobile and landline. Are they liable for this in any way? How do I proceed? (Further details: I'm in Scotland in the UK.)

Hot Tub has an internal leak. Not sure how to proceed. Details inside.

audio — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:02:35 -0800

Hot Tub has a internal leak. Hot Tub company quoted $3500 to fix it. I decided to move & take the foam out myself. Some advice needed. My hot tub has a internal leak. I was quoted $3500 to attempt fixing it "no guarantees". A vast amount of that figure was simply moving the tub and taking out the foam.

I hired a freelance moving company that did it for $190 and I took most of the foam out myself with a pressure washer $56. The next step is for the hot tub company to come and repair the leak at $85 an hour. I can't be home while they are there as I am working. It's probably also worth noting I filled the tub prior to all this and added 15 bottles of red food coloring. I have seen none of it on any of the foam.

I used a high-pressure power sprayer to get most of the foam off. I also covered the electronics board with plastic bags and some wood planks. It's been raining / snowing the last few days and I'm concerned the water might have got to it or the exposed part of the hot tub.

Some ideas I've had:

1. Spray down the electronics part with isopropyl alcohol and then re-wrap in plastic.

2. Spray down the exposed underside of the hot tub with isopropyl alcohol and cover with plastic.

3. I'm concerned that they say they find the leak, then I put the tub back (another 175% + foam to insulate ($300-600) and it starts leaking again). Then I have to repeat this nightmare again. I was thinking maybe it made sense to put it down on some kind of cinder blocks and fill it / check for leaks using a flashlight then move again.

I'm not really sure if I should do the above steps or just "trust" the hot tub company.

Photo:
http://imgur.com/YAufg

Second-floor toilet is leaking, can you help me figure out the best course of action regarding the floor?

joshwebb — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:07:20 -0800

Second-floor toilet is leaking, can you help me figure out the best course of action regarding the floor? About two months ago I replaced the toilet, tile and substrate in our second-floor bathroom. Today I noticed two golfball-sized water stains in the ceiling below the bathroom. After removing the toilet, it looks like a quarter of the visible wood is soaked (is this considered to be rotten at this point?) The other 3/4th of the exposed wood is dry, FWIW.

Here's a gross picture of the flange/wax ring with arrows pointing to the wet areas:

http://cl.ly/image/2s1O3Z3O0f2O

I'm not sure how far the wetness extends below the cement-board substrate, but from the little bit of substrate exposed in the photo, the wetness seems to only extend about an inch or so. My hope is that since the spot on the ceiling below is relatively small (especially considering that it has been presumably been leaking for over a month,) that means the damage isn't too terrible.

Do I need to rip everything up and replace the floor? Obviously, I don't want to, but I do want to fix this the right way (even if the right way isn't the easy way.)

Just how bad is this water damage?

BlueJae — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 17:40:01 -0800

Just how bad is this water damage a roofing contractor caused to my house? And what should I do about it? When hired to replaced my hail-damaged (but note: NOT LEAKING) roof, the contractor replaced all of the shingles but failed to replace 4 of the 6 vents on my roof.

The shingles and all of the vents were significantly damaged by the storm. My home insurance company had agreed to pay me to replace 4 vents (claiming the damage to the other 2 was cosmetic and would not affect function). The work order I'd signed with the roofing company said that they would replace those 4 that the insurance company had approved and also anything else on the roof that turned out to be more damaged than the initial insurance inspection had revealed. Verbally I was told by the business manager that all six of the vents would be replaced, and that they would argue with the insurance company to try to get payment for the other two (which pretty clearly also needed to go).

Instead, the roofers replaced two vents, pulled the rest of the hail-damaged vents off, painted them, and put them back under the new shingles. I noticed this problem immediately upon looking at the newly "finished" roof and asked the business manager about it the same day the roof was done, and he said, and I quote, "When the crew got up there they looked at your vents and decided they were not really in bad shape. And we need to save ourselves money wherever we can in a business like this. Anyway you're better off with old vents like yours -- they don't make them like they used to."

As you might imagine I was less than satisfied with his response. But since the rest of the roof looked all right, I didn't feel like getting into a huge fight over it. My husband and I decided that we would tell the insurance company the vents had not been replaced, either replace the remaining vents ourselves hire someone else to replace them, and take the cost for replacing the non-replaced vents out of the amount we still owed the contractor.

Then, a couple of weeks later, before we had done anything about the vents, it rained, hard.

And my brand new roof leaked, HARD. Cups of water cascading over my kitchen cabinets and onto my stove. Water staining across several feet of my kitchen ceiling. Water raining down from my bathroom fan and pooling on the floor.

I will not tell you the whole sordid saga of me calling this company again and again for weeks, and having them come out again and again (late every time, sometimes by several hours, once without a ladder or a flashlight or a tarp) and putter around with caulk, and say that the problem had been fixed, only for me to discover that it had not, in fact, been fixed, the very next time it rained. Suffice to say that the problem was eventually traced to not just one but two leaks -- coming from the flashing around two of the non-replaced vents.

The vents, I repeat, had NOT been leaking, at all, after the initial hail storm damage. In fact the roof has never leaked at all in the five years we have owned this home -- and we did of course check carefully for leaks after the hail storm. The leaks only started after the contractor touched my roof.

So now the contractor has finally fully replaced one of the newly-leaking old vents, and replaced key parts of the other. After our latest heavy rain this week, I think the roof leak is finally fixed.

But I'm left with this water damage to the ceiling in my bathroom and my kitchen.

The damage in my bathroom was significant enough that my bathroom fan rusted and started sinking through the drywall. We finally just took it down, and now have a gaping hole where the fan once was, with crumbling drywall around it.

The damage to my kitchen that I can see does not look as bad. There are watermarks along about 8 feet of soffit and 10 feet of ceiling that abuts the soffit, and a few small dimpled cracks elsewhere in the ceiling a few feet away from the main stains. Of course, I cannot see what's hidden by the (solid wood) cabinets that I discovered water flowing over. But in the damaged ceiling parts I can see, the drywall at least still feels pretty solid -- not crumbly or warped despite the staining.

The contractor has said that he will "make it right" by painting over the visible damage in the kitchen with stainblock white paint and installing a new fan (which I had already bought, so he's not even paying for that) in the bathroom, and spackling / painting around it, possibly replacing some of the drywall immediately around the hole (but not the whole ceiling).

I told him I was even more concerned about non-visible damage -- to the back side of the drywall, to the tops of my cabinets, to my fiberglass attic insulation, etc. My attic is unfinished and the insulation likely received a fair soaking given how far the water had to travel from the source of the leaks to come out where it did in the kitchen. I'm worried about potential mold problems, and think that perhaps the insulation may need to be replaced.

The roof leaked visibly during every heavy rain for a month -- three major storms, including one (Hurricane Isaac's remnants) that lasted most of Labor Day weekend. The holes the leaks were coming from were small but we have recently gotten A LOT of rain.

The roofer claims the leaks had not been going on long enough to do significant damage or cause a mold problem. I don't believe him, because he's already proven himself to be a corner-cutter, and he has no financial incentive to be honest with me. Who is right?

(YANMHandyperson. I do, of course, plan to spend the next week getting estimates from actual construction contractors who are NOT this tool who broke my pretty house, but given my luck with contractors recently I thought I would try the green for general advice, too.)

Our basement leaks in places during torrential rains

feelinggood — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 04:51:29 -0800

Richmond Hill/GTA Ontario filter: I'm looking for one of those companies that fixes leaky basements. Two places in our basement get about an inch of water in them during torrential rains like we had yesterday. It may be an eavestrough problem or worse. Can anyone recommend a reputable company that can diagnose and fix. Thanks.

Oil tank leak in crawl space. Where do we go from here?

Tooty McTootsalot — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:14:35 -0800

A month from selling our house, and we found out we have an oil tank leak we need to clean up before we leave. Costs could be up to $10,000. Anything we can do? With our expanding family, we recently decided to sell our current house and buy a larger one, in a better school district. We spend a while getting our house "showing-ready", did a few repairs, a lot of cleaning and painting, etc. Put our house on the market, and it sold within a week! Yay!

The offer we chose was a cash offer, not quite as high as our asking price, but it was enough, and they wanted a decision quickly. They were concerned about an oil tank in our crawlspace, but we'd been assured by the previous owners that the tank had been abated and was not a problem. Neither the real estate agent nor our home inspector when we bought the house made a big deal out of it, so we didn't know it was a problem.

We naively believed that everything would be fine, and told the buyer that we didn't have paperwork to prove it had been abated, but that we'd get it inspected. And given that the buyer wanted a decision within 24 hours, we accepted their offer before we got the tank inspected.

The tank was inspected on Monday, and it was the worse case scenario. There was a leak. A bad one, and given North Carolina state law, we are going to have to clean it up before we move. We asked the inspector to estimate the costs, and he said it could be up to $10,000. Time-wise, it's do-able. The inspector said that they can have everything cleaned up by late-August when we'd planned on being out of the house.

But now we feel ripped off. We decided on this selling price based on thinking that we wouldn't have to deal with the tank. I also didn't realize that if we had it inspected, that we'd necessarily be the ones to have to clean it up. But state law says it can't pass owners without being cleaned up.

I feel like we've been rushed through this process. I felt like maybe if we put our house back on the market, we could maybe wait it out and get a better offer that would cover at least half the cost of the clean-up. But is there even a way for us to back out and break the contract? I know a buyer can, but can a seller? After we'd agreed, we did have another buyer approach our agent about making a competing offer.

I asked our agent about that, but never got a real clear answer about whether or not it was possible for us to back out at this point to try for more money, or if it was even a good idea. I think, if we waited it out more, likely get some more money on the house. But now we have the problem of the oil tank, and people may be more wary to buy a house with this problem, even if we do take care of it ourselves.

Anyways, is there any possible outcome here that's better than us just eating the full cost of the clean-up?

(For what it's worth, we are aware of a program with the state where we get partially reimbursed, but it's uncertain right now if we qualify.)

All citizens have a right to know the workings of their courts.

Jehan — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:12:27 -0800

According to this story in the Guardian, a BBC documentary about the London riots has been banned by a judge in England. However, the judgement also forbids revealing the judge's name, place or sitting, or more importantly, reasons for the banning. Can you help me find a leak of the judgement or any additional information, as I would like to know why it has been banned.

How to find a leak in a sprinkler system

allison00 — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:54:18 -0800

How can we find out if there's a leak in our sprinkler system? My husband and I bought a house in March 2011. In July 2011, we had concrete poured in the back yard for a patio. The next month, the water bill sky rocketed. I am inclined to believe that the process of putting in the concrete broke something in our sprinkler system, and we have a leak underground somewhere. My husband thinks the increase is just because we now have the sprinkler system turned on in regular intervals. How can we find out if there's a leak? I've already looked for wet patches in the grass and haven't found any.

Wasting warm water woes - Stop a leak on my hot water heater.

msbutah — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:16:22 -0800

Indoor Plumbing Filter: Help me understand a valve on my hot water line and how to stop a leak. Hi everyone. Our hot water heater has a seemingly pointless valve on it that appears to be leaking. Here's a photo of the valve, with the attached plastic piping. The valve handle will turn 45 degrees clockwise and stop, with no change in the flow of water to the pipe. I left it in the position it was in when we moved in. FWIW the house is relatively new construction, around 2008 or 09.

The plastic tubing goes from the valve straight down to the floor, near the floor drain (photo). It used to end a few inches above the floor, where it would drip occasionally. I hate the thought of wet concrete and splashing water, so I bought a coupler and added a few inches of piping to run it down into the floor drain. You can see the mineral stain where it used to drip. The white PVC in the photo is the central air conditioner humidity drain, btw.

Anyways, the other day I was down in the basement and could hear the sound of water running. I pulled the end of the plastic piping out of the floor drain and holy crap was it running. I took a video to show you the flow. FWIW the water that comes out is warm. I have no idea how long it's been going on for since our water bill isn't metered, but at least 6 months since I last pulled the end out.

Now, I realize having it run into the drain isn't hurting anyone BUT I hate the thought of wasting copious fresh water (doubly since we live in a desert area), I hate paying to heat water that is just running down the drain, and I don't want this to get worse or have some flooding if the floor drain gets clogged, etc.

So, my questions:
1. Why is this valve even here? To drain the house hot water lines or something? Pressure release?
2. Why is the valve leaking? Mostly I want to know this for educational reasons on my own part. I assume it could be a worn washer (if there even are washers in this style of valve) but this valve is never touched, so how would it wear out? Or is just a ball valve and the handle isn't turning the ball inside? Is it just something that needs to be tightened?
3. And the main question - How do I stop the water flowing? I thought about buying a cap for the place where the plastic tubing screws on and just capping it off, but I wasn't sure if a) it would hold line pressure and b) if there was some reason this valve needed to release water.

Anyways, thanks in advance for your help.

bean+plate+car+rain=me

bendy — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:07:05 -0800

How to remove water from my car, specifically the carpets - they squish! My car has (hopefully HAD, thanks to some well-placed duct tape) a leak in a broken taillight lens that let the hatch take on some amount of water. Afterwards I'd be driving and when I braked the water would slosh towards the front of the car, filling all the foot wells with 1/4 to 1/2" of water. How do I hasten the drying process?

If there's no rain in the forecast I leave my windows open during the day, but there are only the front two - I'd need to leave the hatchback open as well to get a good cross breeze and I just don't feel safe doing that in the office parking lot. My car is in an open lot at night, probably secure but I'm not going to leave the windows down all night.

Sadly I don't have a garage, let alone a wet/dry vac or a nearby outlet to plug in a fan (my kingdom for a garage).

Would a car wash/detailing place be able to wet vac my car? I don't believe I've gotten to the mold stage, but is there anything I can do to prevent it? Is there some substance I could put on the carpets and (dry) vacuum up that would absorb the water? Giant car-floor-shaped sponges? A week-long trip to the desert?

So far I've been mopping the condensed water off the inside of the windshield every morning but that's not a quick enough solution. How can I speed up the drying out process?

Where's the water coming from?

zvs — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:18:01 -0800

How to identify, fix, and clean up after a water leak without destroying my walls and ceilings (any more than I have to)? I have a 3-story house, and I recently noticed that there are 3 seemingly water-related problems, and each one is above the other. I'm thinking water leak.

On the first floor, there's peeling finish plaster all around one corner of the plaster ceiling. I removed some of the loose plaster and did not like what I saw.

On the second floor, there's peeling paint up and down the wall at the same spot.

On the third floor, there's no peeling paint, but there's a very small amount of mold. (Toothbrush included for size comparison.) I sort of absent-mindedly painted over it a couple weeks ago, and noticed that it grew back.

The roof above this spot is pitched, with asphalt shingles. I see a patch of roofing tar near this spot, but I'm not sure if it's directly overhead.

How can I figure out if water is still entering without tearing up the wall? I can cut away a piece of plaster on the third floor to check for moisture, but since there's mold growing I'm a little paranoid about it. Help!

1988 Toyota 4Runner Intermittent Radiator Problem

dissolvedgirl22 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:46:43 -0800

I need guidance from car-fixin' types before I take my truck to a mechanic, in order to prevent falling into a money pit of unnecessary repairs. I also need to know if this is a critical immediate fix or if I have time to collect a few paychecks before addressing it. My truck drove like a charm all the way from Colorado to the Oregon coast and back. The radiator fluid level in the overflow well didn't move a millimeter below the full line, and I never once opened the radiator cap itself. When I purchased the truck, it had a slow leak coming out of the radiator itself that would stop and start with no apparent pattern. The truck has recently started burning rapidly through radiator fluid at times; frequently I will pour about a half gallon of 50/50 green antifreeze directly into the radiator after about 1-2 hours of highway driving, just enough to see the fluid line when the radiator cap is removed. The overflow well is sometimes empty after that amount of driving, and other times it's right where I left it. Sometimes I can smell radiator fluid burning when the temp guage looks normal. Recently the temp gauge on the dash started rising rapidly... I pulled over as soon as I could and saw a lot of white smoke coming from the back of the engine (the side closest to the windshield.) The overflow well was completely full and visibly boiling. I let the truck cool down for about 20 minutes and it was fine for the rest of the day. This has happened twice now and doesn't seem to be related to the length or style of driving. The oil level is also fine and I get regular oil changes.

I wonder if I'm doing something wrong here? The Haynes manual mentions only putting radiator fluid into the plastic well, not the radiator itself, but I started doing that too at the recommendation of a friend. He also said that even though the manual states not to fill the overflow well beyond the full line, that I should fill it up as much as I could. The full line is quite low on the bottle, and I wonder why that is. As long as I keep putting radiator fluid in and watching the temp guage closely, can I keep nursing this thing until I have a little extra money to afford a repair? Or am I looking at the death of the engine if I don't take this in soon? If I do take it in, what should I say to point the mechanic in the correct and most economical direction? How much should I be prepared to spend on this fix?

Thank you so much in advance to anyone who can give me some answers in this situation. I am in over my head, and Google isn't helping me as much as I hoped.

Fresh as a mountain stream?

Obscure Reference — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:28:24 -0800

How do I best deal with this wet, smelly problem? It's beneath my basement floor. More accurately, there's this metal trap door that opens up to expose my sewer pipe. It exists for maintenance reasons--e.g. we recently needed to have our sewer pipes flushed out. Recently, there has been an odor coming from this area. We thought it was sewer related, but our sewer man says otherwise--there is water down there, but it's clean water. There's a teensy little stream flowing under our house. A plumber he referred us to suspects there's a leak from our water main and proposed, for $4.5k (includes 8.875% tax), to dig toward the water main and fix the leak.

In particular: To cut concrete floor in basement at location of main house trap, excavate ground in search of leaking pipe at manhole 5ft away from main house trap and remove garbage.

There are all sorts of boiler plate disclaimers and exceptions added to the proposal. e.g. "If there are stones that the work men
or machines can’t remove, we will have to use rock splitters and compressors. There will be an additional charge per day for men and machines used for removing stones." and we must agree to pay their lawyers fees in connection with making sure they are paid, and so forth.

I see no guarantee in the proposal that they will actually find the leak (is that definitely what's causing the problem?) and that the smell would then go away--We'd just be financing their search.

Am I being too negative and suspicious about this? Is this a reasonable approach and proposal to get rid of our smelly stream? Why does it smell if it's running fresh water anyway? Should I just pay the man?

Expired credit card number leaked. Problem?

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:32:06 -0800

How much should I worry about an expired credit card number being leaked in the Stratfor Lulzxmas event? Back in 2008, I took advantage of a one week free trial on Stratfor which required me to sign up with my card. I never paid them any money and cancelled after the trial period.

Recently I got 3 spam emails that alerted me to the fact my details were probably leaked, so I delved into the world of AntiSec and found the list of names, cc numbers etc. As I suspected, there I am. My name, email address, expired credit card number, and my old address (slightly incorrect as it happens). There's also the md5 hash of my password, which won't resolve to anything on the various md5 lookup sites I've come across. I don't actually remember what it was, but I assume this would be a good excuse to change all my passwords to new things anyway.

What should I do in response to this? I've heard from other sources that sometimes expired cards can still be used on certain websites, is this accurate? I'm planning on talking to my bank tomorrow.

(Also, given that the AntiSec press release saying this, "Who really pays $39.95 a month for daily right-wing political spam and access to a shitty drupal site?" I feel that I should stress that I didn't pay them anything and, as an impoverished graduate student, was doing it to see how awful their 'intelligence' was inside the paywall. Turns out I should have just circumvented their security, damn.)

Will teflon tape counteract a bad compression ring?

i love cheese — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:35:30 -0800

IsMyHouseGoingToFloodFilter: Will a bunch of teflon tape wrapped around a compression ring prevent my toilet shut off valve from leaking? So, I was trying to replace a leaky angled shut off valve coming from my wall to a toilet (Something like this). After removing the old shut-off valve, I was unable to remove the old compression ring. After struggling with it, I decided to see what would happen if I put the new shut-off valve on using the old nut and compression ring. When I turned the water on there was a good deal of water coming out around the nut and the compression ring. The only solution I was able to come up with was to wrap the compression ring and the new valve threads with lots of teflon tape. When I reconnected everything, it did indeed stop the leak, but I'm a bit worried that this may not be a tenable solution.

My question is whether I can rest comfortably with my teflon tape solution (short term? long term?)

A second question: A search through other forums indicates that I could use a compression sleeve puller to remove the old compression ring. Has anyone had any experience with one? If I were to pull the old compression ring this way, could I then reinstall the valve with the new ring, or will the pipe be damaged in some way?

Please help me sleep tonight!

PlumberFilter: I have turned a big toilet leak into a small one. How can I stop it entirely?

mausburger — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:20:47 -0800

I have replaced the flapper, flush valve, overflow tube, spud washer, bolts, and gaskets. A big leak (spontaneous refilling every 1-2 hours) has become a small leak (2" drop in water level in 12 hours). Now what should I do to make it stop entirely? I have a Kohler 1.6 gallon two-piece toilet and it is 6 years old. For a long time now, it has been refilling spontaneously, indicating that there is a slow leak between the tank and the bowl. We tried cleaning the flapper and the flush valve. This just made it harder to flush, but did not stop the leak.

Recently, the refilling was occurring much more frequently. I turned off the water to the toilet and the tank was empty within a couple of hours. I decided that more serious tactics were required. Over the course of a weekend, I have replaced the various parts involved in draining the tank. I have succeeded in slowing the leak, but it hasn't stopped entirely. Over a 12 hour period, the water level in the tank drops by about 2"

What should I try next? The only thing left to replace is the fill valve. I can't imagine how this would cause water to leave the tank without creating a puddle on the floor.

Should I be satisfied with my repair? In other words, do all toilets leak a little and I should stop fussing over a 2" drop in 12 hours? In practice, this shouldn't be a noticeable problem, because we'll flushing the toilet so often that there won't be any spontaneous refilling.

Please help me get apartment management to actually fix my leak & mold ... now, not two weeks from now

DingoMutt — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 13:00:26 -0800

Discovered a leak last night in the closet of my apartment (yeah, the same one I wrote about before). The carpet is damp, and there is some mold. Stopped by the management office twice today to ensure it gets taken care of ASAP, but am not feeling super-confident that anything will happen anytime soon. Can you sanity-check my intended next step, or suggest additional actions I should take? I have had nothing but bad experiences in getting things fixed by the company that manages the complex I live in. Recently it took a week and a half to get a dead fridge replaced (apparently the first person I left a maintenance request with didn't even submit it - and that's not the first time that has happened). So now that I've discovered a leak that has made the carpet (and some shoes/clothes) in my closet wet and moldy, I feel like I need to be assertive in getting something done immediately.

Towards that end, I dropped by the management office in person to ensure a request was put in. The Property Manager is not in today so I spoke with the leasing agent, who said she would contact maintenance and call me back when she heard something. That was 5 hours ago, so I just went back and discovered that maintenace did come by while I was out, looked at the leak, and did nothing - the leasing agent said she would find out why on Monday. Instead I asked her to call him then to find out concretely what was going to happen; while she was on the phone I asked that she get him to commit to not only re-checking the leak on Monday, but actually fixing it and doing something about the moldy carpet and walls.

She did get the maintenance man to agree to this, but based on my previous experiences I'm not at all confident that it will happen. I'm ready to escalate things if need be, but obviously I would be happiest if they just did what they said they'd do on Monday - therefore, I'm thinking of writing up an email to both the leasing agent I spoke with, and the property manager, documenting our discussion from today. Does this make sense?

My letter reads something like, "Thank you for talking with me today. Due to the potential health issues and possibility for continued property damage (see enclosed pictures), I'm disapointed to know that [management company] will not address the leak and mold in my apartment today. However, I am glad that you were able to assure me that this would be completely resolved on Monday. My understanding of our discussion is that on Monday, maintenance will do [X, Y, and Z]; if I am mistaken about any of the above, please let me know." My goal with this is both to get something into writing, and to ensure that both the leasing agent and the Property Manager are aware that things need to be fixed now and not two weeks from now, while still refraining from empty I'm-calling-my-nonexistent-lawyer-right-now -style threats ...

Does this letter seem like a reasonable/useful thing to send? Are there other things I should be doing beyond this? Finally, if I do end up needing to escalate, just who should I be contacting? I have the number for the company's (remote) Resident Services hotline and will certainly involve them if need be, but are there also state licensing boards I can file a complaint with? I'm in South Carolina; is the SC Real Estate Commission (as suggested in my last question about this) likely to help? The Department of Health (for the mold issues)? Um ... the Better Business Bureau?

Again, I hope it doesn't come to needing to involve additional parties, but I would like to know who I could turn to if need be. I don't want to be the tenant from hell, but I just can't seem to get management to do anything without repeated efforts on my part. I hate this.

I hope she's not gonna burn it down for the insurance money.

brevator — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:30:17 -0800

Neighbor's car smell like it has a gasoline leak. What to do? The other night I came home to find my wife had opened all the windows and turned on all the fans. She told me that our neighbor's car had a gas leak and that our entire backyard and parts of our house stunk like gasoline. We share a driveway with this neighbor, so it's easy for the fumes to waft right over. My wife talked to the neighbor who claimed that it wasn't dangerous and that we shouldn't worry. No explanation was given as to how she knew that it wasn't dangerous.

Tonight we came home and it's the same situation. Backyard stinks like gasoline. My initial thought was to call the fire inspector, but I figured I might as well talk to the neighbor about it one more time. I tried to keep it very non-accusatory- kept it to "I" statements- "I'm concerned about this gas leak" etc. She got really defensive, stated that it's not a gas leak and that it's just the way the car smells when it's out of gas. She also claims that she'll be "out of our hair" soon anyway (her house is for sale, though I think she may be foreclosed on).

My basic feeling is that if I can smell the gas, and the fumes are the most combustible part of gas, then this is a dangerous situation.

Questions:
Am I correct about this being dangerous?
Is it possible that she's right and that this is just the way her car smells when it's out of gas?
Should I call the fire inspector?

Thanks in advance.

Help with a leaky sink drain

markblasco — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:12:52 -0800

Help with a leaky sink drain OK, after taking apart my bathroom sink drain due to it being clogged, I have everything back together again and working great...except for one connection, which is different than all of the rest. Most of the pipes are PVC, but the one coming from the wall which angles down, and the one that attaches to that and makes a U going back up are both metal. They seem to flare at the ends towards each other, and there is no washer or gasket or anything inbetween them. It just looks like the pressure pushing the two together when tightening the outer ring is supposed to help seal them. Unfortunately, that isn't happening, and I'm getting a very slow drip from that spot.

I have tightened the fitting as tightly as I feel comfortable going.

Is there something I can put in there to help? I've tried google searching for info, but all of the results I get are for plastic pipes, pipes that screw together, or pipes of different sizes with nylon washers. I can't find any info on pipes that butt up against each other with a slight taper so that they fit into each other.