Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with leak

To stick down that seam tape or not...

who else — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:15:26 -0800

Following up to this question, my tent seam seal failed to stick down some of the taped seams that were coming untaped. Is it supposed to be able to stick them down or is that irrelevant as long as the seam seal goop absorbs into the stitching etc. I just thought that since when I bought the tent some of the taped seams were stuck down properly and some were peeling up, that maybe that was responsible for the leakage. I followed the directions, cleaned the area with alcohol first, applied liberally, let it dry for several hours, and lo and behold it didn't stick that tape down.

To duct tape or not to duct tape...

who else — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:30:52 -0800

I have this tent. The rainfly according to the box is polyester and the plastic window for the solar panel is PVC and the seams where the two materials join are 'taped'. (They are also stitched, whatever.) This seal between the two materials is leaking. Given the type of materials how do I patch this leak? (I have sprayed all interior seams with Silicone tent spray as instructed).

How to fix a leaky washing machine?

charlesroper — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:24:13 -0800

HandymanFilter: How can I stop my washing machine from leaking? (Pictures and Video included) It all started when we ran a load of wash using the "hot water" setting. Before then, we'd only used warm or cold water. Before then, we never had a single drop of water leak out. Now, we have at least a gallon of water on the floor after each wash (regardless of water temperature).

Could the hot water have caused a burst hose or a warped gasket? I've checked all of the hoses and hose clamps and they seem fine.

I've noticed that the water really only leaks out when the washer is filling with water - I checked the inlet hoses and there are no leaks there (at least on the outside of the washer).

Disassembling this thing to get a closer look is a nightmare. I tried it the other day but gave up.

Here are some pictures and a video of what I can see.

At this point, my only guess is that the wash bin is leaking. However, that doesn't explain why the washer only leaks when filling up. You'd think if it were that, it'd leak constantly.

I'm out of ideas and appreciate any help you can give me. At this point, we're just throwing towels on the floor.

Stachybotrys chartarum? Yes, no, maybe so?

jalebi — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:15:55 -0800

Is this black mold? If not, what could it be, and should I be worried? To backtrack a bit... about 3 months ago, I discovered a leak in my bathroom - it seemed to be coming from behind the medicine cabinet, above the sink. There also appeared to be water spots coming from the ceiling to the right of the sink - which is where the shower/bathtub combo is. I called my apartment maintenance, and after some examination in my apartment and the one above, they corrected the problem (I was not home at the time, and received no indication about the origin of the leak, just that it was fixed).

The medicine cabinet is still functional, but is definitely warped and damaged by the water leakage. Since I'm not responsible for the damages, I haven't been too concerned.

But last week or so, I noticed that a black powder seemed to be falling from behind the medicine cabinet onto the tiles and toothbrush holder a few inches below (see pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4 -- sorry for the terrible quality). You can see some trails of the water stains from a few months back. I've lived in this apartment for a year, and have never noticed it before. It's pitch black, powdery, and when wiped/cleaned away, will fall again upon subsequent opening/closing of the medicine cabinet. Could this be residue from dried black mold (from the moisture behind the medicine cabinet)? What else could it be? It's definitely new, and most likely related to the leak a few months ago. I've called maintenance, and while they're good about problems, are a few days behind - so probably won't be around till Wednesday I'm guessing.

My Boston area building is old (100+ years), so I don't expect everything to be in tip top condition, but should I be worried?

How to fix a leaky basement

Badmichelle — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:18:12 -0800

Should I fix my leaky basement from the inside or the outside? My basement: it leaks. What follows is plenty of detail, since I now know more about basements than I ever wanted to.

I've now had three contractors come to view it, and they're giving me contradictory advice: two say fix it from the outside, that works best, one says inside is the way to go. All three say I need weeping tiles. Two say they will put them on the outside of the wall, and apply a membrane, one says they should go inside.

The details: We live in a pretty old house (80+ years, as far as I know) with what looks like a stone rubble foundation. The parging is coming off the walls on the outside, and I can see that the foundation is damp. Inside, there's actually not much water, but the walls are damp and there is some water on the floor. Not much, but this hasn't happened before, and I suspect it will only get worse: we've have spectacular amounts of rain in Toronto season, and I believe there's more to come. One window frame has rotted wood, and needs to be replaced.

The complications: The basement is finished. Fixing it from the inside means we'll have to remove the drywall and part of the floor. If we go from the ouside, we have to dig up a concrete walkway and then replace it (it's a shared walkway and our neighbors will not look upon us favourably if we don't replace it).

I'm still struggling to understand what will work best/longest/be best for the house. If we fix it from the inside--isn't the water still penetrating the foundation? Isn't that bad? If we fix it from the outside, are we risking damaging the foundation in some way? (I've read that you should leave a stone-rubble foundation alone).

Do you have any experience with this? Any advice? Fixing this is going to be really expensive either way we go -- we can only afford to do it ONCE.

X11 leaking?

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:24:40 -0800

Does my X11 server have a memory leak? My office workstation is a Dell Precision 390, which has a dual-core Core 2 Duo in it, with 4 GB of RAM. The workstation is running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4:

$ uname -a

Linux ... 2.6.9-67.0.7.ELsmp #1 SMP Wed Feb 27 04:47:23 EST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Here's the version of X11 this workstation is running:

$ xterm -v

X.Org 6.8.2(192)

$ rpm -qa xorg-x11

xorg-x11-6.8.2-1.EL.33.0.2

Running system monitor, one monitor (GNU System Monitor 2.8) claims I have 100% of the memory in use, of which 37% is cached. Another monitor (System Monitor 2.7) suggests 2.2 GiB of 3.6 GiB is in use.

If I run top, the process X (or, /usr/X11R6/bin/X) takes up the most memory and CPU, and reports a different value from the other two monitors:

  PID USER      PR  NI %CPU    TIME+  %MEM  VIRT  RES  SHR S COMMAND

 5508 root      15   0    6  29:24.93 45.4 2503m 1.6g 9600 S X

Is it normal for the X11 server to use this much memory? What can I do to improve this?

I'm running GNOME 2.8 as the desktop manager.

My workstation has frequent "pauses" where, for example, I try to do work and the computer freezes for a moment or two, then keeps working. The IT guy already replaced RHEL 5 with RHEL 4 and that helped a lot, but my computer is still slow. Using KDE instead of GNOME hasn't helped much.

I can't really do much to change workstation settings as it is locked down. If there's a memory leak or other technical problem, I'd like to go to my IT guy with as much info as possible to save his time (and mine). I'm running some intensive work and need as much CPU and memory as I can get.

Thanks for any advice.

Why is there a mildew smell in car during rain?

supertouchme — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:03:00 -0800

Can someone tell me where a mildew smell in my car might be coming from on rainy days if there are no apparent leaks? For the last year i have noticed that whenever i step into my car and it's raining there is a strong mildew smell. it happens relatively soon after it starts raining.

the smell lasts for a couple days and it even seems more humid inside the cabin until the smell goes away.

i've checked everywhere inside the car and nothing is ever damp. i've brought it to the dealership and they couldn't find any problems.

has anyone else experienced this?

Is my roof leaking?

ellenaim — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:46:50 -0800

There are ceiling-to-floor water streak marks in one of my bedrooms. Is this just condensation or could it be a roof or wall leak? Everything I've read about roof leaks refers only to ceiling stains and non-streak wall stains; and water streaks seem to be associated with condensation. Condensation is a possibility in this room since there was a humidifier running in it over the past few months, and there are some signs of condensation -- also streaks -- on the wall directly above where the humidifier was located. But these worrisome streaks are on an exterior wall; they are much more noticeable, and are longer (ceiling to floor) than the ones near the humidifier. They are about 6 inches wide at the top, tapering down toward the floor. Could the streaks be a sign of the underlying studs being soaked and seeping through? Or could it just be condensation caused by the humidifier?

Perhaps it is relevant that it has been raining for two days, but on the other hand these streaks might have been present longer and I only just noticed.

My roof is 4 years old.

What IM client makes this sound?

Nelson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:24:22 -0800

What IM client makes this sound? I'm trying to identify a glitch that's in the leak of Portishead's album Third. On track 5, about 2:14 into the track you hear a strange sound. It sounds a lot like an IM client's new message alert, but I'm not positive. I don't think it belongs in the music, it's way out of context. You can hear the whole track here.

(I'm asking for my blog, which I'm politely not self-linking here.)

Who do I call about bathroom mushrooms?

GrumpyMonkey — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:51:54 -0800

2 part question: 1) We found a mushroom in the bathroom this morning. I crawled into the crawlspace and pulled down the insulation and the subflooring (?) is all wet. I know I need to call someone but is it a plumber, a handyman or a hazmat team? Everything I have read (including this) just say "call a professional". 2) Is this something which I should file a homeowners insurance claim on (AllState)? My wife thinks that doing that will just make our rates go up and eventually cause us to get blacklisted by the insurance company. I think that I have insurance for just such an occasion. And yes, I am totally freaked out and disgusted by this and worried that it explains why my son and I both wake up with headaches and congestion every morning.

Leaky roof

Evangeline — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:09:02 -0800

Our roof is leaking and the super doesn't seem to care. I've seen similar questions posted here before, but they don't quite address all my concerns.

A little background: We live in a duplex in Brooklyn, NY. We’re on the very top floor. The living room is directly under the roof of the building. There’s been a stain on the ceiling ever since we moved in about 10 years ago, but now the stain is spreading. Finally, the last time there was a big downpour, rain started to drip through. We told our super, and his response was, “Let’s see what it does next time it rains.” So the next time it rained the roof leaked again. Still he won’t take action. I don’t think he’s going to do anything until the ceiling caves in.

What are my recourses here? Should I write a letter to the landlord? I don’t want to be on bad terms with the super, since we have no intention of moving. If the ceiling does indeed cave and my furniture is ruined, who is responsible for the damage to my belongings? I’ve tried to move as much stuff as possible away from the leak, but there’s just not enough room (and yes, I’ll be looking into renter’s insurance today).

Also, the spare room, which is below the second floor of our apartment, has a very nasty leak. Pieces of the ceiling have been falling on the floor. A good portion of the ceiling is covered with mold. Apparently it’s caused by water from the shower right above it. The showerhead is placed in such a way that it’s virtually impossible to keep water off the floor. It’s a tile floor – is this normal? I’ve never had this happen in any other apartment. The super took a look at it and implied that it was our fault. Again, he won’t fix it. We won’t even use the upstairs shower now for fear the tub will cave in. I don’t doubt that eventually it will. If it does, will we be responsible for the damages?

Sorry for the length of this post. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Fuel Injectors Leaking

blue shadows — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:07:19 -0800

I drive a 97 Cavalier that is otherwise in good condition, but I am having a terrible time with the injectors leaking gas. The seals have been replaced several times, including at the dealership with the correct factory seals. Each time the leak stops for 5-7 days and then returns as bad as ever. The injectors appear to be alright and the interesting thing is that when the same seals are reused and reseated, the problem again halts for a few days. It is driving me crazy because when I turn the heater on the smell in the car is so bad I can't stand it. (Yes, I know this dangerous).

I also had someone check the car with a little hand-held code checker and it came up with the following:

IDK air rpm higher than expected
Fuel Sytem 1 - CL
Fuel System 2 - CL-fault
Calc Load 39.61
ECT 195
STFT-B1 -0.78

The engine light is on but could be due to not having a catalytic converter. Anyone know what all this means and what to do about it?

Where is the water in my car's trunk coming from?

COD — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:54:13 -0800

Where is the water in my car's trunk coming from? I drive a 97 Mazda 626LX. The trunk has a false bottom (just a piece of upholstered plywood really) and the spare tire is stored in a well under it. Twice in the last few months I have found a small pond in that well after a exceptionally heavy rain. However, the top half of the trunk (where stuff might be stored) is completely dry. In both cases I only knew about the water because I was accessing the spare tire area. There is no rust under there, so I don't believe this is a regular occurrence. Also, no moldy smell either.

- I've checked the underside of the car closely - cant find anyplace that water could enter.
- I don't see any sign that it is entering via the tail lights. I park on a slight incline so I think that also makes the tail lights less likely.
- There is no water around the trunk seal that would make me suspicious that it is coming in that way. Also, the trunk lining is dry.

As soon as I get a warm weekend day I plan to climb inside the trunk and have my son use the hose from the outside to help find the leak. In the meantime, does anybody have an educated guess about where the water is coming from?

My steering fluid is leaking. What now?

atchafalaya — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:18:20 -0800

I think my power steering fluid is leaking. What's this going to cost me? I've got a 2K Nissan Xterra. I think I overfilled it a few weeks ago and notice oil dripping a few days ago.

Factory Testing of Dishwashers Leaves Water?

kajj — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:30:41 -0800

Is it normal to a brand new dishwasher (Kenmore), still in its box, to have water leak? Does Kenmore run some type of factory test that leaves water in the dishwasher before they send it out? We bought a dishwasher from Sears (Kenmore) a couple of days ago and I just brought it home myself. It fit into the back of our station wagon, but only when turned on its side. After unloading the dishwasher and getting it up some stairs to the kitchen, I noticed a small tear on one of the bottom corners from which there was a steady flow of water coming out.

I called and the lady said that that didn't sound normal. I loaded it back into the car and returned to Sears. Apparently the lady I spoke to was the only person unaware of the fact that it was normal. Multiple sales reps as well as the guys who do the loading/unloading told me it was due to testing at the factory before shipment. All the washers go through it and there's always some water left inside (two cups to be exact).

The problem is that nobody could show me this documented in any form. Is this something posted somewhere? Is there a Kenmore training manual here that states it? Is it in the actual appliance manual? No, no and no.

I did bring the dishwasher back home because I believe them, but am still a little bothered by it. Does anyone here know if what I was told is true? Does Kenmore perform factory testing that leaves water in the dishwashers before delivering them to Sears? If so, how do you know?

Fountains of Trouble

TahitiBlue — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:19:48 -0800

I recently went out of town for 10 days and had a sprinkler valve fail, and flow for about a week. I just got the water bill 257,200 gallons in water usage (good thing we had a lot of rain this year in Austin) and around a $2000.00 bill not including wastewater. So, I'm going to call the city to see if they'll cut me some slack. Does anyone know if there are any magic words to say that would make the city of Austin ( experience with other municipal utilities would be helpful, I'm sure a lot of them have similar policies) wave some of all of thier charges?

How can I keep my carpet dry?

arnicae — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:37:42 -0800

Water is seeping out of my aquarium onto my rug. Is there anything I can use to absorb the water? We recently installed a sump into our marine saltwater system. More tubes, a bigger pump, and of course another separate aquarium were added to the system. We've been having a persistent problem with water leakage- usually several pints at a time, but up to a gallon. Obviously, the long-term solution is figuring out what is causing the leak, but for now I'm trying to find a way to keep the water from soaking my carpet. (It's low-quality, but aggravating to be walking to the bathroom in socks and step into soggy frigid water, and I know I'll be doing long-term damage to the carpet and/or the floor beneath it)

Any ideas? Would a chamois similar to what is used at a car wash work? Any thoughts on how to mitigate the damage to the floor beneath?

Thanks in advance.

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in and stops my mind from wandering...

anastasiav — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:10:25 -0800

Its midnight on Friday. My roof is leaking. Its supposed to rain all weekend. My house is 3 1/2 stories and the leaky part of the (gabled, Queen Anne-style) roof is not easily or safely accessible to without special equipment that I don't have. Assuming that I'm not going to be able to get anyone to fix this before Monday at the earliest, is there anything I can do to to at least mitigate the damage? Right now the roof is leaking is leaking into an inaccessible crawlspace above the front bedroom. I don't have a ladder tall enough to see what is really going on in the crawlspace (I can just barely poke my head up into the space on the indoor ladder we have and the "floor" isn't solid enough to walk or crawl on), but there is a spreading water stain and damp spot on the (drywall) ceiling of the room - the stain is damp and spreading but its not dripping (yet).

Ideally I'd like to throw a tarp over the leaky spot in the roof once it becomes light, but since I've had a string of professional roofers turn down my reroofing job because the pitch of my roof is too steep, I'm thinking its not safe for us to go up there (even if we had a 30 foot plus ladder, which we don't).

Can anyone think of any other options? Or should I resign myself to watching the bedroom ceiling slowly cave in over the weekend? (I'm having trouble getting roofers to even come give me estimates on my $10+ roofing repair - I feel like I have no hope of anyone coming over the weekend.)

Is it safe to drive with a slow emissions leak?

odayoday — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:10:36 -0800

A few days ago my check engine light came on, so I took my car to an auto parts store and had them run a check. They said that the computer said I have a slow emissions leak. My cousin died earlier this week, and I need to drive approximately 100 miles this afternoon to go to her funeral. Is this safe? And when I take the car in, how much should I expect to pay for this?

Is this mold? If so, can I get out of this lease?

kookoobirdz — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:37:32 -0800

Is this mold? I just leased an apartment and then found standing water, a leak, and what looks like a lot of mold. I want out. Property manager obviously doesn't want to let me out without lots of money. Let me state up front that I've already taken tape lift samples of suspected mold to be tested at a lab. But since the tests will take time, and I only have a short amount of time to resolve this with the leasing people, I'm hoping to get your opinions on whether you think this stuff is mold vs. just dust and various gunk. See especially pictures 10, 16, and 24. And if it is mold, is that grounds for releasing me from my lease and getting a refund of my deposit? Below is the background.

I'm moving out of an apartment that previously had a mold problem and caused me, an asthmatic allergic to mold, some difficult health problems. I signed an apartment lease last week on a different apartment. It's an older building. I asked them if the unit had had any problems with leaks or mold, my #1 criterion, and they said no (not in writing, alas). And I saw none so I signed and laid down a $500 deposit.

When preparing to move my stuff in, I heard a drip. I opened up an intake vent in the wall to find standing water in the bottom of some chamber where the A/C fan/motor/wheel-thing is, and many different drip spots dripping down into it from the seam where it met the internal wall. There were various flavors of gunk in the bottom of the water. Dirt? Mold? Dunno.

So I opened up the A/C closet and saw water dripping down the side of the unit onto a shelf above the aforementioned chamber. That shelf is naaasty with crusted gunk. And the whole closet has various kinds of fuzz adhering to it. Could it just be dust and junk gathered over many years as will happen in an A/C closet? I think it's mold and my allergies agree. A mold specialist at a university suspects so too on the strength of the pictures alone but awaits lab confirmation.

So I scoured the rest of the place looking for other stuff. The only other thing I found was in the water heater area. The plaster on the ceiling above it is peeling away in spots, likely due to a leak from the water heater in the same spot in the upstairs unit at some point. I peeled back a piece and found black splotches under it. That seems like a gimme. And there's stuff all over the water heater itself that could either be dust, mold, or both. On the walkthrough, I had dismissed this stuff and and a quick glance at the A/C closet stuff as the usual dust.

There's no way in hell I'm living here. The health toll is just too much to live through another year of that. Even the possibility of it is too high a risk for me. Can't take a chance. The property manager wants to downplay it. He says the building is "not a good candidate for mold". Whatever! He also says he gets people in there trying to get out of leases with all kinds of excuses and can't know what's true. "Maybe you just don't like your new neighbors, maybe you found a better place." They want to just fix the leak and "spray some Tilex in there and get rid of it." Even if they fix the leak and clean up visible mold, this appears to have been a long term leak. I now notice the floor slopes down toward that area. That could be indicative of various things, but would be consistent with long-wet structural wood. And if it's been like that for a while, there is likely mold all behind the walls in that area an in the floor supports that they won't be able to reach and that I'll continue to breathe in.

I asked to be let out of the lease that I signed last week. The lease states that I can break it if I give them 60 days notice, pay an extra month's rent ($800) and forfeit my $500 security deposit. But I haven't moved anything in and there's no way I'd have signed if I had heard that leak during the walk-through or seen the suspected mold or if they had answered yes to my question about water and mold. I offered to compensate them for the week it was off the market, and that they refund me $300. They don't want to go for it. They're saying maybe, MAYBE they'll let me out (if the owner agrees) but I'll lose my whole deposit. Legally I feel like they're in the stronger position because I didn't get any kind of written statement regarding leaks and mold, and they can always deny that I asked or that they answered. And if the lab tests show that it is mold, but not harmful varieties, then I don't think they'd be obligated to do abatement or let me out or compensate me or anything. The worst case scenario is that I have to abide by the terms of the lease and pay them a total of $2900 for two months of never living there. No way I'm doing that, I'll fight that. I'd also like to not lose my whole deposit if that's their only offer, but from everything I read, if you put a deposit on a place and don't move in, you're just about guaranteed to lose it. So whatever. Lesson learned I guess.

Still, any ideas ? Any legal rescue ropes you know of? If they don't want to let me out without the full terms, and I prove that the stuff is mold, dangerous varieties or not, will that give me any kind of case?

Moldy Walls

silasjones — Wed, 09 May 2007 01:16:12 -0800

My family has mold growing on the lower portions of inside of the walls in the central area of our 15-year-old home. We're getting the house sprayed, but the price the contractor gave us seems extremely high. What should I expect? My family's house has had many problems in the years that we have had it - small leaks and huge torrents of water - that have left the house in a state of disrepair. We decided to repair the damage and get the house sprayed for mold at the same time. However, I have a feeling that we are kind of being gypped, and I'm wondering if anybody else on here has had their house sprayed for mold and would be able to let me know what it cost them or should cost, and what I should expect as a reasonably good job.

I'm not sure that the entire house needs to be sprayed, by the way - There's just a central area in the house, a bathroom, that has leaked water into the living room, master bedroom, and one secondary bedroom (under carpet - we're having that replaced as well) as well as the space beneath the bathtub.

Getting rid of leak-induced smell in my apartment

Marit — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:06:02 -0800

A toilet two floors above me overflowed, resulting in a deluge of foul-smelling water. What can I do about the unholy stench? The tenant above me got hit the worst, but I still had a considerable amount of water pouring down. Luckily it wasn't over my bed or my books. Anyway, the smell is appalling and it permeates everything.

Does anyone from a similar experience have a magic bullet for horrible leak-induced reekage? All my smell-reducing experience is for specific surfaces or small contained areas -- faced with an entire apartment that smells, I don't know where to begin. Moving and/or sticking it to my landlord are not options at the moment.

Why Don't I Rent Anymore?

toddst — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:15:12 -0800

A pipe in the basement is dripping. It goes to the boiler. What can I do to make it stop? Do I need a plumber? (Pictures inside) Here is a picture of the part that is dripping. The water seems to be coming from this piece. Here is a picture of the entire apparatus. Thanks! As a new homeowner, any info is appreciated.

Am I responsible for water damage?

nursegracer — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:29:53 -0800

Do I owe my downstairs neighbor damages for a leak in my apartment building? I recently received a letter from my downstairs neighbor's insurance company "requesting" me to pay $1,600 for damages from a leak, claiming their "investigation reveals that [I] may be legally responsible for this loss. " There is documented history going back almost 2 years of water in my neighbor's apartment, and every time our landlord has responded by sending a plumber who checks out our pipes and declares our apartment leak free, only to leak again. This leak occured while both myself and my roommate were out of the apartment (and had been for several days) and we are relatively sure that it is not our fault. The letter sent to us was quite vague, never actually saying it was our fault.
So, my questions are:
1. Who should we contact? The landlord is unresponsive (a massive city student rental agency). I have insurance, but I feel it's my landlord's fault, not mine. I am wary of calling the neighbor's insurance agency, because I fear I might say the wrong thing and somehow implicate myself.
2. Are we the ones responsible for this damage? My landlord has a terrible track record and the building isn't doing so well.
3. What is the best course of action for me to persue?

Thank you for your responses. I am new to the world of rentals. I am in Phildelphia, in case that matters. I will be checking this post frequently to respond to any questions, and my emails in my profile.

Four-handled leak wrangling in a luke warm shower

teemo — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:09:58 -0800

I have a four-handled shower/bath (hot/cold for shower head, hot/cold for bath faucet) that decides to start leaking about every 6 months. It's driving me batty, and is possibly contributing to my now luke-warm winter showers. No fun in chilly NYC. (pic inside) I did some searching first, but given I know next to nothing about plumbing, I'm not sure if the advice already on offer differs for the type of shower I have or not.

That in mind, I'm just going to fumble through this with as much relevant info I can think of. Here's a pic, if it helps with my poor terminology.

A little backstory:

The few years I've been here, this seems to crop up about every 6 months or so and every time I call the landlady and she sends some old man (not sure of his actual plumbing credentials, I get the impression he's a family friend who does odd jobs) and when I get home it's no longer leaking. Based on that, I figure he can't be doing anything too terribly difficult, particularly given that it seems to keep cropping up again and again. I'd bother just calling her once again, but it usually takes a few days and turns into this big production over nothing. Besides that, I don't mind being handy if it's something I can fix fairly quickly and easily myself. I tore out the old plaster and put up sheetrock in my last apartment so the walls would take paint. = ]

Now, the actual leak just seems to be coming from one of the shower handles and then the shower head. Specifically the left/hot handle right behind where the handle rotates into it's "stem", and then a pretty constant but light stream from the shower head. I know very little about plumbing, but it seems that maybe there's a bad washer or the handle needs to be tightened somehow possibly? The piece coming out of the wall seems as though maybe it could be turned, but again the leak is not there, but where the tip of the "sconce" (I forget the correct word) piece is pulled forward to.

I unscrewed the "cap" piece to the handle and then removing the little bit that just seems to be a cover for a screw that is a little deeper in the handle. I then removed that screw as well, but wasn't clear on what happens next. I figured maybe the knob then comes off, but I pulled on it pretty hard to no avail. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't visualize the old guy doing a lot of pulling and tugging, so again, seems like it would be something simple.

As an aside, I tried figuring out where to turn off the water for the shower, just in case, but that's not exactly clear either. The sinks both have the usual knobs underneath that will shut the water off, but they don't seem to effect the shower at all, and I don't see any obvious places in the apartment where the shower would be turned off at the source.

Also maybe relevant, it's a row house (think brownstone) that's been converted to apartments. Top floor, middle floor, and then the back of the garage is a half apartment (garage still in use). I know the water heater and such is down in the basement (in the non-apartment part), but don't have easy access to it as someone lives down there. If I asked nicely he would probably let me in, but I'm not sure I even need to.

I sleep pretty deeply and just close the bathroom door anyway, so the noise isn't the bother as much as the showers I take end up being luke warm/cold. No fun in winter. I'd say that maybe that was a water heater issue, but if the shower's not on the kitchen sink and bathroom sink both have near-scalding hot water in no time at all.

Thanks in advance . . .