Water Woes

Ever since we moved into our house twelve years ago, we’ve had an occasional problem with a tiny water spot on the kitchen ceiling.  It’s not a big deal, it just means that the tub spigot in the bathroom above the kitchen needs to be recaulked.  Until now, that is …

This time, the water spot was larger and wetter, and a nice, fresh caulk job did not slow it down.  Caulking everything else in the tub which might vaguely have contributed to the problem was of no use, either, so finally it was time to open up the ceiling and see where the leak was coming from.  We assumed that it was some kind of issue in the drain line.  Wrong!

The drain was nice and dry.  Running water into the tub through the spigot caused no problems.  Turning on the shower, big leak.  Couldn’t see where it was coming from, and in any event, a repair of said leak would require opening up the bedroom wall in which the plumbing was hidden.

I opened up the wall at the valve location, and things were nice and dry.  Rats.  Opened it up closer to the floor so that I could see the spigot pipe, and sure enough, as soon as the water was switched to the shower head, water came flowing out of the spigot pipe, or so it appeared.  This, of course, is patently impossible with our system, as the switch to shower happens at the valve body and not at the spigot!  Where was this water coming from?

Next step was to remove the valve handle and pull off the trim.  That little job necessitated a trip to Home Depot to purchase a handle puller, and even with that tool, it was not an easy job getting it off!  But it was worth it, because the problem became obvious once that was opened up – the water was coming out of the tub/shower switch valve and traveling down some channels inside the fiberglass wall of the shower and exiting at the hole for the spigot pipe!  How weird is that?

So now we have confirmation that the valve body has to be replaced.  Fortunately, we have two other showers in the house, so there’s no great rush.  We’ll buy a new valve today and I’ll put it in next Saturday.  In an ideal world, this will not involve the Fire Department, but one never knows when one is using a propane torch in a wall!  Still, it’s been a good fifteen years or more since I’ve sweated copper pipe joints, so there will be a bit of a learning curve again 🙂

Did I mention that I don’t like plumbing?

And just to remove any doubt, I don’t like repairing large holes in drywall, either, especially in ceilings!!