tub, wall, wet carpet.

[cducasse]

hello,
this is my first post here - just the other day i noticed a spot of wet carpet right by the wall of a stand up shower unit. I took a look at all the caulk, and it looks ok. Any ideas?

[Verdeboy]

You'll need to look at more than that.

Could be a leak in your supply lines, shut-off valves, drain, riser pipe, shower arm, shower head, shower doors, grout... It might not even be related to the shower at all. Could be from a roof leak, A/C condensate line, toilet, sink...

What side of the shower is it near?

Do you have a shower access panel you can remove and look at the plumbing?

[cducasse]

Right behind the showerhead wall on the floor is where the wet carpet is. Unfortunately the walls of the shower - is tiled - so no access to the pipes.
here is a link to how it looks
http://web.mac.com/chris.ducasse/iWeb/home/

[Verdeboy]

The access panel is located on the back side of the shower, so it would be in your master bedroom. If you do have access to the plumbing, that would be the best place to start. Also, you can try to pull up that section of carpet to see if water pools up all the time, or just when you run the shower. This test will narrow down the possibilities.

[cducasse]

it felt more cold than damp before i took my shower - once i got out - it was damp -

[cducasse]

we have a plumber coming at 10am - we'll see what happens.

[Verdeboy]

Well, you narrowed it down to a drain problem or a gap in your tiles, grout, caulk, or water getting behind your fixtures. Try plugging up your drain and spraying the fixtures, tiles, caulk, and grout with water and see if the carpet gets wetter.

If it stays dry, run some water directly in the drain and see if carpet gets wet.

You should be able to pin it down with this experiment.

[cducasse]

thank you, I will try try it in the morning when I get up before the plumber gets here. We've not been using the shower so the carpet is 100% dry. A good time I suppose to narrow down the problem. Than you to all of you who have posted replies I will post the results.

[geniescience]

leak in pipe behind showerhead. I'll bet the leak is in the supply pipe. And, lucky you, that pipe is touching a stud in the wall so the water slides over to the wall instead of all falling down inside the wall to the basement.

If the drain leaked, you would see that as a wet spot on the ceiling of the "lower level" as water falls down under the force of gravity. Very little water would slide sideways over to the adjacent wall, and virtually none would get past the wall's sheetrock to soak into the carpet.

Try only cold, and then only hot water in the shower. Five minutes of cold, turn it off, wait an hour. Five minutes of hot, wait an hour. You can also put a stopper on the tub drain so that water doesn't drain out, just to separate the possibilities.

David
edit: you can turn the hot water off 100% at the valve at the hot water heater, to be sure you are only getting cold water when you want cold water at the shower head. In case your mixing valve doesn't shut off 100% of hot and cold.

Then, when you have seen that the problem is one of the supply pipes, or both, you will know whether the problem is in the pipe below the shower mixing valve or right at the connection point to the shower mixing valve. Also, this will confirm that it's not the drain.