Noticed a leak THIS close to Christmas. Help!

[namechange246810]

Just noticed this in the downstairs WC. The room was freshly painted last year so paintwork is relatively new. Not sure how long the stain has been there- so annoyed! Any ideas on the best thing to do next? Plumber? Any ideas of costs involved? Ahhhh!

Which room is above?

The main bathroom is above

I would guess the leak is from bathroom upstairs, is the bath on that side? Can you see anything obvious e.g. sealant that has come away where water could be going down the side?

Take the bath panel off and have a look, it might be obvious where the leak is coming from - check the plug waste pipe is still tight

so, to add to matters, the side of my bath is tiled and I can’t remove it

I’m in the bathroom now and there is no sound of dripping/running water. Should there be?

The wall with the two black taps is the same wall as the leak in the room below

You need to get under the bath to take a look (presuming the leak damage coincides with the location of the bath above). If you can't investigate yourself then I would probably not use the room for now (if you have an alternative) and then get someone booked in for the new year. You could get an emergency plumber to come and take a look (we had one here this morning for a leak in the kitchen) but it will cost more and if you have to take off the tiles to get to the underneath of the bath then that's going to create quite a bit of mess which you might not have time/oportunity to deal with at the moment.

Yea you need to look under the bath/sink. Does your insurance have leak tracing cover on it? Although it may be cheaper to look yourself get a plumber.

That looks like an old leak that's dried up - we had similar and it was from a small pool of water from before we had a new bathroom installed and it had slowly been coming through. It stopped once tge new bathroom was installed.
When did you last use the bath? If you're feeling brave you could run the bath and see if there's any drips coming through but personally I'd leave it till after Christmas to do that! If no more water comes through then get a stain stop primer, then paint over it.

Yeh you really need to take the bath side off to have a good look tbh.
Check under your sink too just in case it’s from there but has travelled across?
It’s quite a large water mark to just have appeared quickly so I suspect it would have been a one off leak maybe an over-full bath that spilt into the overfill part and that’s not fitted right?
Avoid using the main bathroom for now deffo if you can. I’d also get your heating on and maybe a dryer at the mark to draw moisture out.
Does probably need a plumber soon though.

Thank you for the advice. We’re shower people so definitely wasn’t caused by a bath being overfilled etc. The last time anyone had a bath was a few months ago.

Anyone had something similar and know rough estimates on cost I should expect?

Personally, I’d contact a professional. Water will always travel to the lowest point. There’s a good chance it is coming from your bath, but there’s also a huge risk it isn’t. Do you have home call out with British Gas? Or home emergency with your insurance perhaps?

This is a pic of the outside wall. The vent is the one in the room with the ceiling stain.

Also, just to add, escape of water can be anything from a simple leak to a whole area having damp, wood rot etc etc etc. I’m not trying to scare you, but just from experience these things have the scope to be quite complicated. Whatever it is will need drying out properly to ensure you don’t get mold.

This happened to me, I saw a patch on the ceiling directly underneath the bathroom 24 hours before going on holiday for 2 weeks. Emergency plumber had found a leak on the bath tap (where the washer had disintegrated). I'd have come back to so much damage if I'd left it for 2 weeks, so thankful that I spotted it before going! In terms of cost (as I see you asked so I'm editing post) I think it cost me about £200, emergency call out charge + labour replacing the washer. I think I'd caught it quickly so the floor dried out and no lasting damage there. I'm yet to repaint the ceiling!

It's difficult to know about costs because it's impossible to tell what's causing it. Is your shower over the bath? If so, it could be something as simple as the sealant having come away from the wall and the water getting in through tge gap which could be minuscule.

If it's over the bath, get someone to stand under the shower when it's off to weigh down the bath and pul it down, and then very carefully check around tge edges of the sealant to see if there's any gaps. If there is, you could just reseal these.

The whole area outside is wet. You’ve got cracks in your mortar which are potential areas for water ingress. But above your window & the bricks all look like they’ve been soaked compared to the other bricks.

It could be the sealant around the bath needs redoing

You need to change that bath panel to one that you can access underneath , small leaks often go for ages before they are noticed .

Agree. The outside wall looks damp. Could be the waste pipe that's at fault. But definitely agree you need to see under the bath.

I’d cut a square out the ceiling big enough to put the camera phone & torch in. It’ll be cheaper & easier to patch that in incase it’s not coming from under the bath. (Just personally).

Do you have home emergency cover on your insurance? That's your first port of call if so - they'll be able to isolate where it's coming from and cap it off. You should be able to use the bath until you get a proper fix.

Your outside wall is wet and looks damaged?? Is there an overflowing gutter above?? Or is it towards the prevailing weather?? Water is a funny thing, it can get in anywhere a run along places before it finds an escape route. It may not be from the bathroom at all.

Very small amounts of water can make marks. In it's simplest form, it could just be water from your shower getting through the screen, dripping down the side and capillaring through the bottom of the wall, where the bath joins the floor. Check all your seals before getting a plumber. The seals around the bath, seals at the bottom of the bath screen, seals along the floor and joining the bath at that corner.

I'd reseal your bath, you sealant looks done around taps. Paint over downstairs and see if that fixes it