Leak in pipe - plumber recommendations?

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Hoping someone has a line on a good person to call about this. I noticed this morning that there's a line about 3 feet long and 4 inches wide of discoloration in my ceiling on the main floor of my house. Got up on a stepladder and while it's not soggy or dripping, it is cold and slightly damp. So I shut off my water and drained the pipes, and confirmed with my insurance that it's covered. All good so far - hopefully just a minor slow leak.

Next step is getting someone to do an estimate, so off to CP I go for the brain trust here. Who in town do people trust to do this sort of thing, and are there any spots that people know of that do free estimates? I'm not going to initiate a claim and jack up my home insurance premium if the ultimate cost to repair this is in the ballpark of my deductible anyway, so I want to find out what I'm looking at.

Really annoying to have this happen in a fairly new (just over 5 year old) building, but I guess it could be worse, or it could have happened when I was away, or something like that.

[DoubleF]

Pete the plumber is a really good base line.

It's not to say that you can do it for cheaper or better quality, but IMO, I was quite happy with their service/price and quite annoyed with 2-3 others I had contacted for other services/price and a variety of random reasons.

[Calgary14]

To have that happen to such a new house is disappointing. Have you contacted the builder and I'm guessing it's not covered under warranty?

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

It's covered under my insurance but yeah, it looks to me like new home warranty for pipes is 2 years. I'm well past that. I might get in touch with them to see if they'll give me any help with the bill once I've got it done but I don't see how they have any actual obligation to do so.

[Fuzz]

Have you done any preliminary investigation, like around your sink fixtures in the room above? TP wrapped in suspect places is handy to spot tiny slow drips.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Yeah, there's nothing apparent in the rooms above... It really does look like a pipe in between the floors is the culprit. The fact that the stain is long and roughly the width of a pipe also seems like an indicator, but I'm not sure if I'm just making a leap in logic there.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Yeah, there's nothing apparent in the rooms above... It really does look like a pipe in between the floors is the culprit. The fact that the stain is long and roughly the width of a pipe also seems like an indicator, but I'm not sure if I'm just making a leap in logic there.

something to check Corsi... if i was to guess, the water is traveling along a joist between the the two floors. do you have any "water" in line with the water stain? just thinking if something is leaking the water would drip down to the joist, then slowly work it's way along the joist until it finally becomes visible in the ceiling.

i know we had a minor slow leak from the water line going into a toilet. i guess the fitting just loosened off a bit over the years to cause a very minor leak and thankfully it was super easy to fix (tighten the fitting). hopefully it's something a simple as that.

[D as in David]

Bumping this thread, looking for plumber recommendations for a small job. Think, replacing cartridges in shower fixtures type of job.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Bumping this thread, looking for plumber recommendations for a small job. Think, replacing cartridges in shower fixtures type of job.

I like Icon Plumbing and heating. Good people who do good work.

But they do charge you to have a look.
Which makes sense if you don't want someone to diagnose a problem that doesn't exist just to make a buck from a visit.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Hoping someone has a line on a good person to call about this. I noticed this morning that there's a line about 3 feet long and 4 inches wide of discoloration in my ceiling on the main floor of my house. Got up on a stepladder and while it's not soggy or dripping, it is cold and slightly damp. So I shut off my water and drained the pipes, and confirmed with my insurance that it's covered. All good so far - hopefully just a minor slow leak.

Next step is getting someone to do an estimate, so off to CP I go for the brain trust here. Who in town do people trust to do this sort of thing, and are there any spots that people know of that do free estimates? I'm not going to initiate a claim and jack up my home insurance premium if the ultimate cost to repair this is in the ballpark of my deductible anyway, so I want to find out what I'm looking at.

Really annoying to have this happen in a fairly new (just over 5 year old) building, but I guess it could be worse, or it could have happened when I was away, or something like that.

I always try to work out what the problem is first before I call a plumber, I really dont want to pay him 200 bucks to be fishing around in the walls trying to work out what is leaking and if it isnt a pipe under pressure then it only leaks randomly and is really hard to isolate, had a similar problem, turned out the tap plate in the shower had loosened and a bit of water was getting in around the taps, but with 3 or 4 kids in the house even the smallest leak built up quickly, cut out an access point behind taps to confirm that was the problem then reseated the plate myself for free, problem solved

[Locke]

PM Sent.

[GomerPile]

Fun fact about insurance, just for your records. I had an issue with a leaking tub, it was a clear outline of my tub on my 15 ft kitchen ceiling in my townhouse(one of those split level ones that were popular in the early mid 2000's). Called my insurance, yup it was covered, they said it was a weeklong fix for the ceiling etc and they wanted to have scaffold blah blah blah. Made sense, I have pm'd construction for a long time. So, we booked it, went away for the week. Came back to a beautiful new ceiling. Anyways, after a few baths, the stain was back.

Called my insurance, they confirmed they only fixed the damage, did not investigate the where the leak was coming from side of things.... I was shocked. So, back to it again. Had a plumber come and redo the seals in my tub and insurance redid the ceiling again.

I was shocked that they never looked at the issue, just the damage. It was a lesson learned, confirm on wtf the plan is, in detail, with your insurance company.

As far as plumber recommendations - I love working with small outfits, but have had better luck on issues that come back with the big guys.

[powderjunkie]

I've been really happy with Ritchie's Plumbing...aside from hating the fact that I had to call a plumber of course

[Locke]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

I've been really happy with Ritchie's Plumbing...aside from hating the fact that I had to call a plumber of course

Unapologetic thieves! The lot of them!

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Locke

Unapologetic thieves! The lot of them!

I always tell my kids to go into plumbing, they always complain about the high ***t and ***s factor in the job and I explain 'that's why it pays so well!!'

[Locke]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

I always tell my kids to go into plumbing, they always complain about the high ***t and ***s factor in the job and I explain 'that's why it pays so well!!'

I change my advice every few years. Right now? Become an Electrician.

10 years ago? Be a welder.

It changes. But Sparkies at the moment have work for life.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Locke

I change my advice every few years. Right now? Become an Electrician.

10 years ago? Be a welder.

It changes. But Sparkies at the moment have work for life.

welding kills you too early, the good thing about plumbing is even if the market takes a dump and there is no construction you can get by cleaning out drains

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Locke

I change my advice every few years. Right now? Become an Electrician.

10 years ago? Be a welder.

It changes. But Sparkies at the moment have work for life.

And learn how to capture lightning from the sky. How thrilling!!!

[Dion]

nm