Compression joint leaked below floorboards - how worried should I be?

[Eno Case]

Some muppet 'plumber' tried to do some work under the floorboards to a radiator for me (plumbing in a towel radiator).

A few hours after he'd left, my wife noticed the pressure gauge on the boiler was way too low.

I checked underneath the floorboards, and sure enough his compression joints weren't tight enough and a lot of water had leaked into the deadening below the floorboards, between the joists. (I live in an old flat BTW - pretty solid generally.)

I pulled the deadening back from the joists as good as I could to see how damp they were and to let them dry out a bit, which they have, but the deadening's still pretty damp.

My question is (finally!) should I be more worried that the leaked water has done serious damage to where I can't see the joists? Or are buildings pretty capable of taking some water and then drying out over time?

Thanks in advance for any help.

eno

[Ed Sirett]

If the leak only lasted a day there is no cause for concern. It isn't the 1000 litre flood on one day that causes serious long term damage [1]but the 1 litre/day drip for 1000 days.

[1] I don't want that sort of leak either.

[PoP]

Slightly different problem, but......

Our house was built about 8 years ago. Unknown to me the plastic pipe in the loft space which vented the bathroom stack to the outside hadn't been glued together - just a loose 32mm (or 40mm?) joint.

Early this year we spotted the bathroom ceiling getting stained. Further inspection in the loft showed that the joint was leaking, and had most probably been doing so for 8 years.

Moral of the story is that temporary spillage is most likely okay providing it isn't a flood. If took 8 years of a few drops of water (probably per week) until it showed as a problem.

PoP

[Martin]

Providing it's just water, no problem. If there were any chemicals in the water (corrosion inhibitors etc), then they could cause a stain. Personally I'd register a complaint with the guy that did the work, so you are covered should any problems occur later.