Plumbing repair problem.

[Neel Punna]

Hello,

I recently purchased a new house and one of the conditions on the purchase was that a leak coming from the upstairs toilet into the downstairs kitchen be fixed. The leak was found by our home inspector and was actually a trickle coming straight down our kitchen wall from the upstairs bathroom. He estimated the repair would cost between $500-1000 (CDN).

So the owner had it fixed ... apparently. Here is my question.

The plumber went in, removed a part of the wall, fixed a leaking joint between two pipes and put in a new section of wall. I went in to inspect that the work was done the day after and it looked fine.

Three weeks later I returned to the house and noticed considerable brown stains running across and down the newly laid wall in the kitchen.

So I spoke to the plumber again and he said that it is always the case that there will be water stains coming from the fixed leak. He said that this is normal and that after painting over the stains, we will never see a stain again.

This seems a little fishy to me and would like some advice on this matter. I believe that the leak wasn't actually fixed. Why should there be any stains at all coming from a leak that was apparently fixed??

Thanks, Neel

[Speedy Jim]

Stains are appearing on the *new* wall? (Drywall?) If so, he is feeding you a line of bull.

Start documenting this case. Take photos, make records of phone calls.

Jim

[mark Ransley]

You should pick up a cheap moisture meter at HD or other store. See if its wet. It sounds fishy to that he would say that. Nobody repairs a wall if its wet , Right. maybe he didnt fix it right, But i cant see it .

[jim]

it is possible that the water that was coming out the original leak had the area all wet.. the water had to go someplace.. and when he fixed the leak that the water dried in the sheetrock and the stain came to the top and went through the paint... bet they never used any sealer/primer before putting the paint down... they need to come back and put some sealer/primer down and paint the sheetrock again.....