Water Leak

This entry was written in my journal on April 18.

I have a very sad tale to share. For years now I have noticed that the soil just outside the kitchen window has been damp. I didn’t think too much of it though because that is where the water valves are for the sprinkler system, and I just assumed they were leaking a little bit.

A couple of weeks ago when the rains finally took a break, I noticed that the sidewalk on the side of the house was wet. This was very unusual and was a new thing. I say it was new but with the rain we have been having it could have been leaking for months I wouldn’t have noticed because everything was always wet. My first thought was that it was a leak in the irrigation system because I had just completed the sprinkler system in the back yard. I turned off the water to the sprinkler system and checked the next day and everything was still wet.

The only other source of water near this area is our master bathroom directly above the wet spot. We have Lisa’s sink, my sink, and the shower. I figured it would be a hot water line because they are always the first to go. I climbed into the attic and cut the hot water line to the shower and checked the next day. Still wet. I then cut the hot water line to Lisa’s sink and the next day it was still wet. I then tried my sink. Finally, I cut both the hot and cold water to the master bathroom. Still wet. This whole process has taken more than a week and I am getting frustrated.

After much thought and pondering I figured it must be the kitchen sink, but it is six feet away from that side of the house. I then noticed that the ground just outside the kitchen window was still wet and since the irrigation valves had been completely removed, I knew that it was coming from the kitchen.

I didn’t even want to think about running new water lines to the kitchen because it would be almost impossible to run new water lines where the old ones went but I cut the hot water line to the kitchen and voila, the next morning the sidewalk was dry. Yay, I had found the leak but now how was I going to replumb the kitchen?

I dedicated last Saturday to replumbing the kitchen. From the moment I woke up until I went to bed was spent crawling in the attic, under the sink or in other small, cramped spaces. It was an exhausting day.

My first lucky break came when I realized that the heating duck to the kitchen drops straight down through my closet from the attic. Ever since we moved into this house, I’ve wondered what this 18” x 18” enclosed space in my closet was. I’ve been tempted to cut a hole into it just to see. Well, climbing around in the attic I realized it is the heat duct.

The next lucky break is the fact that the kitchen has a dropped ceiling so this heat duct opens up into the dropped ceiling where I can get at it.

The third lucky break is that I have installed pot lights in the kitchen ceiling so I can remove those lights and access the inside of the dropped ceiling.

Once I had figured out the plan it didn’t take too long to get the new pipe run from the attic down to the kitchen wall but now I was stuck. So far, I had managed to do all of this with only cutting a small hole under the kitchen sink and in the wall of the kitchen cabinet where no one would see them and in our master bathroom which would be easily repaired. Now I needed to cut a hole in the kitchen wall and that was going to be a problem.

Once I cut the old pipe there was no going back so before I cut it, I double checked everything. As I was looking under the kitchen sink, I saw what I thought was water damage down inside the wall. It then dawned on me that all I had to do was cut the pipe under the kitchen sink and replace that portion of the pipe. That would have been a two-hour job rather than a ten-hour job. I promptly tucked the new pipe inside the drop ceiling, replaced the pipe under the kitchen sink and cleaned up. I then dropped on the couch exhausted, frustrated that I had wasted my Saturday but confident that this problem was now behind me.

Imagine my frustration Sunday morning when I woke up to find the sidewalk wetter than ever. So, Monday evening I was back at it. I managed to get the pipe from the dropped ceiling to the sink by cutting a single hole in the kitchen wall and after an hour of great frustration and skinned knuckles I had the water line connected. Now there was no chance of a leak. I had new pipe all the way from the attic to the sink and I could see every connection and none of them had a leak. Last night I went to bed confident that the problem was behind me. I would watch it for a day or two and then patch up my holes.

This morning I happily headed out to the side of house to relish in my dry sidewalk only to find that it was wetter than ever. I was so depressed, but I instantly realized the problem and that made me even more depressed. The leak was in the dishwasher. I had just spent ten hours and hundreds of dollars solving a problem that could have been fixed in less than an hour and probably with no cost. I haven’t pulled out the dishwasher yet but it could be as simple as tightening up a fitting but as old as it is I will probably need to buy a new fitting. Worst case we will need a new dishwasher but the money I’ve spent could have paid for half of a new dishwasher.

You do need to cut me some slack though, after all, I have polybutylene plumbing which is known to be susceptible to leaks and I have already had to repair two leaks in the attic. So, when water starts flowing out of my house it is understandable that that is where my brain goes first.

Lisa hates our dishwasher, so she is hoping our dishwasher is unfixable.