Advice Urgently Needed

[Tango]

Hi all. I've got a major problem and wondered if I could get some really good advice here.

I live in a bungalow and recently had a major leak from the toilet cistern whilst we were away for a long weekend, which caused flooding throughout the house. Obviously, as well as saturated carpets, there was major condensation. The toilet leak was fixed and dehumidifiers installed (these have been running for 6 days now). When I visited the property yesterday it seemed to drying out nicely although I was told it would take approx 4 weeks in total. There was no visible condensation on windows/doors etc.

Now, here's the problem. Just before I left the property I did a quick check round and noticed a small puddle on the floor by the hot water tank. When I looked closely I could see two damp patches on the tank itself. One was at the top where the pipe goes into the tank, and the other was halfway down the tank where water seemed to be seeping out from behind the tank casing. I believe the cylinder is the original from when the house was built in 1982 (the house is all electric by the way - no gas).

Is it possible condensation could have caused a problem to the cylinder, resulting in these two further leaks. It seems very coincidental if they aren't related.

Sorry for the long post. Hope someone can give me some advice as I know absolutely nothing about plumbing. Thank you in advance.

 

[dontknowitall]

It sounds as if you need to organise a funeral for your hot water cylinder. I suspect it has a leak or two in it (they're sort of designed to last around 20 years so your's has done well).

Difficult to give an accurate price because whoever does the job will want to take into account access, ease of doing the job, type of cylinder and how easy it is to obtain, etc but you're probably looking at a bill for around £400 and upwards (and don't be too surprised is someone tries £800 or so).

As far as drying the house is concerned, although more work is involved, if you can lift the carpets the house will dry in a couple of days or so, as opposed to weeks. The longer the water is there the more damage it does, so rapid drying is better in these circumstances.

 

[Tango]

Thanks for the reply. I do think the cylinder needs replacing anyway but I did wonder if it could have been damaged by the amount of condensation in the house. I can't think of any other reason why it would leak NOW, unless of course it's pure coincidence. All the carpets came up before the dehumidifiers were installed so at least they're not hindering progress.

 

[dontknowitall]

In my experience (36+ months!!) - I'm middle aged so have seen a fair amount of stuff in my other life ....

In my experience the only puddles I've seen from condensation are those on window sills in the cold mornings. I can't help wondering if you have leaks in your hot water cylinder and/or the pipework in the airing cupboard/above it/somewhere in the loft. Condensation doesn't cause large enough puddles to worry about.

If you wrap your fingers around pipes and joints and when they're wet, look for the leak (both ways but water tends to travel downwards). Leaks could be a joint that's moved or pin holes in pipes or something else.

 

[GQuigley67]

it may not be a leak and may be condensation on your cylinder, if it isnt being used your cylinder will be full of cold water and due to the high moisture content in the air condensation may be occuring.

Worth checking out as it is easy to mistake for a leak.