I live in a bottom floor condo with a cement slab floor. The floor in my living room is wet and it is coming up through my new hardwood flooring. What on earth could cause this to happen. It is wet in a six foot area and spreading. I took up all the area rugs only to find that they were saturated too. What can I do on a fixed income.

Hi harrisr and welcome to The Plumbing Page at AMHD.com. You're responding to a 4 year old dead threads so I gave you one of your own. Please check the date before you post. Thanks
You have a hidden leak, I need more information. City water or pump? Is the water spot hot or cold?
You already know that you have a leak. The meter's running or the pump gage's dropping.
So now you have to pin point it;.You can't go by the hot spots because water, like electricity, will seek the path of least resistance. This means that the leak can be in one spot and the hot spot some distance away.
I live in a area where all out buildings are on slabs so I've had this many times. Our usual way is to call in a leak detection service such as Sleuth. They will detect the exact position of the leak. Take up the slab, bag the dirt and bare the leak. All we have to do is drain the system, replacethe bad piece of pipe and patch the slab.
Another method would be if the plumber knew the exact pipe that was leaking the fixture it serviced and the location of the manifold that supplied it he could cut the line at the manifold, cap it off and look a new line up in the attic and drop down through the wall to pick up the fixture.
Those are your options, Let me know what you decide. Good luck, Tom

bottom floor condo

This is a condominium association problem. Contact association management company.

Hey Widget Maker,
The leak's in the OPs living room and not the common area. This makes it his responsibility. Cheers, Tom

Hi Tom,


Its coming from under the floor. Boundaries of condominium units are usually the top surface of the floor. Anything outside the boundaries of a unit belong to association.

In my area, "hidden" water leaks are also HOA's responsibility. Read your CC&Rs. It should be there spelling out who is responsible for what. Let us know how it went. Back to you. Milo

To repeat "The leak's in the OPs living room and not the common area.".
We waterpipe first floor condos under the slab and the pipe upper floors overhead.
If this were a second floor of the was you still say that it's the Association responsibility?
If the leak were in a common area than it would be the associations responsibility to repair it.
Perhaps it's different in your area but from Tampa bound to Naples that's the way it goes.
Regards, Tom

Just got to love the under slab copper water pipes, yes? Hoping pex holds up longer. Or at least I hope Im dead and gone before they find out it fails too!. lol. Granted, if everybody that ever installed copper under a slab actually used the correct copper (type K) and never put fittings under slab, it would have probably outlasted me too.

If this were a second floor of the was you still say that it's the Association responsibility?

Yes.

The upper boundary of a lower unit would be the surface of the ceiling.

If you live above me, my upper boundary would be the ceiling, your lower boundary would be the floor. What's in between, the joist, piping and electrical equipment would belong to the association. Same is true for walls.

I once declined a charge from condo association for snaking out a kitchen drain. Drain was shared with unit next door (kitchens were back to back).
While my tenant probably did stop up the drain, no one could really know.

Rather than argue about who was responsible, I just referenced the paragraph in the master deed that said my property stopped at the surface of the shared wall. In other words its your pipe and its your blockage.

If this were a second floor of the was you still say that it's the Association responsibility?

Yes.

The upper boundary of a lower unit would be the surface of the ceiling.
What's that supposed to mean? Of course the upper part of any unit is the ceiling.
I have put in hundreds of condos and we pipe first-floor units under the slab.
All upper units our pipe overhead. If the pipes or the fixtures are located within the confines of the unit it's not considered a common area and falls within the owners responsibility.
I don't know about your area but this is true from Tampa to Naples. Regards, Tom