My steam boiler's pressure went nuts, sent high-pressure hot water through the radiators. Now the plaster ceiling above the living room of our 1925 home is soaked and dripping water, an obvious leak in a horizontal pipe leading from one room to another. Am afraid the young plumber who came doesn't know what he is doing. He began chopping at the ceiling with the claw end of a hammer and then stopped. What is the appropriate way to access and repair this pipe?

Do you have a one pipe or two pipe system?

Is it possible the leak is coming from a radiator above the living room?

Have you removed the excess water from your system?

If there is a problem with the pipe in ceiling then ceiling has to be opened to expose the pipe. From there you can determine how to repair.

Chuck

I'm afraid of any plumber that starts hacking away at the ceiling, too! In my opinion, any job of this nature requires a drop cloth and a small attempt by the plumber to make a reasonable hole so it can be patched without too much effort.

Personally, I have made it a standard procedure to cut all my holes nice and square in hopes that I can replace the cut out piece. I even carry some patching plaster and seam tape in the truck... nothing beats seeing my customer's face after I open the ceiling, fix the leak, place the ceiling board I took out back in place and then tape out the first plaster coat!

With all that being said, I guess some plumbers just hack a hole to start, but see if you can get him to take an extra minute or two to square the hole up once he is done with the job... ;)

Check out my answer to your pinhole question at your other post, OK?

Mark