Our Leaking Shower

Early this week, my daughter noticed that the drop ceiling panel in the basement beneath the shower tub was wet with water and broke off to pieces . The cabinet directly below the tub and the carpet nearby was all wet with water. I looked at the drain lines from the shower tub, water closet, and toilet sink and all were dry. A sigh of relief, at least the water was clean and not from the drain. I figured it must be somewhere after the shower valve because the basement was not flooded and the water would only leak when the valves were open like when someone taking a shower. I thought it was the valve or the copper pipes but it was quite unlikely because I just replaced our shower valve two years ago and it was one of the better ones at Lowes. Luckily, I already had yesterday and today off scheduled as a compensatory time off because I had a few vacation days left last year but had to finish some work before Christmas break.

Not being able to pinpoint the source of the leak, I had to cut out a 10" x 16" hole in the back side of our shower wall to find the source of the leak. Fortunately, this wall is inside of an unused closet. After running the shower, the source of the water leak was found - water seeping through the fitting that makes the valve look nice and clean and tightly fitted to the shower wall. This was happening because the flexible hose that connects to the shower head was leaking and the water that sprayed to the wall was seeping and going through it. After a visit at Lowes for some parts and supplies, I filled the hole with caulk and got the job done by 3PM but forgot to buy some new ceiling panels. Back to Lowes and new panels were put in place. I would have wanted to do something else but yeah that's part of the home ownership experience.

Lesson: When installing a new shower valve, it is very important to properly anchor the shower valve, and the shower and tub pipes and then place silicon caulking on the hole openings no matter how small. Use silicone instead of regular caulk because the price difference is worth more than redoing the job again.