Vent pipe leak

[holowa1]

I need help with a leak dripping into my basement from a vent pipe.
Here are the facts:

1. house built 3 years ago
2. vent services kitchen & laundry rooms.
3. I have cut an access hole behind my dryer in my laundry room and found the leak. (see pic)
4. Large picture is from the kitchen side during construction (drywall hiding it now)
5. In the small picture there is a slow dripping of water coming down the pipe at the arrow.
6. I have gone into the attic and everything is dry above the ceiling.

ANY IDEAS WOULD BE APPRECIATED

 

[stevep]

Sounds like a pipe wasn't glued or text tee plug is not tight

 

[phishfood]

Is that your dryer vent right beside it? If it is, have you cleaned the dryer vent pipe out?

 

[jdc]

The first thing you're going to have to do is determine exactly where the leak originates. This is going to require you to remove more drywall. I'd do it from the laundry room side of the wall. You know the pipe is dry in the attic but water is pooling around the top of the tee and running down into the basement. There is your area of concern. Remove the drywall, find the source and you're nearly there. From looking at the setup, my first guess is that a screw was put into the pipe and over the past 3 years has rusted out. However, without opening things up and getting your hands and eyes on the source, its hard to tell.

Good luck

 

[holowa1]

Just finish my exploration & fix.
It was the bottom of a tee where two vents came together.
(see picture)

I couldn't separate the joint, so I epoxied inside and out.
Leak has stopped and I hope it will hold.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[johnjh2o]

That may hold but from the looks of the joints they didn't use primer on any of them. The primer will have a purple color so inspectors can see it has been used. If primer isn't used the joints won't seal properly.

John

 

[stevep]

Lack of primer can definetly cause pipe to fail.primer has been required for years.might be something in the term solvent weld.But being a commercial plumber maybe we just try to do it right the first time

 

[johnjh2o]

You don't have to be a commercial plumber to do things right you have to know your trade and take enough pride in your work to do it right.

John

 

[stevemachine]

You don't have to be a commercial plumber to do things right you have to know your trade and take enough pride in your work to do it right.

John

Exactly, I'm a commercial plumber too but I've done residential service as well and the reason people cut corners is cause there lazy, don't care or don't know. Nothing worse than having to fix someone's poor decisions years later.

 

[phishfood]

The question I have is how water is getting to the dry section of the vent pipe. Rain water maybe, but even dry fit wouldn't be too likely to leak on a vent.

 

[holowa1]

I'm guessing condensation from the hot water discharged from the washing machine just below the vent. The vent enters the cold attic just 10 ft. from the washing machine drain line