Strange leakage via weeps hole, what should i do?

Hi, all.
Just recently, I noticed water come out from the weeps hole on my outwall after using second floor bath room, toilet or basin. I would guess there is leakage in the drain lines. As long as I don't use second floor water, the weeps hole are dry
However, I could not find any damage sign on inside wall and celling.

Is it possible leakage happens to the vertical part of drain line? Or, may the leakage coursed by blockage?

Is there any way to detect the leakage without open wall?

Looking for your advice! Thanks a lot.

 

This is going to hard to find without eventually opening up wall or ceiling.

I know you are in Texas, but have you had any freezing weather recently? I think you are probably right that it is a leak in drain lines. A blockage might aggravate the problem, but a blockage is probably not the only problem.

I would start by trying to map out the most likely place where plumbing runs in or near outside wall. In areas that get regularly to freezing temps, drains are not usually run in outside walls but may be different in your area.

Do you have a basement or attic where you can see where the main drains are located? Often you can see a vent pipe extending through the roof where the main drain stack is located. Other clues to look for are relative location of other bathrooms, the kitchen, and laundry area.

You want to try to identify the most likely area where the drain line from that bathroom runs. You may be able to hear trickling or dripping sounds near the leak after running the water.

It's sometimes possible to trace plumbing or drain lines by running hot water and using a thermal camera, but not many people (or plumbers, for that matter) have such equipment.

If you have any plumbing access hatches behind sink or tub, open them up and examine inside for signs of moisture.

If you can give us a sketch of your house showing the location of baths, kitchen, etc., and any obvious drain lines, we may be able to give you further suggestions.

 

Thanks a lot for your professional input.

This is the bath room arrangement very similar to my bath room. I have tried all basin, bath tube and toilet. Flushing each of them for a while will leads to water from weeps hole. I guess the main drain should be located under the toilet. However, when I removed the toilet (hoping to send a snake camera down), I found the drain pipe pointing inside house and runs parallel to floor.

I really hope the thermal camera may help me to reduce where need to open the wall. But my out wall has brick on outside, and kitchen cabinet on inner side. Will thermal camera works in such situation? I mean possible to take thermal photo through bricks or cabinet?

(TX is very warm this year, no freezing)

 

Do you know where in your house the main stack (main drain) is? That might help determine the path of the pipes. It's possible your main stack is near the linen closet instead of on the outside wall. Though that of course doesn't help with your leakage issue.

Just to confirm when you ran the bath for a while, you saw leakage. When you ran the toilet a few times (after the water dried), you saw leakage again? Same with the toilet?

 

More than likely a waste-water leakage, from some source, which, in any event, will involve opening up the wall or floor cavity to make the repair. Certainly better to do that from the inside, removing flooring, areas of wall and cabinets etc. Who knows what other damage may be exposed in simply fixing the leak. A larger hole, giving full exposure and work room, is often easier to repair than trying to minimize one just for access.

 

Looking at the fixture configuration, my first thought is the bath waste trap or its connection to the main toilet stack, if the connection is close to the toilet and not under the middle of the floor somewhere. I'd start removing cabinets and drywall directly under the tub and go from there. A thermal camera isn't going to give you much more information than you already have and would not work well on your outside wall. It might help pinpointing the leak source but you will have to do some demo to get to it anyway.

 

Andy Mann, obvious you have great experience!
Finally, I hired plumber company. The spent hrs to allocate the pipes. And made a hole at the bottom of cabinet. Obvious water is from upper somewhere.

Then they stopped work asking for additional 1400$ to fix that without where is the exact location of leakage...

Now I'm waiting for the restoration company to come over to know what will be their plan to make repair.

Hopefully, I can combine pipe repair and wall repair together to save some money.

Seems this will be thousands dollar bill....may even more

 

That stinks, but at least it sounds like you're making progress.

I would definitely call your insurance company before you go much further. It's always questionable whether something like this will be covered or not, but it sounds like it'll be worth asking and having an adjuster out to figure it out.

Good luck!

 

Restoration company come over with moisture meter and thermal camera, concluded there is no need for them to be involved - no mold no structure damage. I only need to get pipe damage repaired.

The leakage is behind kitchen cabinets; according to restoration company there is contactor can dissemble cabinets without damage them. Because restoration company was referred by plumber, they ask me to contact plumber first see if they have same contractor to do that. Otherwise, they can provide me a contactor.

I will call original cabinets company next week, see if they may remove cabinet for me. Seems to me, it is not very difficult to dissemble cabinets - just need to find a tool to cut few brad nail at top. Once cabinet removed, I think I can remove the dry wall by myself, even fix pipes.

I will post progress here, hopefully left some clue for later anybody experience similar.

Regarding insurance, my insurance company said this is covered if cost will be over 1% deductible. And they covers damage, but not pipe repair. Basically open the wall and closing wall is covered, pipe repair is not covered.

 

Finally find a good handyman, who removed the cabinet, opened the wall and fixed the leakage. Cabinet was installed back without any damage!

The leakage was due to a hole drilled on the drain pipe, the hole seems left from newbuilding stage! My god, what was the quanlity control! So wish I can claim the cost to builder.