I hired a good contractor who has been in business successfully for years to remodel my 1978 masterbath. We went from a hollywood style vanity area with one sink, a wall and doorway between there and the toilet and shower. We added a new double vanity, toilet and tub (by reducing a deep hall linen closet). My master toilet had overflowed and destroyed my kitchen and then the hall bath toilet leaked into my kitchen. I had a plumbing company come and clean out the main drain lines all the way to the septic tank, which fixed those drainage issues. For future reference they cut into the upstairs drain pipe (ABS) to get the snake through and put it back together with metal rings and sealant (I assume on the sealant part).

Well, everything is now complete and looks great, however, we can't stop the leaks. The first leak was after my 130lb grown daughter took the bath. All was fine until she drained the bath while rinsing her hair using the rainfall shower. Then the drain leaked into the kitchen. My husband had showered that morning and there were no leaks at all. My contractor resealed all the connections in the drain and that problem seems to be fixed. Then the next day after it was fixed she took a shower and we had a leak in another place, my contractor said he was pretty sure it was coming from the hall bath vanity which backs right up to the side of the tub (long side). The cut in the drain the plumbers snaked is in the wall between the new tub and hall vanity.

Okay, so we think everything is fixed and I take my first bath (in the new tub, LOL) this afternoon. I fill it up just to the bottom of the overflow drain (It's a 19" high Jaccuzi primo soaking tub with the primo deep soak drain) spent about 25 to 30 minutes in the tub, use the rainfall and handheld and zero leaks. My contractor turned off the water while I was rinsing my hair because he and his helper were putting in my shiplap kitchen ceiling in and his helper popped a nail into a copper pipe. After that was fixed, about an hour, I got in the shower using mostly the rainfall for about 15 minutes and the handheld for about 5 minutes and low and behold - leaked about enough to 1/2 fill a Home Depot bucket. This leak was from the 2nd area where my contractor did the fix in the hall bath vanity.

We had ABS drains and copper supply lines. He used PVC, drains and PVC type, probably PEX, supply lines for the new plumbing. The guy at Ace thought that it might be the copper connections were blowing due the faster draining and waterflow (they original to the house and are soldered) is this a possiblity? Should all lines be changed? Can this be a back up in the drains? HELP!!!

Any idea or suggestion are greatly appreciated. We can get to all the supply lines through the hall linen closet but the ceiling is all but finished in the kitchen so we can't get to the pipe that was as easy. All fittings are Delta.

Attaching some pictures to hopefully help. Hiring a plumber at this point will totally blow our budget.

 

If you mean a Fernco or no hub coupling there is no sealant. It is rube sealed to the pipe with hose clamps. Maybe they need tightening.

 

Sorry to say, but I think it's best if you blow your budget. I can't tell what's wrong from looking at pictures on a monitor. You need a good plumber on-site, imho.

 

It's hard to follow the full story but you have a leak and the walls need opened up IMO. A plumber might blow your budget but a drywall contractor will not.
I would open up the ceiling/walls and find the leak and fix it, then have a pro fix the walls.
To finish a typical ceiling my pro drywaller would charge me about 2 -$300.00. You might pay more but it's well worth it. The ceiling can look like new if you find a good drywaller and they can have it done in one day.

 

Anyone can make a mistake... but it sounds like from your story, there have been multiple mistakes made with the plumbing. I would be concerned by the second or third time something had to be redone and fixed.

Also, are you sure that's PEX pipe? It looks like it could be CPVC. Pex is attached with rings, CPVC is cemented. I hope it's PEX, because I certainly wouldn't use CPVC these days on much of anything. (not that it's a bad product, but there are better products nowadays).

I too would recommend getting a professional (and licensed) plumber in to take a look at what you have. I would hate to spend as much money as it looks like you have and continue to have plumbing issues.