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I have water seeping up from stone tile in a first floor mud room. I checked in the basement ceiling below these tiles and there does not appear to be any wetness and the water also isn’t coming from the ceiling. I suspect what’s happening is water is getting behind our wood shingles through an old roof line (this is an addition to our house) and finding its way through a crack right about where these tiles are. Who would I call for something like this?

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One other theory I have is that it could be related to a gutter splashblock (there is a gutter downspout right behind this wall) which blew away during a recent wind storm and was only recently replaced (two days ago). That said we have amazingly good drainage here and don’t have any water problems with our basement. I’d be quite surprised if this were it. The foundation appears to be completely dry here.

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  • The pattern seems strange. Why are there discrete little puddles if it is coming from beneath? Could it be dripping down from above?
    – Willk
    Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 1:43
  • Yeah the ceiling above it is totally dry and we also hang coats right above these tiles - these are perfectly dry, as well.
    – Jordan
    Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 1:54
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    I have used a thermal imaging camera (flir) to find impossible to see leaks. The camera has shown where the water was running down a truss into a wall. The camera picked it up and we were able to pin point the leak that was almost 20' away from the damage. They are great for other things like finding leaks in your heating and cooling ducts, and inspecting electrical panels for hot spots that usually means a loose wire.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 13:22
  • @EdBeal did you use the one that attaches to an iPhone or are those trash?
    – Jordan
    Commented Mar 22, 2019 at 15:38
  • Yes I have the pro model, my company used to pay to have a guy check all of our panels, I purchased the lower model and it worked well but I upgraded to the pro model and it works as well as the 15 or 20k model that the guy used for our reports or I can't tell the diference.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Mar 22, 2019 at 18:28

2 Answers 2

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Is this adjacent to a restroom , laundry room , is there a restroom above, the wall adjacent to the tiles , is it a wet wall ( is called like that when all pipes are running on a wall) if it is a wet wall maybe a pipe could be leaking, you will say how ( pipes touching other metals inside the wall they rub against each other and make a hole small one it happened to me, to much explanation . See the plans of the house if you have them. Also the water could be sipping from outside? check that too.

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  • It could be a pipe but the pipes underneath did not appear wet to the touch. That wall is an external wall. The foundation is not saturated there and is about a foot away from the ground. There is also a gutter right there although it seems more likely water would be able to get behind the wood shingles from the old roof line which may not have been properly caulked.
    – Jordan
    Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 0:52
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If you suspect it's a roof problem, then I'd call a roofer.

If (as you mentioned in a comment) there are pipes behind the wall, I'd check that as well. Shut off all the fixtures in your house at the valves (e.g., the vales under your kitchen and bathroom sinks), don't use any water for a few hours and see if your water meter moves at all. If it does, the problem is probably the pipes inside the wall. Keep in mind that if you have a drain pipe inside the wall, that could also be the source of the leak, although your water meter wouldn't be affected if that were leaking.

If it's pipes, then obviously, you'd call a plumber, and possibly someone else to repair the wall after it is cut up to fix the pipes.

You could also get a sense of whether the issue is the roof or the pipes by seeing if you continue to see water on the floor if it has not rained/snowed outside for a long time (and after any snow that might have collected on your roof has melted). No precipitation and continued leaking would suggest the problem is the pipes.

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