I just got a house on the market last week that I had been working on for over a year. I went in on Saturday afternoon and noticed some water on the floor on the first floor. And I looked up at the ceiling and the 12 inch tiles were droop down and sagging. I thought oh no here we go. I just stopped by there and even after shutting the water off on Saturday, I noticed more water and some of the ceiling tiles were now on the floor. What I ended up finding out, is the flapper valve in the toilet has a slow leak and you don’t really notice it. And every 15 or 20 minutes it will drain the tank out in the tank will refill. What’s happening in this 1 foot short length of horizontal sewer pipe, the old lead has somehow cracked enough just to let the water that lays in that pipe drip out into the ceiling. Now it was happening up on the lathe and plaster which is above the 12 x 12 tiles. So it was happening while I was there towards the end of the job and not noticing it. But it built up Enough that it brought the ceiling down on me. I have to cut out drain lines and Feenco some new PVC. Thankfully, I found this before tenants moved in or it would’ve been a nightmare to try to fix this while occupied. I’m not sure how it happened, because it wasn’t doing this with the previous tenants. I’m guessing that just the moving and shaking of house during the remodel was enough to just jar that loose a little bit to start leaking. Never a dull moment in this business.

Good catch and timing.

I'm sure you checked all the other drains,etc for similar leaks.

Problems of that nature (mechanical) never stop.

They may slow-down, but they never stop.

With anything - if ya want something to happen, take it on.

Unusual for sure, lead is pretty forgiving stuff. About the only thing that gets it is repetitive flexing. Maybe a floor joist is cracked or the sub floor under the toilet is shot and letting the toilet flex enough to cause the pipe to crack.

Good catch.

Another week and you could be dealing with a lot more trouble.

We renovated a foreclosure property earlier this year, major job. But we found a total of 14, yes, 14 active water leaks. Roof, rain coming in around windows, supply, and waste lines.

House was occupied until two months before rehab.

I was thinking the same thing Zero. I have seen lead in joints but never a lead pipe in a house. Just the same, that pipe should probably be replaced.

If he doesn't do it now history has shown me that it will come back to bite him at a very inopportune time.