Water leak, spongy floor, underbelly sagging!

[AbbottsManor]

Help!
I noticed today the area in front of the master bath vanity was very spongy. I found the cold water line at the faucet leaking, dripping and running down the grey pipe (Pb) into the floor. I tightened the line. I looked under the house and found a pool of water, the underbelly sagging way down and what felt like a manifold about to poke through that was also corroded. the leak is at the rear of our 1990 14 x 70 Skyline, also where the water line comes into the home. I don't think the cold water leak caused all that, though. It is too cold here (south Central Pa.) to tear the underbelly out and leave it exposed. Wht might I find if I get the insulation down? What are my options? I know I can repair the floor myself, but not sure about the plumbing. I will check Mark's book for info also. any advice?

Chris

[Brenda (OH)]

since the weather outside is frightful....

maybe start with removing the soggy flooring, and see if between the access under the sink, and the hole in the floor, you can reach alot of the plumbing lines.

leaks are most often at places that have junctions, likes tees, manifolds etc unless someone managed to drill or screw through the pex while doing other work.

or... since it is a bathroom.... might be leaking at the toilet. likely culprits..... wax ring under the toilet.... gasket between the toilet and the tank.... toilet supply line.... the pipe where pipe like part goes into the tank and is part of the toilet float...

other weird places I found leaks in the last two bathroom do overs....

tub related... opened the wall access, found the connector onto tub faucet had cracked and was seeping

while had the wall open.... found an old copper water line that had gone an icemaker that branched off the tub cold water was cut and just folded over and smashed with pliers and the line was shoved under the tub yet still was attached to the water line....

tub faucet..... the new diverter line to the shower was extremely hard to get new line to stop leaking... turns out the speciality connector I had used on the new shower faucet connecters could not be tightened down more than a 1/4 turn past finger tight without shoving the gasket out of place in it causing it to leak (it was not a sharkbite, it was a flair-it brand I had to use for an oddsized older plastic supply line)

and just for kicks..... I replaced plastic shut off valves to washer with brass ones... had three brass boiler valves leak that I tried leak where they went into a brass adapter between them and the pex, leak at the valve side part. had used teflon tape, and then the teflon pipe dope no good. hot line, put on the valve, finger tight, then 1/4 turn, ok.. cold water side, did same thing, leak,.... tighten up.... leak.... tighten up... . leak... repeat off and on for 1/2 hour. I opened up the connection, I had had the brass to brass so tight it had shaved off brass from the pex adapter part... tried another valve and adapter..... same thing.....

the brass boiler valves were made in china... took the part into home depot, showed the plumbing dept. guy. he noticed the valves were not smooth inside where the adapter was to sit.

we ended-up having to go through a whole boxful of the boiler valves to find two boiler values that had totallly smooth surfaces where they (female) were going to be tightened into the brass male adapter that had the pex barb on them. they did not leak.

I was told the fix to this problem in future wit might be to get a brass valve with the male fitting instead of the female fitting, and to look for pex female adapters that come with a gasket in them.

in general, the pex repairs are not impossible, book probably covers 95% of it, the last 5% will be the weird stuff, like older types of plastic plumbing, bad choices other folks made on previous repairs, parts used that no longer exist and you have to make substitutions.... some folks swear by the sharkbite and gaterbrand parts for repairs. I have had good luck wit them, but they have not been on the market a long time, so who knows long term?

it may be cost effect for you to check the toilet related stuff, do the floor demolition yourself, and then hire a pex friendly mobile home repair person to do just the plumbing. there is lots of info in the books and on the site on how to replace the bathroom flooring.

so..... happy hunting.... other than the drain line, a lot of the plumbing is possible from top side if the floor is out... and in a lot of cases you can put extra insulation in from the top side too if the belly wrap is intact.... and double check the underbelly in the spring...

Brenda

[Brenda (OH)]

I meant I tried the teflon tape, when it leaked, removed it and replaced it with teflon pipe dope... BB

[Greg]

Chris, first things first. Get the leak stopped, If all it is is just a loose fitting, great, go get your lottery ticket luck is on your side today. One of the problems with PB tubing was the crimp ring would corrode and let the water leak by the barbed fitting.

I would let the floor dry out for now & plan on replacing the floor when the weather warms if iiiiiithat is possible. The problem with partical board is that it turns to mush when it gets soaked. As for the underbelly, if you make a few small slices in it the water will drain. Plan on replacing the insulation also, once it is soaked it is usually ruined also. If your skirting is in good shape, you can work under your home with a heater and not be too cold. Greg