Stain, soft floor or suspected hidden leak: check it step by step

Safety look

Before any reading: is anything like this on site?

A gas smell at a heater, an appliance, gas piping or anywhere on site
Water reaching a panel, an outlet, a light or powered equipment, or standing around a powered heater or pump, at the wet area or in the rooms below it
Sewage on surfaces or electrical parts, or something toxic or caustic that may be in the drinking water
Water running that cannot be stopped at a fixture stop, a branch valve or the main
A ceiling or floor sagging, bulging or holding water, or framing that looks damaged near the wet area
A relief valve or its pipe capped or plugged on a working heater or boiler
A carbon monoxide alarm, or exhaust spilling or soot at a gas or oil appliance near the wet area
Ground, paving or a slab sinking, washing out or undermined near a buried water line or the meter, or an open trench or pit where the leak may be

Taken as what you could see, not as a finding that none of these are present.

What decides which causes can apply

0 of 3

A few signs belong to a different problem: a water heater, a running toilet or a heating loop.

What shows that water is getting out?

Nothing on this page is saved anywhere: the answers live in its address. General guidance for a qualified person, not a finding about any home. The person on site decides.

Stain, soft floor or suspected hidden leak.

Safety look

What decides which causes can apply