Hi All,

I'm staying in a condominium and recently my unit below had experienced water leakage in their master bathroom and caused water stains on their plaster ceiling.

The management contacted me and claimed it is the unit's owner that staying above the affected unit should hold the responsibility in fixing it, which I did.

The contractor came, broke the toilet bowl in my bathroom, drilled a hole in the affected area and re-filled with cement and a new toilet bowl was installed.

We leaving the plaster ceiling in the below bathroom sealed with a plastic cover for temporary observation, but then after 2 weeks later, my neighbours that staying at the below unit told me that there are waters accumulated on the plastic cover, which we thought that the problem is not fixed.

I contacted the contractor again and they came for another round, this time they flushed my bathroom with plenty of waters for around 20 minutes, but then there is no trace of water leakage, which is weird.

The contractor made a conclusion that this might have due to the condensation water and is not due to the water leakage, which I thought was a bit unconvincing. Still, we are unable to discover any obvious water leakage sign, even though we tried to flood the above bathroom with waters.

Is it really as what the contractor claim it is? the condensation water and will the problem be gone if I seal the plaster ceiling? which he claimed yes. I really need an advice from others.

Here are the two photo that I took recently.


The first photo is about the waters that accumulated on the plastic cover, this is left for around a month time.


The second photo is the waters are crystallized, you can see it coming from the ceiling and all the way down to the pipe. I had shown the photo to my contractor, still, he is stick with his condensation water conclusion.

Thank in advanced.

Then you should ask the contractor, where does the condensation happen and ask him to do proper insulation for it. He probably doesn't know how to solve it.

Apart of that, the crystallized spot is cold or sandy like salts?

I did try, but the problem is he very insisting is due to condensation, he told me that he can come again but what should he do if still no obvious trace of water leakage. For him, water leakage is happening immediately when flooding water in above bathroom and there should be more water leaking. I hoping to get some ideas here.

Yes, it is sandy like salts.

This post has been edited by grey1217: Jan 15 2018, 04:44 PM

Sandy like salts means toilet water leaked (salt water leakage AKA urine). It looks like the water dripping from top of the pipe, not the pipe itself leaking.

Since he's so persistence, then look for another contractor..

Crystallized water means only 1 thing......water is absorbing through substrate that has calcium....in other word....water is seeping through(very slowly) cement joint or seeping through cement.

Likely plumbing work is good but cement work is bad....
U could use Pentens T100 after u prime with Pentens T007

True, might think of doing so.

I see, is this thing we can apply directly to the current cement? Thanks for the advice

Your 2nd picture top left is it crystallised on the cement can trace further?
might be coming from above or above intermediate unit.

Your contractor may be half right. Sometimes the concrete slab can retain water and it takes quite a while to fully drain away even after you have fixed the leak. Suggest to clear the water on the plastic and observe again. If it is significantly less after two weeks then is possibly fixed.

is it possible the leaking area is actually not where the plumber drilled but maybe another point and somehow there's a void between the 2 points & the leaking area? because water proofing also just use waterproof cement. if during construction it was not done properly there may have internal cracks.

if it's urine water, then the water must be leaking from some pipes. did the plumber check all the pipes are properly closed off? sometimes the leak is so minor you won't notice it immediately. if condensation there should be no smell.

also maybe the leak is still inside the floor and takes time for water to escape.

is the unit still under warranty? if it's proven to be defect even if it's over the warranty period i think developer still responsible.

bookmarked for future reference. very informative.

also the plaster ceiling needs to be replaced after water issue is fixed. can see some of the bracket already rusted?

that would cost few hundred to fix.

I am no expert in this thing....from my reading in its technical spec, the priming by 007 can be done on moist surface followed by T100(After several hours).
Do go to Pentens website and read.....lots of youtube about it.I think is Taiwan product.

U can use Pentens u can use Sika......lots brand out there.

Yes, we did clear the water and observe for another few weeks, the problem still there.

I'm thinking to stop using that bathroom for a while then try flooding it with water and see how it go.

We do thought of that, but it right underneath the toilet bowl actually, so the whole cement was drill through and the toilet bowl had broken into pieces and installed a new one.

Actually, the leakage is right beneath my toilet bowl, so they break my toilet bowl into pieces and drilled through the cement and re-installed everything back.

The pipe seems fine, the water is coming/appearing from the cement, maybe because they didn't put any waterproofing stuff, as I recalled.

Maybe I should stop using that bathroom for a while, just to ensure there is no more water leakage then only I flooding the bathroom with water for few hours, hopefully, able to discover/prove something. What do you think?

Thanks for the advise ya!

Try not to use the toilet bowl for awhile and see if the problem persists and how much leakage if it is still occurring. Might not be a cause but not using your toilet bowl will help you rule it out in the event its not the cause.

Can try get some food dye to confirm that.

That's a great idea too, will do that, thanks!

Are you saying to mix the colouring into the waters on my top floor, if the leaking water appeared to be coloured, then it is definitely water leakage?

That sounds like a brilliant idea bro!

may or may not work, we don't know how the concrete will absorb the color dye, you might still end up seeing same thing.

True, anyway, is worth to try. Thank for the suggestion!

Black will be easy, no harm trying.

Just make sure the dye you use can be easily wash away.

Try using washable water colour.