Do you think i have a leaky furnace or leaky water heater?

Question

Just moved into a brand new house last week. My sister was doing laundry and the next time she went in to room of the furnace and heater, the carpet was wet. We had heavy heavy amounts of rain 2 days ago, and it's been pretty cold for the past three days. Would anyone have an idea what to do?

Answer 1

Well, I would start by turning on the hot water in the bathroom, then I'd go into the furnace room and check the water heater. As the hot water is running out of the faucet in the bathroom, fresh cold water will be running into the water heater. Therefore you can start inspecting your water heater for leaks, check all the places the piping connects first, as you may just have a weak pipe connection somewhere, maybe a union not tightened? Then, check to be sure that the drain valve on the bottom of the water heater is fully closed, maybe leaking slowly outta there. I'd say by fully looking over the water heater from top to bottom, will not only be the easiest, but will probably eliminate the leak...good luck..

Answer 2

I noticed that you said it's been raining heavy . I used to rent a house and when it rained heavy the vent pipe that goes through the roof would leak water. It could be the problem you have if your using gas appliances.It could be either the rain is blowing into the cap on the top or the rubber boot that is supposed to seal the pipe off at the roof is cracked or not installed properly and the heavy rains are running down the pipe into the floor. good luck .

Answer 3

First understand that this could be an extremely dangerous situation. You haven't provided sufficient details or the kinds of utilities and nature of the floor for me to determine more, but let's work this out by likely-hood. A basement is a concrete box sunk in a hole. When it rains from above water penetrates the earth and "seeks" to equalize itself amongst the particles of the earth. This water sinking down, when it reaches below the depth of the basement floor, converts this verticle force to horizontal as the basement floor had not let any rain water through. Water seeks its own height like in a U tube so when by osmosis it flows under the floor it seeks its way upward and the carpet acts as a sponge as even though concrete may look solid, it is often poured unevenly and over time as it ages it becomes porous like a sponge or has cracks from temperature changes and application of physical forces. You must throw out this carpet as there is a 100% chance it is a source of very harmful mold, mildew, rug mites and more. If this is the problem you need to take various measures. Install a sump pump. Lay a new concrete floor that seals all he way up the walls. Consider installing an interior "French Drain" that runs, by gravity slope, from below the floor along the walls to a "dry well" outside and below the perimeter of the house. Oh, and the sump pump should be evacuated into the sewer line or the dry well you would create. NEXT if the problem were a water or furnace leak you could have one hell of a flood with dangerous electrical grounding. You might quickly place taped together waxed paper or waterproof plastic film on the floor with dry newspaper or other absorbaant paper all around and under said utilities and wait and watch for dripping. If there is dripping, shut off the water supply to the heater, turn off its power at the breaker box and call a professional plumber immediately. If the heater is fired by gas, shut off the source at the tank or where it comes in from the street. IF THERE IS ANY STANDING WATER, DON'T APPROACH IT, CALL YOUR UTILITY COMPANIES OR PLUMBER IMMEDIATELY. (I've got a lot more to add but for brevity that's all now, you can reach me at: [e-mail] and I'll do my best to add $.02 more.

Answer 4

Putting it simply and quickly the builder should have a warranty on the house for at least a year, it's called "pick-up" to go back and pick up any defects on the property that have occurred since signing off on the Realtor.
Contact the Realtor that sold the house, they should have full details of the deal.

Answer 5

If its a brand new house, I would call the builder/general contractor for warranty work. If its an existing home purchased, then you should have something like American Home Shield to cover repairs and damages.