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Radiant floor leak

bobj49f2

Banned
Joined
Nov 13, 2009
Messages
430
Location
SE Wisconsin
For the first time this year I fired up the hot water radiant floor heat system in my sunroom and found what I thought to be a leak.

Here's the story, as short as I can make it. The floor is tiled with ceramic tile. There was a hot tube on the floor when we moved in. The tube hadn't been used in a while before we moved in and when I first started it I found numerous leaks in the pipe joins. I ended up wrapping the joints with stretchable silicone tape. That seemed to work for a year or so but last spring a large complicated T cracked and I gave up and cut the tub up into little bite sized pieces and hauled it out. I noticed about a half dozen tiles under where the tube was were loose.

I started the floor system up this fall and the area where two of the tiles were removed filled with water, great, I have a leak somewhere in the cement floor. Well, I can't afford to tear up the floor and repair the leak so I was just going to cut the water from that section and leave the room unheated. For some reason my wife decided to turn the temp up on the floor and the area that was wet dried up and the floor heated up. When I started it the first time this year the floor wouldn't heat up. Now it seems to be working fine and the floor is staying dry, we've had it running for 2-3 days.

Two things I think might be happening:

1. For some odd reason the system has a leak but by circulating the water through the system it's sucking the water back into the system and not allowing the water to leak out. Odd, I know, but I also know water does strange things.

2. There is a deck in the room with stairs that leads from the living room into the sunroom. Under the deck there is a toe kick heater, the type usually used under a kitchen sink to keep your feet warm while standing at the sink. This is connected circuit of the water system but it could have a leak in one it's hoses under the deck and allowed water to leak out but don't know why it would stop leaking now. We don't turn it on unless we plan to be in the room so most of the time it's off.

I would just like to know why it would stop making the floor wet.
 
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dfiler2

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 15, 2014
Messages
2,860
Location
NW Minnesota
How wet does it get, is it possible that it's just condensation? Under some conditions it's amazing how much moisture can be pulled out of the air.
 
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bobj49f2

Banned
Joined
Nov 13, 2009
Messages
430
Location
SE Wisconsin
When we first noticed it this year there was about 1/4" of water pooled in the place where the tile was removed. I removed the tile because after I removed the hot tub I had to drywall the wall the tub was up against. In the picture you can see there is still some dampness in the exposed area but it's no where near as wet as it got before. What is there I think is just residual wetness. As I stated we've had it running for 2-3 days and this is as wet as it's been. Before there was a very noticeable amount of water.

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