Water appearing under house - Drainage or leakage problem

[Samwise]

My house is a 75 year old 'red brick' semi, with a 3 foot void under the floor. About 5 weeks ago a smell appeared in the porch, which after initially was thought to be gas - it wasn't, as it turned out to be about about 1"-2" ponds of water that had appeared under the house.

My last visit under the floor was just before Christmas, and in living there 18 years have never experienced this before. I called out the water board emergency insurance but they didn;t seem to understand what was causing it. I have just removed the majority of the water with a industrial water vac (500-600 litres of it), but much of the soil is so damp that it will take some time to dry out - I am trying to help this along by using a dehumidifier down there.

What I wanted was some advice as to what could suddenly cause this. Unfortunately I haven't had time to determine whether it re-appears when it rains. A couple of things that I can say is that there are no obvious leaks in the lead incoming water main, and also that the water does not appear soapy so I would suspect that it is not coming from the kitchen or bathroom drains.

Anyway help or advice would really be appreciated.

[Ambrose]

I get this problem as well, althogh dont have as much water under there as you have. my house is a semi which was built in 1936 and has a 2ft - 3ft deep area under the floor. Iv had people in to have a look at this, but again no ones been able to come up with any answers to how it gets there.

Can anyone on here help?

[steve r]

The water could be coming from a number of sources, foul, surface water or even the central heating.
You can buy water tracing dye in several different colours,
to find or eliminate the source.
If you pour some dye of one colour into say the toilet and another colour into your gutters and so on, you may get a result. The dye is food grade and biodegradable so it is completely safe to use.

[Ambrose]

Thanks for that m8, i know which dye you mean, ill get on with it and post back on here after ive done it.

[Ambrose]

ive tried the dye in the various places as suggested, i actually did this on wednesday, and after having a look at it a couple of times over the past few days, there is still no trace of this dye. However the water level hasnt changed much either, so is it possible it could be rain??

[flowjoe]

Water ingress to sub-floors is usually due to leaking drains, rising ground water level, silted land drainage or burst water feeds.

You can usually tell if it is foul water by the colour, smell and there is usually an oily film on top of the standing water. A burst water feed would mean the ingress is constant, and obviousley any ingress from a leaking storm drain/blocked land drain would be in keeping with rainfall.

The trouble with water is it takes the path of least resistance so the dye testing may not be showing results becaues the water is not originally from your property.

A simple water analysis test can determine if their is ecoli (foul waste)in the sample, if the water is potable(mains) or if the problem is ground water related. The test normally costs around £60.00 but can eliminate one or two possibilities, therefore saving time and money looking in the wrong direction.

I am Mcr based so will be happy to help/assist as necessary

[steve r]

Could be surface water from outside, and as it's been fairly dry lately that might account for the water level being static.
If you have radiator central heating, I've one more suggestion.
Switch the heating on and make sure the room stat is turned up, then have a look in the expansion tank in your loft (thats the little one).
The ballcock should be closed and no water running into it,
If there is, then it is also escaping somewhere.
As it's been warmer of late the heating wouldn't have been working as hard as during the winter so less water would escape.
Long shot I know but worth a look.
Best of luck.