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Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:51 pm
by kev
Please can you advise? we have recently moved into a 1930's house. While having the place rewired the Electrician noticed a small amount of water beneath the floorboards in the lounge and dining room. We weren't too concerned at first but we have now become alarmed! Two days ago we lifted the floorboards while doing some work and found a foot!(12") of water beneath them. WE have no idea where it is coming from. Last month we had the old lead water pipe changed, the people who changed it said the water at that time could have been from the lead pipe leaking but now that it has been changed it cannot be that. Our house is at the foot of an incline. On the public highway at the top of our front garden are two drainhole covers and above them are two drains/overflow/soakaways? (not sure of the technical terms ) Recently it has rained very hard, one day last week the street became flooded and it took an age for the rain water to drain from the roads. We do not know if there is any connection between this and the water beneath the floorboards? This water at the 12" level has been like this for the last 3 days and is showing little signs of subsiding...The Water board have come out today to take a sample of the water. Yet they didn't offer any suggestions on the cause or source,they were not sure. We just had the whole ground floor damp proofed. We are very worried and are not sure where to turn. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:59 pm
by danensis
You say you have had the whole of the ground floor "damp proofed". What was done? If you've stoppped the water oming up in one place, its probably decided to come up in another.

Is any part of your land lower than your sub-floor void?

Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:37 pm
by kev
When we talked about damp proof we meant the ground floor of the property (walls) where a damp proof course was injected.
The rear garden slopes down away from the property. The garden appears to be at a similar level to the sub floor, if not slightly lower.

Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:44 am
by kev
Hi,
Looks like we've found out the problem. We just had the enviromental health department around to see if they could find the problem. They were very slick and professional. Old skool guys who were prepared to get stuck in rather than scratch there heads like the Water Board. Anyway they put dye in the drains etc. so that we could tell where the water was coming from. Eventually the dye apppeared in the water after flushing the toilet so the there is a break in the the downpipe and it is going under the floorboards. Nice huh! At least we found the source so can deal with it. They always say sh.t luck is good luck so maybe we'll win the lottery this weekend......
Manythanks for help provided.