Delray Beach Shared Drain Stack Leak Located & Repaired

kevanmackie3
Jul 10
2 min read

Overview

Southeastern Leak Detection was contacted by client after noticing intermittent water pooling near the guest bathroom and laundry room drain lines. Moisture appeared unpredictably and seemed tied to drain usage, prompting a full diagnostic inspection of the shared drain stack.

Challenge

The primary challenge was determining why water was escaping from the drain system only during certain fixture usage and why the issue appeared intermittently. Because the drain stack is shared vertically with the upstairs neighbor, the leak could originate from either unit’s plumbing activity. The goal was to identify the exact failure point within the shared system.

Inspection Process

Technicians performed a structured diagnostic inspection that included:

Drain Stack Evaluation

Assessed the drain stack serving the guest bathroom and laundry area.
Confirmed that the upstairs unit’s bathroom and laundry room tie into the same vertical stack.

Cleanout & Escutcheon Assessment

Inspected cleanout caps and surrounding drywall.
Identified two screw penetrations through the cleanout caps, likely caused when escutcheons were previously fastened directly into the caps.

Leak Replication

Ran water through both the client’s fixtures and the upstairs neighbor’s fixtures.
Observed water escaping through the screw holes during drain usage from either unit.

This confirmed that the leak was directly tied to compromised cleanout caps rather than a failure in the drain piping itself.

Findings

The inspection revealed:

The drain stack was functioning normally except for the cleanout caps.
Two screw holes in the cleanout caps created direct pathways for wastewater to escape.
Because the drain stack is shared, any drain usage from either unit caused water to leak into the lower unit.
The intermittent pooling was consistent with shared fixture usage patterns.