After Laura changed the shower head in the Master Bathroom, she noticed that water was coming thru the ceiling on the stairs under the shower when I was taking a shower. So I set up our funky folding ladder on the curving stairs so that I could cut a hole in the dry wall behind the shower.
Drywall Hole to see the back of the Shower
I discovered that there is about a 3 foot gap from the drywall to the back of the shower. Not very useful for attempting to find and fix the leak. So I cut a hole in the guest room to get closer to the back of the shower.
Guest Room Hole To access the back of the Shower
This worked. So I fired up the shower and spent the next 20 minutes watching for a leak. No leak. Bummer. I put a different shower head that I could turn off in order to put the maximum pressure on the pipes and still no leak. I now have 2 big holes in my drywall and no leaks. It is good thing we didn’t call an expensive plumber to find this out. And now that Laura has seen all the wasted space behind the shower, she wants me to put in a new closet or some kind of storage space in there.
My current plan is to go back to using the master bathroom shower until it leaks again. I will leave the holes in the guest room drywall and try to fix the stair’s drywall hole.
If it leaks, then I will know where it is leaking. And I will try to figure out how to use the wasted space in my walls.
Monday Update: It leaked this morning, but not from the pipes to the shower. We discovered a path that water could splash out of the shower stall and leak thru the floor. So…. I poked holes in my Drywall for nothing. I just need to seal the floor better and to keep the splash out to a minimum.