Lana

You're probably only here for an update on the leak but now you're a little distracted. I'll give it a minute.

Right, so in my head there was one possibility for an upstairs leak that needed to be eliminated. As is sensible, the cavities in which soil stacks live are used to take pipes and cables up and down stairs and this being an old house and much in need of insulation and damp proofing, the downstairs rooms are actually rooms within rooms - the old stone walls each lined with damp proof membrane, covered in insulation and with a timber frame constructed to hold plasterboard. It's possible that water is running down the pipe cavity and down to the ground, unseen. So, the idea was to drill through the plasterboard and use a little endoscope to inspect the area where the pipes come down. Alas, the plastic membrane is covering the cavity and I wasn't about to drill through that but there was no sign of any dampness. That was me at the end of my investigations.

The next stage would involve professionals. Again, without doing anything destructive it would be possible to drain down the heating system and instal taps to shut off the three branches of pipework and then refill and pressurise the system, which would allow us to, for example, isolate the underfloor heating and see if the pressure held up. If it does, you know the leak is under the floor and since there are two branches to the underfloor heating, you can find out if it's the kitchen or the sitting room that needs to be emptied and have its floor ripped up. Maple firewood from the kitchen or oak from the sitting room. 

The company that did the boiler installation was called, the problem outlined and luckily, as they had a man in the area this afternoon on another job, he popped in to have a look and make a plan. It turns out that the underfloor heating, my main suspect, could already be shut off so he did that, the system was pressurised and he went away. So far it looks promising. There's still pressure being lost but very slowly and it may settle (there's been gallons of water added so there's air to make its way out) and it's possible that the little valve he closed doesn't completely close - it's a flow regulator so maybe it is never intended to cut the flow to zero, I don't know.

Anyway, that's the story so far. I'll let you get back to Lana.