Sometimes you just have to follow your intuition.

Sometimes you just have to follow your intuition.

An apartment manager had called me regarding a small stream of water coming from the laundry room wall. The water was just enough to keep the sidewalk wet, and even a little mossy. After management shut off one of the washing machines inside the laundry room wall for a few days, the water on the sidewalk stopped. Because of that we knew it was in the drain line and only leaked when the water was being discharged.

We made arrangements to get into the laundry room to open the wall and repair the drain line and patch the wall in one day. This would be less disruptive to the residents and allow all of the machines to be functioning right away. You’d be surprised how troublesome even one “down” unit can become.

We opened the wall and found the leak right away. It was a hairline crack that was dripping water when we filled the drain line. But something still seemed wrong. Call it intuition, common sense, or dumb luck but something made me want to open the wall some more. There were no signs of a second problem, the water outside was in line with the leak inside, but I had to check. I had that feeling.

In opening the wall further, we discovered there were two additional leaks. Three leaks in the ABS drain pipe that all exited the wall in the same place. I think we got lucky on this one. Had I settled with the first crack as being the only leak, I probably would be back again to find the additional leaks today.

Sometimes you just have to follow your intuition.