Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) Leaking on the Job

We home inspectors inspect all kinds of domiciles. We go in modest houses and some very fancy, and expensive, homes. And, regardless of the cost of the house, we never really know what we are going to find. Sometimes, what you do find, is surprising.

Several months back, I was inspecting a main level bathroom at a nice custom-built house in north Bellingham. It had been lived in for a few years, prior to being sold. The bath was located right above another bathroom in the finished basement. I was, simply, running water into the tub -- nothing fancy or exotic.

All of a sudden, I heard a big commotion and yelling from down below. I knew that a realtor and my clients were downstairs, so I shut off the water to find out what was going on. It ends up that there was a big leak, hidden location, apparently at the trap under the tub drain. Water was coming out the trap and then streaming down from the can lights in the basement bath.

I was really glad that someone was downstairs because, had I run a significant amount of water upstairs, prior to going downstairs, I would have found a real mess. It is not customary, when checking fixtures in a larger house, to be running back and forth between floors. Spotters below, and a cleanup crew, were very helpful in this case. Since the water came out the can lights, this leak had not left ceiling stains that were readily apparent from below. The seller had moved out of the house a couple months before, and was unaware of the problem, so maybe it was a new one that just occurred. Then again, maybe the former occupants bathed in the basement bath. Hard to tell but oddities like this are one reason that people need to hire home inspectors.