Toilet soil pipe leak (disgusting pictures inside)

soupdragon

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A little while ago I was standing on the toilet (should have used a stool in hindsight) and the toilet moved a little.

We noticed the below ceiling developing 2 wet patches but at the time, I assumed it was cleaning the shower and basin and removing the waste and pouring water down it. A friend did this and the water all ran down the walls, as apparently, on some waste fittings, when you remove them, you shouldn't pour water down.

Anyways, just last night, water started dripping in the down stairs ceiling so I shut the upstairs water off, to be investigated.

I removed the toilet and it's not pretty. The leak is where the toilet waste joins the exterior pipe is where the leak is.

I'll get a plumber in to make good, not an issue.

My issue is the residual damage. The down stairs ceiling is still firm to the touch, but will it need replaced? Parts of it look mouldy.

The damage is in 2 locations, directly below the toilet but strangely, another large patch a couple of feet away.

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The bit beside the projector is a few feet away from the toilet. Would the water have meandered along here....or have I got a shower leak at the exact same time!?

Next issue is the upstairs wall and maybe floor. The plaster is a mess. It all fell away when I removed the toilet. Really dirty and black, and I'm worried if it's mould. Do I need to rip the tiles off on the wall and floor too? And then put new plaster board on? It's a timber frame house. Behind the plaster is a yellowy fluffy insulation from what I can see, and presumably exterior brick beyond that.

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In summary, I think the underlying issue is just the toilet where the waste join is (and hopefully not the shower). The big question is how far I need to go with the repair work. Is it just fix what's visible or do I need to rip the tiles off, both wall and floor, and does downstairs ceiling need replaced?
 
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Ok, remove the pictures of your household’s bodily waste or put them in spoiler tags.

Nobody needs to be subjected to this, and no, this isn’t negotiable.
 
Ok, remove the pictures of your household’s bodily waste or put them in spoiler tags.

Nobody needs to be subjected to this, and no, this isn’t negotiable.
Will do..post now edited. I've also removed a closer up photo that wasn't pretty so the remaining ones hopefully aren't too bad looking.
 
I've just removed a tile and this is what my main concern is. Damp and or mould seems to have spread along. I think the only solution here is to rip all the tiles off where the damp has got to, then replace?
I've edited out the soil pipe so you don't have to look at it.

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What has been seen cannot be unseen (downside to Moderating GC’s WCs)
 
One of the disadvantages of having a fully shrouded back to wall close coupled WC. Rip out all the damaged plasterboard and start again. Something tells me the shower might be leaking too.
 
One of the disadvantages of having a fully shrouded back to wall close coupled WC. Rip out all the damaged plasterboard and start again. Something tells me the shower might be leaking too.
What do you think of the secondary leak then...shower, and not water from the Toilet meandering along?
 
Directly below the shower is bone dry and when I lift the carpet in the bedroom, in line with the shower, still dry. There is about 30cm gap between the end of shower tray and the long wet patch on the ceiling.
 
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This pic shows the shower tray and waste location above.
 
And the floor in the bedroom which is right beside shower. No sign of any water damage at all. Very confusing!
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There are a couple of spots where the plsterboard is screwed into the joists, and 2 small water marks here. I can visibly see the outline of the screws. This is what is making me think the water has travelled along. The 2 marks are in a straight line between the toilet stain and the other stain.

It's also because the long unknown stain is 120cm from the edge of the wall where the toilet is, with the shower tray being 155cm min to 225cm max away from the same wall. I just don't get it.

I've resigned myself that the wall and wall tiles need stripped back, but need to establish if the floor needs the same treatment. Starting to look like quite a big job!

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The long edge 120cms from the wall is more than likely the edge of the plasterboard. Water tends to find it's way to the edges of plasterboard hence you see this mark and the other weak points where the screws penetrate the board. The issue (for me) - is there any nasty stuff in any volume sitting above this board? More than likely the board is just damp as the water came from the Ubend on the toilet, so not a continuous flow leaking.
 
Water will track to the lowest point - so it can travel quite some distance along a beam until it meets the plaster board.

I would agree that the tiling needs to come out, the leaks identified and sealed and then the damage repaired. You may get away without replacing the ceiling, but it depends how saturated the plaster board has become. If it smells, replace it.
 
Thanks for the replies folks, appreciated! Yes @Dony the house is only 4 years old but apparently plumbing is only covered for 2 years under NHBC. The odd thing is, where the toilet waste joins the exterior pipe, it's just pushed in. There was no seal to join them. Maybe this is normal, don't know.

On my insurance, it's says 'escape water excess' £300 but I'm not sure if it covers this type of thing. Will ring them in the morning to find out.

Not my most favourite weekend I've had lol!
 
Could have nothing to do with the shower. The problem is that the vast majority of showers I rip out have some kind of leak. I’m not there to rip out because of a leak, just to replace the Bathroom.

The ‘finned’ pan connector does indeed just push into the main soil pipe, that’s it.
 
The long edge 120cms from the wall is more than likely the edge of the plasterboard. Water tends to find it's way to the edges of plasterboard hence you see this mark and the other weak points where the screws penetrate the board. The issue (for me) - is there any nasty stuff in any volume sitting above this board? More than likely the board is just damp as the water came from the Ubend on the toilet, so not a continuous flow leaking.
Just dug this old photo out when I was building the house. As shown, you can see the lines of the plaster board joins. As you mention, 1.2m from the edge of the wall (right next to the projector cabling) is where the leak is, at the exact same point and line direction of the plaster join.
To add, the shower hadn't been used since Friday morning, the toilet was used on Sat evening and the water started dripping from the ceiling on Sat evening.
I'm still not ruling out a shower issue, but the pointers are now suggesting toilet issue only. I really hope that's the case!
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If they just used plasterboard and jointing compound for the shower walls, the failure will happen eventually.
 
If they just used plasterboard and jointing compound for the shower walls, the failure will happen eventually.
The bathroom and ensuite were all done in a different type of board, it was a green colour, but looked much the same as plasterboard, ie, long, wide and thin. Are you familiar with that and if so, is it up to the job?
 
This is the plumbing underneath. The whole idea of this system is zero joins so all connections are above the surface.

The white pipes feed radiators, basins, toilet inlets and showers. The white pipes for the shower even come out the wall and then connected to the actual shower unit itself - and that connection looks sound. I've inspected all the seals around shower edges and tray and all look as they should.

This is the plumbing, same ceiling that has the wet patches but a mirror image, ie, wet patches are to the right (think the camera was upside down or something when I took it)

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Most likely the toilet outflow. I would therefore consider replacing the ceiling as it's going to be contaminated to some extent. Probably use your nose though!!
 
Most likely the toilet outflow. I would therefore consider replacing the ceiling as it's going to be contaminated to some extent. Probably use your nose though!!
Yes. Bit of a job that but I think it needs to be done.
 
I guess I could run some Dolby Atmos speaker cable while I'm at it ;)
 

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