The carpet on the very bottom of the bottom riser of our stairs is wet. Nothing else in the hall is and the other side of the adjoining wall is dry. Sadly I can't get under the stairs without ripping a panel off.
Only started this week but from the look of the wood laminate it may have happened before - the slat by the stairs is a bit darker than the other slats.
We think it might be groundwater getting in as we don't know what pipes would be there that wouldn't show leakage anywhere else. The boiler is in the utility room about 6 feet away but surely if it were a boiler pipe it'd show elsewhere?
Anybody have any ideas? Cheers
We got a plumber out to check and long story short the condensate pipe from the boiler is cracked, leaking into the cavity under the stairs. The insurance plumber has come round today and, like the investigator, is gobsmacked at the bad job someone (maybe original builder, it's 18yo, maybe a bodge job on the utility room) has done on the piping to begin with with it going into the wall cavity and he's gobsmacked it's a copper pipe, which condensate eats through. So someone has fucked up.
Home emergency cover is paying for most of the pipe repair, but we need to get someone out to rip holes in plasterboard to check out the damage before buildings insurance will pay for fixes. The brighter lining is that the damage seems to be contained within an empty cubic cavity under the stairs between hall, stairs, utility room and living room, so if we get it fixed and lined we might be able to stick some storage in the unused space. Haven't noticed anything on the living room side of the wall, just the living room door frame next to the bottom step is bowing so will need replacing. Limited to new plasterboard, skirting, timbering in the cavity I hope.
Anyone have any thoughts?
We wanted the entire central hall-stairs-landings carpeting and decorating anyway.... 3 floors of ancient faded magnolia and beige carpet. It looks like a smoking room.