Leaking vent pipes in attic

Ollieprim

I noticed a small water mark in front bedroom, checked attic and found the vent pipes are flexi pipes and one of them is connected to a solid pipe and stuck with duct tape which has unravelled with time and is wet! How would duct tape pass quality inspection as a way of sealing joins in pipes? Anyway there are two vent pipes and two vents one either side of roof, which means one of the vent pipes is travelling across the room.

Had a guy round yesterday and he suggested moving one vent so the pipes don't have to cross the room, and changing the flexi pipe for solid piping. Before I go ahead with any of this,Has anyone had this problem in Charlesland and what did you do to solve the problem?

HappyDaze007

Ollieprim wrote: »

I noticed a small water mark in front bedroom, checked attic and found the vent pipes are flexi pipes and one of them is connected to a solid pipe and stuck with duct tape which has unravelled with time and is wet! How would duct tape pass quality inspection as a way of sealing joins in pipes? Anyway there are two vent pipes and two vents one either side of roof, which means one of the vent pipes is travelling across the room.

Had a guy round yesterday and he suggested moving one vent so the pipes don't have to cross the room, and changing the flexi pipe for solid piping. Before I go ahead with any of this,Has anyone had this problem in Charlesland and what did you do to solve the problem?

Count yourself lucky you got duct tape..!
After seeing the workmanship of these houses I wouldn't let Durkan build me a house out of Lego.!

Your leak is probably coming from the actual vent fixed to the tiles of your roof. Moving pipes so they don't cross your front room is only going to move the problem.

When I was converting our attic I noticed how poor the fan worked from the downstairs toilet, infairness the amount of extracted air could of come from a mouse with asthma..
Also any hot steamy air only condenses in the cold pipe, turns back to water and will eventually run back down the pipe back in to the fan..!

I have feeling Durkan could run this country..!

mrmright

Yeah same problem......changed to the solid pipe....The flexible pipes gather water like a balloon....tried tieing them up and duct tape....ours was gathering water due to wind and rain...In our case the water was dripping down in the vent in the downstairs toilet....sorry not dripping mean poured..... other words the wind was blowing the rain into the vents.....they are a very bad solution in modern builds would recommend you change them for the solid ones

Charlie-Bravo

Don't forget it might actually be condensate water in the pipe where it is from the extraction fan. When the warm humid air from bathroom below passes through to the cold part of the attic, it'll condensate and gravity will bring it to the lowest point, i.e. an dips in the pipe. Ideally, and this is completed in the Wood, is where the ducting is run between the attic joists to vent points at the eaves, and the ducting is covered with insulation reducing the potential for condensation to occur in the pipe.

Please bear in mind the each corner of Charlesland houses/duplexes (Wood, Court, Park and Grove) are completed slightly differently. Some contractors did it slightly differently, but not necessarily correctly!

FirstIn

I'm in the wood. 2 bed terrace. In the attic, pre converting I saw two white flatish ducts which were underneath the insulation and ran horizontally to the eaves. They i believe were for the toilet extraction fans.

Then there was the pipe for venting the soil pipe. i.e the soil stack going to a vented tile in the roof.

Does this differ from the OP setup?

Also, if you look at the roof of the Charlesland wood terrace houses you'll see 2 roof tile vents. What is the second one for ? (I can't see now that my attic is converted)

HappyDaze007

astrofluff wrote: »

Don't forget it might actually be condensate water in the pipe where it is from the extraction fan. When the warm humid air from bathroom below passes through to the cold part of the attic, it'll condensate and gravity will bring it to the lowest point, i.e. an dips in the pipe. Ideally, and this is completed in the Wood, is where the ducting is run between the attic joists to vent points at the eaves, and the ducting is covered with insulation reducing the potential for condensation to occur in the pipe.

Please bear in mind the each corner of Charlesland houses/duplexes (Wood, Court, Park and Grove) are completed slightly differently. Some contractors did it slightly differently, but not necessarily correctly!

As i was saying...

Also any hot steamy air only condenses in the cold pipe, turns back to water and will eventually run back down the pipe back in to the fan..!

Charlie-Bravo

FirstIn wrote: »

Also, if you look at the roof of the Charlesland wood terrace houses you'll see 2 roof tile vents. What is the second one for ? (I can't see now that my attic is converted)

I believe the second one is for inducing ventilation for the attic space up and out where the warm rises from the house below (more for when its converted). This will reduce the potential of condensation on the back of the felt.

Edit: This is generally the idea for a converted attic:

Ollieprim

Thanks everyone for your response, so the conclusion is that it's condensation! No water getting in from vent on the roof after all. I'm not going to move the vent but have somebody pondering it at the moment to see if they can come up with another solution.

In the mean time I bought a roll of duct tape in woodies this evening and went up and sealed the join just the way the builder had done! I also raised the flexi pipe so it's sitting on a board and there's no dip in it so it won't gather water, this might get me through the winter or until somebody comes up with a brighter idea.

Maybe I could build houses!!!

Bonzo Time

Ollieprim wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your response, so the conclusion is that it's condensation! No water getting in from vent on the roof after all. I'm not going to move the vent but have somebody pondering it at the moment to see if they can come up with another solution.

In the mean time I bought a roll of duct tape in woodies this evening and went up and sealed the join just the way the builder had done! I also raised the flexi pipe so it's sitting on a board and there's no dip in it so it won't gather water, this might get me through the winter or until somebody comes up with a brighter idea.

Maybe I could build houses!!!

Hi Ollieprim,

Just wondering has raising the flexi pipe and sealing with duct tape helped?

Thanks

Ollieprim

Hi Bonzo Time

Yes I haven't done anything more permanent with them and it's fine up till now, I believe the best solution is to change the flexi piping to solid pipes but haven't got round to doing that yet. Hope this is helpful for you.