I have a small water leak coming from a central heating pipe under the upstairs floor. It has made a small stain on downstairs ceiling. When I tried to wipe the stain away a finger size hole appeared so it must have been leaking for some time but is very localised. I arranged a callout covered by my insurer and the chap who visited tried to look though the hole (difficlut as it is so small) could see a pipe with a few drops of water but no sign of a joint so though source of the leak may be elsewhere.

He proposes using Fernox F4 leak sealant as leak is so small and taking up chipboard flooing would be problematic.

I have a very old cast iron boiler with header tank, thermostatic rad valves and a weird system that has standard bore upstairs and microbore downstairs.

My questions are: a) if the sealant works will the fix last b) is it likely to cause clogging problems

he did not have any sealnt with him so intends to come back in 1-2 days - I need to decide on a course of action by then

Leak sealant is a bodge to get you out of trouble. you need to find the problem before taking any action.

Could be the start on pin hole corrosion, run a mirror along the bottoms of the radiator and check for signs of rust.

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Leak sealer will not necessarily cure the leak - depends on the size of the hole etc. I personally like to investigate a bit closer to see the problem. As the ceiling already has some damage a bit bigger hole isn't going to make that much difference. The repair can even be done for there if it is more difficult to lift flooring, then the ceiling skimmed back over when completed.

as you are going via the insurance company anyway, once you've got the excess sorted then they'll be paying for any making good.

A word of warning though, my Sis had a similar problem (Bigger leak though) and had insurance for all the plumbing via British Gas....
When she noticed the bulging ceiling she phoned them to get emergency plumber out..the DH on the phone told her to poke the ceiling with a broom handle..so she did and the whole lot came down..

1/2 hour later the emergency plumber came out..asked how the ceiling came down..

seems that if she'd left the ceiling alone, and it had come down of it's own accord she'd have been covered for making good.
If she'd waited for the plumber and He'd taken the ceiling down she'd have been covered for making good...
Because She'd done as told on the phone, and taken the ceiling down herself she wasn't covered for making good...

...bloody insurance companies will always wriggle out of payment if they can..

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Verwood Handyman
I Know it says I'm On-line, but I might have just left myself logged in, whilst I'm out....

In the place I'm doing up, there was multiple pin hole leaks all over the system causing damp/problems all over the place. If not to replace the thing that's failed, I'd want to know what the cause was - if the insurance is paying, get your monies worth!!!!!!

If it's a failed solder joint - fair play, if it's pin holes.....you want to know!

BG

Quite often the insurance company will pay for the damage caused by the leak and for accessing it but they won't pay for the actual repair to whatever caused it!

Bizarre but true

PS I'd take a smallish section of ceiling down

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Hi everyone
Thanks for all the responses.

I got a local plumber in yesterday. He took up a small area of floor and found that the leak was a pinhole in a cold pipe to the downstairs washbasin. So much for adding sealant to the cenral heating - would have done nothing but gunge up my heating system!!!

Fixed the pipe did really good job of putting floor back in solid way and charged £67

Will now take up issue with insurer

Decent price I'd keep his number if I was you!

Thanks for letting us know

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As always help on here is free, however if you think you have saved a decent sum of money why not click the link to find out about the charity we're currently supporting? A couple of quid makes a real difference.

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Very good price. Glad to hear satisfied customer feedback.

67 quid

secret millionaire there

or a Handyman...????

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Verwood Handyman
I Know it says I'm On-line, but I might have just left myself logged in, whilst I'm out....