tracking a leak

mgm

Dear Heating Help:

We live in a prewar NYC apartment with steam heating radiators. A short time after the steam comes on, but not every time, there is a water leak in a soffet of our apartment that drips steadily for a little while and then stops. We are in a top floor apartment; our steam pipe terminates in our apartment but there is a penthouse above us, built after the completion of the rest of the structure.

What can be the cause of this and how can it be addressed? Our super wants to tear open the soffet to find the source. Is this necessary? If it is condensation in a pipe, how can we fix it? The valve seems to be okay, we don't have the hammering sound and steam does come out of the rocket.

Al Letellier_21

steam leak

A leak is a leak. You have to get at it to fix it. If there is no other access, then out comes the soffet...most likely a vent above the soffit that needs replacing.