Condensation Causing Leaks?

SteamNewbie

Recently bought a house with steam heat and bought Dan's book "We Got Steam Heat" but haven't read it yet and a quick scan didn't come across an answer to this one.

Pipes run across basement between basement ceiling and living room floor.  Last night we had a leak in the basement ceiling, lasted 90 minutes tops.  Shortly before the dripping stopped completely, hubby heard a whooshing noise in the general vicinity of the leak and by this AM it was dry.  There's a series of water stains along this same line on the basement ceiling tiles.  Could condensation on the pipes be dripping and causing this?  Or do I have some kind of clog/leak?  Do I need to find someone to clean or bleed the system for me?

A search for steam pro's on this site doesn't list any closer than Mass. or DC and I'm in central Jersey.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

It sounds like

a vent gone bad.  It's supposed to vent the air out of the main steam pipe.  When steam reaches the vent, it should close and it sounds like yours isn't closing.  You will somehow have to gain access and replace it.  Put an access panel there for future inspections.



Do you still have a home warranty plan on the house?  If so, make sure the contractor knows what he's doing.

SteamNewbie

Thanks!

We had the main vent replaced last year.  I have one resource locally I can try (he referred me to this site) but his company is expensive so I was trying to avoid calling them, but it sounds like this won't be an easy fix.

Can I monitor it for a few days to see if the leak comes back or should this be done ASAP?

Big-Al_2

Could be a number of things.

A bad vent might cause drippage, but so could a leak in a water or drain pipe, or even from a radiator valve on the first floor (the latter three have happened to me.)  It might be worth removing a ceiling tile and having a look-see before deciding the correct course of action.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Sure

Is there any way you can get a look at it?

SteamNewbie

Reply

We can probably get a couple of tiles down with a little effort.  If it keeps dripping we'll definitely do that ASAP.  We had one radiator valve replaced last year but there's two more on the first floor that we assume to be original, circa 1954, and we know the time is coming for those to be replace too!

Thank you for your help!  It's overwhelming trying to learn this type of sytem and all its little idiosyncrasies when you've had oil or electric heat all your life!

jpf321

catch it happening

because water can flow in unpredicatble ways, it would be best to catch the leaking as it's happening in order to pinpoint the exact problem.



if you are suggesting that condensation ON the pipes may be dripping, this is HIGHLY unlikely unless your basement is very very very very hot and your air is equally moist .. condensation forms ON pipe, toilets, glasses of iced tea when the vessel temp is less than the air temp and the air contains sufficient moisture to condense on the colder vessel. this is just isn't possible for active steam piping which should be well above 150degF.



let us know.