All Forum Posts by: Jon K.

Michelle Marty

There's a few tiny studios in upper Adams Morgan, almost at U St. for around $1000 a month. Plus utilities. Most are just near buses. Basement apts go for $1k a month in Georgetown. Crazy market.

Jerry W.

Very interesting, thanks. This person did cross state lines regularly so was low risk, but on supervised probation. I was very tempted to accept them just because they traveled so much, but there was a fairly wide age gap and I think I wanted them to be more of a good roommate match than they really were. The recency of their case gave me pause.

Luckily, 2 people with clean history, more of a roommate match, and better references came along shortly after this person.

I filled 2 rooms! So far, the individuals have yet to drive me crazy.

Jon Holdman

Wow, this is incredibly helpful! Thanks!!
I'll update when I either have this fixed, or sewage fly. :D

THANK YOU!!!

I really appreciate the advice.

I opened up the ceiling.

The black "hard thing" was a metal drywall patch nailed onto 2 small boards.

The pipes are PVC with a joint.

There is a little mold up there.

I haven't tried the "pour water down the drain" test again to see if I can spot the leak on the pipes.

I figure I should let this dry out some, then pour water down and see if I can see a leak.

If I can spot the leak, would plumber's putty around the PVC joint be a fix?

Here are photos.

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[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/545/dscn9521.jpg/][/URL]

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Ok, I poured another glass of water down the drain hole, with water not touching the floor of the shower itself.

Got a leak almost instantly.

I think this means that it's the drain pipe leaking underneath?

For now, I'm putting a bucket under it. Hopefully I can get a decent estimates and a plumber out in a few weeks.

It does seem to be the shower drain pan.

I poured a glass of water down the shower drain, and the leak was almost immediate. I guess it could be the gasket around the drain itself--- I'm going to try pouring water directly into the drain and make sure it doesn't touch the shower floor tomorrow.

The drain has a curvy PVC pipe with "arm." I can't figure out what the black square is that's right behind the ceiling drywall. I thought there was such a thing as a shower pan that sits under the PVC pipe, but Google tells me that's unlikely. (Yes, I'm over my head with this one.)

[URL=http://img154.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=310420919_DSCN9519_122_75lo.JPG][/URL] [URL=http://img244.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=493104342_DSCN9518_122_17lo.JPG][/URL]

Thanks...

I just went to cut off some drywall.

There's something hard (shower drain pan, I think) right behind the drywall. And a drywall patch.

I think it's the shower drain pan.... about a 1 foot by 1 foot hard pan-type thing. (Is it disturbing how little I know about this stuff?)

I'm going to go have another look at it now.

I've been trying to save money, and even am getting a roommate.

Now I've got a 2nd floor shower leak, leaking downstairs onto tile kitchen.

It's a stall shower with plastic shower floor. Shower & pipes ~10 years old. Has pipe with connecting joint I think.

It's leaking enough on my downstairs ceiling to make a few inches of drywall fall off. It only leaks when used. It's not gushing, but enough to need fixing.

There will be about a 1.5 x 1 foot ceiling repair patch that will need new drywall and paint. Plus, fixing the shower leak.

I'm tempted to try to open the ceiling and try to patch it up myself if this could run me over $1000 to call a professional. I know this isn't enough info to give me a "real" estimate, but I'm hoping to get an idea of what price range to expect. $500? $1000? $1500? More than I want to even think about?

I have a home warranty, but that doesn't appear to pay for this.

Has anyone had this happen before?

Any ideas on what kind of costs I can expect if I call a plumber/professional?

Dave Meyer

Thanks, I'll do that and track responses of the different ads/prices.

So far I'm just using Craigslist.

I've tried roommates.com and roomster.com before, but I don't pay to see responses on those so those didn't do much. I once tried Facebook marketplace and didn't get responses (but, I did it anonymously through Oodle Marketplace, so I didn't have to link my personal FB to this). Are there better sites that I should try?