My basement floor is leaking!

[Salina Robbins]

Hi everyone,

My tenant notified me of puddles appearing on the floor of the basement unit. After having several quotes done, it seems the problem Is the second unit kitchen sink leads to a drain pipe underneath the first unit floor. The pipe underneath the floor has a crack in it. Which is what’s causing the leak. The first plumber wouldn’t be responsible for repairing the floor. The 2nd plumber says it’ll take about 2 1/2 days to dig, repair the pipe, and repair the floor. The 3rd plumber solution is to cap the drain that leads to the kitchen sink, avoiding having to dig the floor up which he says would take about two weeks and he wouldn’t be responsible for repairing the floor. After he caps the floor drain he would replace second unit kitchen sink pipes with PVC and run a new line through the ceiling instead of the floor.

My concern is mold and sewer flies thriving in the floor pipe that would still have a crack in it Gaining access to unit one. Is that a true concern or am I just being paranoid?

Any advice?

[Anthony Rosa]

@Salina Robbins - Capping the pipe and running new PVC under the drop ceiling seems to be the best cost efficient way.  Pipes get capped all the time and as long as its sealed it should be fine. Running pipe above the drop ceiling is ideal especially if future repairs are needed. This isn't a 2 week job, it sounds like a day or maybe 1-1/2 days of work.  

Typically, plumbers will not repair any demolition they caused to get to their pipe and do the job. Here and there you may find plumbers that will fill a hole with cement but they typically don't do finishing work.

This is why I suggest that if you have a tiled bathtub/shower always have extra matching tiles and grout on hand in case they have to do plumbing work and don't have access on the opposite side of the wall.  They will break the existing tiles and the wall behind it to get to the shower body. Some cut the tiles and wall neatly and others are butchers.