Article
A wet bathroom floor is either the valve or the drain
A bathroom that will not stay dry is where leak calls and drain calls get mixed, because both of them leave water on the floor. A shower valve that weeps sends supply water into the wall or out around the handle every time the shower runs, and sometimes when it does not. A drain sends used water back up the tub or across the floor when the line behind it is full. A cracked pan sends shower water into the ceiling below even though the drain itself is open. One of these moves the meter. The others do not. The tile can look the same either way.
Most local articles pick one of those three and write as if it were the only wet bathroom in Los Angeles. Valve companies sell a cartridge. Drain companies sell a cable. Pan companies sell a remodel. The missing piece is the ten-minute sort: what was running, and what the meter did. We do that sort before anyone prices an opening.
The meter, then the fixture that was in use
If the floor is wet only after a shower, and the meter is still when the shower is off, you are looking at the valve, the head, the door, or the pan, not at a slab. If the tub fills while the washer runs, or a floor drain rises when an upstairs fixture is used, you are looking at the building drain. A slab leak does not wait for the washer, and it does not confine itself to one bathroom. The fuller version of that test is in slab leak or a drain.
Write down whether the water shows up while this shower is running or while some other fixture is running. That sentence is the sort. "The bathroom is wet" is not.
The valve that weeps into the wall
Older single-handle valves fail at the cartridge. The drip is small, it is inside the wall, and the ceiling below is where you meet it a month later. The stain downstairs is not the location of the pipe. The valve upstairs is. We isolate that valve, listen, and mark the wall we would open, which is usually the one you can already reach from the shower, not a new hole in the stained ceiling.
That opening is the repair. The inspection stops at the mark. If the cartridge is the whole job, that is the price. We do not widen it into a bathroom remodel because the wall is open a few inches. If the meter moves with the handle off, the valve is leaking under pressure and it will not wait for a remodel schedule. Shut the stop for that shower if it has one, or the house valve if it does not, and read how to shut the water off if you cannot find the local stop.
The pan, which is neither a valve nor a clog
A shower pan that has cracked will wet the ceiling under it every time the shower is used. The meter may barely move, because the water was supposed to go down the drain and simply missed the pan. That is not a supply leak and not a main-line clog. It is a failed pan, and it is priced as a shower repair, not as leak-detection theater. The clue is a ceiling stain that lines up with the shower and a meter that sits still while nobody is running anything else.
A valve leak and a pan leak can live in the same wall. The inspection is allowed to find both and to tell you which one is active. Fixing the cartridge and leaving a cracked pan is a callback. We name both if both are wet, and we do not make you choose from a single vague line on an invoice.
The drain that borrows the tub
Hair and soap live in the trap and the branch. A tub that drains slowly, and nothing else in the house misbehaves, is that branch. A tub that gurgles when another fixture runs is the main, and it belongs with hydro-jetting, not with a bottle of opener. Do not keep showering into a tub that is already talking.
Do not open tile to "see where it went" before the meter test. The hole in the wrong wall is a repair you will pay for twice. We cover Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood, Valley Village, Toluca Lake, Northridge, Glendale, Studio City, Calabasas, Beverly Hills, Woodland Hills, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Porter Ranch, and Santa Clarita. The free inspection is the right first call when you cannot tell the valve from the drain. If water is coming through the ceiling now, call 818-631-7296.
What the ceiling below is allowed to mean
A stain on the ceiling under a bathroom is a map of where water arrived, not a work order for that ceiling. If the shower above lines up with the stain, start upstairs. If the stain is offset toward a hallway, water followed the joist and the valve or the pan may be a few feet away from the brown mark. Opening the ceiling first, because that is the part you can see from the sofa, often misses the joint and leaves you with two holes.
Renters should tell the owner which test they already ran: meter still or meter moving, and whether another fixture makes the tub speak. Owners of a duplex should not authorize two plumbers, one for each unit, until that test is done once with both units quiet. We will say if the water belongs to the neighbor. We will not open your tile to be polite. A door that leaks onto the curb is a different, smaller job than a valve, and it shows up only while someone is in the shower. Mention that if the floor is wet and the ceiling below is dry. The curb and the door sweep are maintenance. The valve and the pan are plumbing.
Questions people ask
How do I tell a shower valve leak from a clogged drain?
If the meter moves while the shower is off, or the wall is wet only after the valve has been used, look at the valve. If the tub fills while another fixture runs, and the meter is still, it is a drain. A cracked shower pan can wet the ceiling below while the meter barely moves, because the water was supposed to go down the drain and missed it.
Do you open the tile on the first visit?
No. The inspection marks the spot. A cartridge we can reach from the existing handle opening is a small repair. A pan or a wall we have to open is priced after you see the reason.
Should I keep using the shower?
Not if the tub is already talking or the ceiling below is staining. You are adding water to a line or a wall that has nowhere to put it.