Finding a leak in PVC drain pipe

[Quinn McCarthy]

We have water coming out of our drain pipe. It is hard to tell where it is coming from. It is somewhere between the toilet and the t below it. Is there an easy way to see what is leaking? I was thinking about maybe flushing food coloring down the toilet. The way the pipe is positioned it is hard to tell if water is coming down that piece from the toilet. For odd reason they have wires running through and around that joint.

Thanks much.

Quinn

[Jerry Bruette]

Quinn it could be the wax ring under the toilet that's leaking. I've used food coloring in the toilet tank to see if the flapper is leaking into the bowl and it worked great. Don't know why it wouldn't work for your application. IIRC I used red coloring.

Good Luck

Jerry

[Terry Achey]

Jerry's right. 95% chance of wax ring and not pipe leak. very common. Wires at the toilet pipes??? yikes:eek:!!!

[Quinn McCarthy]

Thanks for the help.

After I got home last night I was able to get a closer look at what was happening. The pipe coming in from above was the vent and the one coming in from the side was the toilet. My first thought when my wife called at work was the wax ring but know water at the base of the toilet. While I was staring at the t joint watching the water dripping away it downed on me that maybe that water was coming down from the roof seeing we had such a nice day. WHen I got up on the roof the vent pipe was completely covered with snow. So I shoveled that area out and after about an hour the leafing was just about stopped. We will watch it for acouple days and see what happens. The area I live in is a DIYers nightmare. Everyone up here can build anything. May not be rright but they can build it. The previous owner of the didn't know nuttin. But it was the best house we could when I moved up here. I just fix it a bit at a time. If I end up having to cut that T out it will be a tough one.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Quinn