Leaking pipes | MLive.com

Q. Our basement bathroom looks like a crime scene. The bathmat and tile have been stained by rusty water dripping from the pipes above. Those pipes are for the first floor bathroom. It happens every time someone takes a shower and doesn't use the fan, or when it's summer and humid indoors. There are also infrequent drips that happen at any time.

There are smaller brown pipes and larger pipes that have been painted years ago. The large pipes are causing the problem. The paint on the pipes has mostly worn off and rusty metal remains. Plus, there are some rusty galls that seem to ooze water from time to time. Is there something we can patch the oozing portions with? And what can we do about the dripping pipes? Maybe paint them so they don't drip rusty water? A.M. Ann Arbor.

A. The large pipes in the ceiling of your basement bathroom are drain pipes from the bathroom above. Some may be cast iron; others might be galvanized steel. Either way, holes are starting to develop from inside, and that's where the "oozing" water is originating.

The problem is not just cosmetic. It is also a sanitary issue. The waste water inside those pipes is contaminated - some with human waste - and should not come into contact with anything living. It is sewage; referred to as "black water" in the plumbing trade.

While you could use an epoxy repair product or another method to temporarily stop the pipes from leaking, your best bet would be to replace everything with new PVC plastic piping. That would not only get rid of the leaking, it would also likely prevent the condensation formation that is now occurring when humidity inside the bathroom rises. Any licensed plumber should be able to deal with this job in a straightforward manner.

If you decide on the repair route you'll need to remove the old paint and rust galls from the pipes before attempting any fix. A wire brush should do the trick. To avoid unpleasant and unsanitary working conditions, make sure no one uses the bathroom upstairs while you're down there laboring on the pipes. With the pipes clean, you can use either the aforementioned two-part epoxy repair material - or even a large hose clamp twisted tight on top of a piece of flexible rubber placed over the hole. Drain pipes aren't under any water pressure, so the methodology required to stop leaks is less stringent than that needed for pressure-bearing water supply pipes.

Painting the pipes with a rust-preventative paint (after wire-brushing and cleaning them thoroughly) would stop rusty water from dripping onto the bath mat. However, again, it would do nothing to stop the condensation that forms; you'd still get dripping under humid conditions, only the water wouldn't contain rust.

To stop the condensation you'll have to lower the humidity level in the bathroom by using the vent fan or by mechanical dehumidification measures (using a dehumidifier or A/C during the summer). Or, you could wrap the pipes with pipe insulation, which will isolate them from the humid air. Adding foam insulation to the water supply piping is a good idea as well. That will stop the common spring dripping problem that occur when cold water flows through pipes that are surrounded by warm, humid air.

Rust stains can be removed from a lot of different materials - like tile and your bathmat - by using a powdered product called Iron-Out. It is available at most hardware stores, home centers, and some grocery stores.

Zolton Cohen is a former ASHI-certified home inspector based in Kalamazoo. Write to Zolton Cohen, Around the House, P.O. Box 2007, Kalamazoo, MI 49003, or contact him through Michigan Live at www.mlive.com/forums/homeimprovement/.