# Water Seeping in Kitchen from UNDER Cabinet Kickplate



## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

If it is, in fact a supply plumbing leak, water may continue to drain so long as there is a head of water standing in the pipes and it's emergence from under cabinets may last longer that the actual leak from the pipe. Is this a two-story house? There could be plumbing lines extending up the wall. In truth, it could even be a leaking drain. You might as well cut out the wet drywall for inspection - it's got to come out anyway or it will mould.


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## jmon (Nov 5, 2012)

Have you ruled out the simple stuff like, leak could be possibly coming from drain, faucet, supply lines, dishwasher, etc.? 

If so, as stated, you are on a concrete slab, then I really don't know of any other way to track down the leak without going through the drywall and investigating further. Drywall is cheap and if it's that saturated with water imo, it should be replaced anyway to prevent mold, ect. 

Hope you find the leak soon twister.


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## Twister (Jul 5, 2009)

lenaitch said:


> If it is, in fact a supply plumbing leak, water may continue to drain so long as there is a head of water standing in the pipes and it's emergence from under cabinets may last longer that the actual leak from the pipe. Is this a two-story house? There could be plumbing lines extending up the wall. In truth, it could even be a leaking drain. You might as well cut out the wet drywall for inspection - it's got to come out anyway or it will mould.


It's a single story home.

Can you explain what you mean by it possibly being a leaking drain? Do you mean the drain in the aluminum kitchen sink? I didn't say it earlier but the kitchen sink _wood cabinet floor_ (about 4" above the concrete subfloor) is dry so if that is the drain you are referring to I think I have ruled that out.


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## Twister (Jul 5, 2009)

jmon said:


> Have you ruled out the simple stuff like, leak could be possibly coming from drain, faucet, supply lines, dishwasher, etc.?
> 
> If so, as stated, you are on a concrete slab, then I really don't know of any other way to track down the leak without going through the drywall and investigating further. Drywall is cheap and if it's that saturated with water imo, it should be replaced anyway to prevent mold, ect.
> 
> Hope you find the leak soon twister.


Kitchen sink *drain* down below is dry, there was a little water below/behind the *dishwasher* but nothing like what was seeping out from the corner area to the right in the picture. Don't think it's the *faucet* because the wood cabinet floor directly below the faucet is dry.

All the drywall that is the same height above the _wood cabinet_ floor as the incoming hot/cold lines (17") is _dry_. This is part of the reason I am hesitant to cut it out. If it were wet or damp it would be much easier to locate the leak, but the sheetrock is all dry except a small area close to the floor behind the dishwasher.

My _guess_ would be I have a leak in the water line in the wall that drips at a large rate straight downward where it has saturated the 2" x 4" baseplate (but not yet the sheetrock?) and the water in the hollow space between the concrete subfloor and the lower cabinet wood floor has accumulated enough that it seeps out from below the kickplate.

Again, this is all a guess.


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

The drywall could be wet from water wicking up from below. Between gravity and surface tension, water can follow wondrous and infuriating paths before it reveals itself to us. It could also be a small pinhole leak that is spraying and hitting an adjacent surface. I noted that the wet drywall is in the washer cavity. That drain is under pressure because it is pumped. Can you run the dishwasher while it is pulled out? I assume you tried to look for leaks in the visible plumbing as a first step.


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## hkstroud (Mar 17, 2011)

> My _guess_ would be I have a leak in the water line in the wall that drips at a large rate straight downward where it has saturated the 2" x 4" baseplate (but not yet the sheetrock?) and the water in the hollow space between the concrete subfloor and the lower cabinet wood floor has accumulated enough that it seeps out from below the kickplate.


I think you are correct. At this time I think I see the hot and cold supply lines coming out of the wall under the kitchen sink. I think I see a Pex supply from the hot to the dishwasher on the left. I think I see a 1/4" soft copper line from the cold supply line to the refrigerator which must also be on the left. 

Since dishwasher line and the line to the refrigerator is exterior to the wall the leak must be in the copper lines to the kitchen inside the wall. These supply lines probably come from either a bathroom or a water heater location.
Water leaking from these supply lines would run down to the base plate of the wall and seep out under the cabinet and into the toe kick between the cabinet and the concrete floor. That means a certain amount of water has accumulated under the cabinets and would take some time so seep out. Hence, the water continues to seep out after you turned the house supply valve off. 



The question for you now is where in these lines inside the wall is the leak.
Removing some of the drywall will tell you something. Based on what you have described I would guess that the leak is in one of the lines behind the sink cabinet.
At this time I think I would remove the toe kick beneath the sink cabinet and the cabinet to the right. If you find water accumulated beneath the sink cabinet (which you probably will) I would then open the wall behind the sink cabinet to locate and repair.
If you remove the drywall behind the dishwasher as planned and find the wall dry internally that would also indicate that the leak is in a pipe behind the sink cabinet. 

However, reinstalling the toe kick board is easier than repairing the drywall.
All this is just a guess of course.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Wrap all of the plumbing lines that you can see (supply and drain) with paper towels or toilet paper.


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## Twister (Jul 5, 2009)

*UPDATE*: Water finally stopped seeping out from under the kickplate early Saturday evening. Sunday I drilled three 7/16" holes in the kickplate and used a borescope my son had to look at the areas between the concrete subfloor and the cabinet wood floors. Good news is the drywall and the concrete subfloor right by the drywall in all the spaces looked dry. Saw some mold and water staining on the wood in one area near the corner where the water was seeping through. Will most likely need to pull out one ~4' long kickplate, clean out the mold and scrub that area with bleach and install a new kickplate. After turning off the hot line that runs to the dishwasher I turned the water back on to the entire house for about 18 hours and we did not see any water seeping out from under the kickplate so I am reasonably confident it is not a leak in the water line in the wall. 

Source of the leak?: Since it didn't look like I have a leaking line in the wall I looked closer and found a slow drip coming from the cold line underneath the kitchen sink after I turned the water on for 18 hours. This would explain why when I pulled everything out from underneath the sink on Saturday it looked dry, but in fact water was dripping off the cold line and following a copper water line to the refrigerator. Guessing the water must have leaked slowly over months, dripped off of the copper line to the fridge and onto the concrete subfloor and built up enough at a low spot near the corner and the 'dam' finally overflowed on Saturday. I hired a plumber to install new hot and cold fittings under the kitchen sink. Once he's done we'll turn back on the water to the house and if no water seeps out under the kickplate over the next several days that should definitively prove I don't have a leak in the wall.

*Many thanks to everyone for replying*. This is a GREAT forum with lots of good advice. If this somehow is in fact a leak within the wall I'll be back again soon, cursing, haha!

P.S. - Water does weird things.:vs_smirk:


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## diyorpay (Sep 21, 2010)

Another weird thing to check.
In our rental unit renter 'clogged' the garbage disposal and said it makes a noise and, the dishwasher sounds funny too. That can happen when one cuts off flowery celery tops and feeds to gd.
Handyman disconnected plastic drains and cleared all pipes.
Solved.
Not really. Found out later garbage disposal had been so overfilled, it got a hairline crack and drip leak when water went down that side sink. You have a dry cabinet floor so probably not the same.
Last thing: the dishwasher drain hose. If not reasonably secured and, where it passes into sink cabinet, if not protected at the hole, could vibrate and develop a small leak.
Don't see your dw discharge line either. Hidden. Make sure dw drain is not clogged.


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## Twister (Jul 5, 2009)

diyorpay said:


> Another weird thing to check.
> In our rental unit renter 'clogged' the garbage disposal and said it makes a noise and, the dishwasher sounds funny too. That can happen when one cuts off flowery celery tops and feeds to gd.
> Handyman disconnected plastic drains and cleared all pipes.
> Solved.
> ...


Both of those (garbage disposal hairline crack and dishwasher drain line hole) are good things to check. FWIW, plumber came Tuesday morning and installed new H/C fixtures and have had no water seeping out from under kickplates or anywhere else. Thx for the tips, though!


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