What could be the source of a constant running water sound behind a wall in bathroom of a condo if there are no leaks or wet spots or flooding but just a constant sound?

Answer 1

Answer

Is there a water recirrculation system for the hot water?

Is the wall against the Plumbing on the condo next door?

What type of heating system does the condo have? Hot water circulation? Steam?

Is there outside drainage going through the walls?

Is there a humidifier or air conditioning system that drains regularly?

To add to the above questions I'd start out by saying that unusual spontaneous running water sounds are something to be paid attention to, diagnosed quickly and NOT ignored. At best you are wasting water, at worst serious damage to your dwelling is in progress.

A few other questions:

Did you just recently notice this sound?

Have you checked your sinks and toilets for visible signs of leaks? Is there water in the vanity underneath the sink or around the base of the toilet? Did you do a food coloring test with your toilet (put food coloring in the tank water, wait 10 minutes and see if you observe a change in color of the bowl water)

I'll share a situation I had a while back to further educate you on some things to look for:

I noticed a constant running water sound in the walls of my condo's basement bathroom over a couple of weeks. It was rather prominent - it sounded like there was an outside hose spigot that was running when none was. I checked for sink and toilet leaks. I checked the walls looking for wetness or stains. Nothing. I thought nothing of this at the time, but when I checked the base of my toilet for leaks, I half-noticed that my normally cool marble floor was noticeably warmer around the toilet.

At this same time I noticed that when I took a shower the hot water would run out rather quickly. I also noticed that the hot water heater was heating nearly all the time (the main burner would never shut off). I hadn't made any connection between the running water sound in the bathroom and the water heater because my condo building does have a hot-water recirculation pump that will cause a running water sound too, however when I decided to see if flushing the water heater would improve things, I did discover that the running water sound faded markedly when I turned off the water supply to the water heater. Once I did this I called in the professionals in because I knew it was probably a hot water line leak somewhere.

To make a long story short, the ultimate problem in my case was a slab leak - a leak in a hot water line placed under the cement slab. The warmth I felt in my bathroom marble was hot water seeping out of the pipes and heating the surrounding concrete below the floor - so this is an important symptom to notice and report to a professional. Luckily the problem was caught and fixed before serious problems resulted, because unrepaired slab leaks will seriously damage basement floors and a home's foundation. Plumbers re-routed my basement plumbing above ground without damaging my floor - in addition to the repiping there were a number of walls that needed to be knocked out, rebuilt and repainted. It cost a few thousand dollars to diagnose and fix this problem, but it could have been much worse if I'd waited to deal with this problem. Ignore constant running water sounds at your peril!!