A cold water pipe is leaking inside the wall: what to do first

First steps when you notice damp or hear dripping

Find your stopcock and shut off the water supply to the flat or house before doing anything else. In most Tallinn flats it sits under the kitchen sink or in the bathroom, near the water meter; in houses it is often in the boiler room or a service cupboard. If you cannot find it or are not sure which valve does what, shutting off the main stopcock for the whole property is safer than guessing.

If the damp patch is on a shared wall in a block of flats, tell your korteriühistu or building manager straight away. The leak may be inside a pipe that belongs to the building rather than to your flat, and the neighbouring flat may need to know before water reaches them.

Once the water is off, take a few photos of the patch, the ceiling below it if there is one, and anything nearby that could be damaged. This matters later both for a repair quote and for any insurance claim.

Protecting the wet wall and floor

Move furniture, rugs and anything electrical away from the wet area. If water is pooling on the floor, mop it up and put down towels or a basin under any active drip. Standing water against skirting boards softens them quickly, especially the chipboard skirting common in newer developments.

Open a window or run a fan if you have one, but do not rush to dry the wall completely with a heater pressed against it. Drying the surface while the leak inside is still active just hides the problem and can mask how far the damp has spread.

Leave the affected patch of wall or ceiling alone rather than papering over it, painting it, or pushing furniture back in front of it. You want to be able to see whether the damp is still growing once the water is off.

Should you open the wall now, or wait for leak detection

If the water is off and the damp patch is not growing any further, it is usually worth waiting for a plumber to assess it rather than cutting into the wall yourself. Opening drywall or plaster in the wrong place means a repair twice over: once for the pipe, once for the wall.

Where the leak's location is obvious — a soaked patch directly below a known pipe run, or water actively coming through a specific spot — going straight to that section is reasonable. In older buildings with concealed and rerouted pipework, though, the visible damp patch and the actual leak point are often not in the same place.

We offer plumbing work from 45 € per hour, and for a leak like this the first visit is usually spent tracing the source before anything is cut open. If the extent of the job is unclear, we give a fixed quote after seeing the situation or photos, valid for 30 days.

Signs that mean this cannot wait

Most hidden leaks are urgent by nature, but some signs mean you should call for help the same day rather than the same week. A pipe under continuous mains pressure that has failed rather than one that is merely seeping will keep pushing water into the wall even after nearby taps are closed, so cutting the main stopcock is the priority.

Watch particularly for bulging or sagging plasterboard, plaster that has gone soft enough to push a finger through, or water tracking down into a light fitting or socket below. Any sign of water near electrics means switching off that circuit at the consumer unit until it has dried out and been checked.

• Water dripping steadily rather than a damp patch that has stopped growing
• Plasterboard or plaster bulging, soft, or starting to crumble
• Damp tracking towards a socket, switch, or light fitting
• A smell of damp appearing suddenly rather than building up over weeks
• Water reaching a neighbouring flat through the floor or a shared wall

What the guarantee covers if we fitted the original pipe

If the pipe that has failed was installed or repaired by us, our work carries a 24-month guarantee. This covers a fault in the work itself, such as a joint that was not sealed properly, but it does not cover normal wear, damage from something else knocking the pipe, or fittings the customer supplied.

It is worth checking your old invoices for the date and description of the work before calling, since that tells us quickly whether the section that failed falls under guarantee or is a new repair to be quoted separately. Either way, the assessment visit is the same.

Repairing the wall after the pipe is fixed

Once the pipe is repaired and the wall has had time to dry out properly, which can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks depending on how deep the damp went, the opening needs to be closed up again. Rushing to plaster over a wall that is still damp underneath just traps moisture and invites mould later.

We do plasterboard work from 28 € per job, covering patching the cut section, taping joints, and leaving the surface ready for paint. If the original wall was tiled or had built-in fittings, mention that when booking so the quote accounts for putting them back.