If you live in one of the beautiful historic homes that line the neighborhoods of Salem, you may have noticed smells you can’t quite place. Maybe a damp patch on the drywall that won’t dry out. The faint sound of running water somewhere behind the bathroom wall when every faucet in the house is off. If any of that sounds familiar, there’s a decent chance you’ve got a leak inside a wall — and it’s one of the more unsettling plumbing problems, because you can hear or smell the evidence long before you can see the source.

What to Look For

  • Discolored patches on drywall, baseboards, or ceilings — usually yellowish or brownish
  • Paint or wallpaper that bubbles or peels in the same spot no matter how many times you fix it
  • A musty smell that hangs around in one area and doesn’t respond to cleaning
  • Drywall that feels soft or spongy when you press on it
  • Water running or dripping inside a wall with nothing turned on
  • A water bill that jumped for no reason you can point to
  • A warm patch on a wall or floor, which usually means a hot water line is involved

Why It’s Usually the Pipe, Not Bad Luck

Most leaks inside walls trace back to the pipe material itself rather than a one-off accident. Many of Salem’s older homes were originally plumbed with galvanized steel pipe, which corrodes from the inside as it ages — by now, that pipe is well past the point where corrosion becomes a real risk. Copper can develop small pinhole leaks over time, sometimes from water chemistry, sometimes just from age. And in older homes, the fittings and connections weren’t always built to today’s standards.

That distinction matters, because it changes what the fix should be. A leak from a single bad fitting, or a stray nail that hit a line during a remodel, is usually a straightforward repair — patch it and move on. A leak caused by the pipe material breaking down is a different situation, because the same pipe is doing the same job in every wall of the house. Fix the one you found, and there’s a good chance another shows up next year in a different spot.

If You Think You’ve Got a Leaky Pipe

Shut off water to the fixture nearby, or the main if you’re not sure where it’s coming from. Resist the urge to start cutting into drywall yourself — leak detection can usually narrow down the source without tearing the wall open first. From there, a plumber can tell you whether you’re looking at a quick repair or something more systemic.

If we find one leak and the pipe around it is the same age and material, we’ll say so — and we’ll walk you through what repiping the whole system would involve versus just fixing what’s in front of us. We’d rather you make that call with the full picture than find out the hard way next winter.

Not sure if it’s a quick fix or something bigger? Request an inspection →

See also: Whole House Repiping · Reasons and Signs Repiping Is Needed