Do I need to waterproof the plywood under the leaking bathtub?

[affan habib]

Hi,

I opened the side cover of my bathtub and noticed very minute leak (I can feel water when I touch the one of the pipes going to the faucets). BTW, my faucet in the tub also drips water little bit. The plywood under the pipe looks blackish ( I guess from that leaked water from the pipe). I am attaching a picture showing the plywood. Since this is the area I would not know about any keak unless I open the cover, Do I need to apply any waterproof substance ( oil, seal etc.). Do you guys have any suggestion? Also how can I fix the water dripping from the faucet? Do I need to change the faucet? Is the dripping caused from the leak of the pipes or is it separate issue?

Thanks in advance.

 

[oldognewtrick]

What's the source of the leak? Fitting, pinhole, loose fitting...

 

[affan habib]

I have not determined yet. Looks like the copper water pipe joints.

 

[Eddie_T]

The faucet may be repairable depending on the type. The faucet drip is unrelated to the pipe leak. My experience with copper has been that the hot water pipe leaks first. It can be repaired with sharkbite fittings or by sweating (soldering) new pieces of copper. I hate plumbing but managed to fix my issues. You may want to employ a plumber unless you have a friend who can help you. Can you post picture of the faucet?

I used sharkbite and CPVC to replace some of my copper that leaked. I found sharkbite a bit hard to push on working in a tight place.

 

[affan habib]

Thanks for your response. I also think the two leakage are unrelated. Please see the picture of my faucet. Its a delta brand.. I probably need to get a plumber to fix the copper pipe leak. After that is done. I just want to put a waterproof stuff on the plywood for some sort of protection against any future leak. Can you please suggest anything?

 

[Eddie_T]

The faucet is repairable Depending on age it may use a replaceable washer or a replaceable cartridge. You can't do the individual shut-offs shown in the video but it shows the removal technique and how to find a replacement. It would be a safe bet just to replace both while you're at it. In my case both faucets are clockwise close some sets have CW for hot and CCW for cold. Or you could just have the plumber do it all.
I wouldn't bother with waterproofing the plywood just be sure it's dry before you close it up again.

 

[affan habib]

Thank you so much.