I live in a town-home, with units on each side of me. When I enter the garage, I notice a damp smell. I never left the house Sunday or Monday, but know it wasn’t there Saturday. While I found no standing water, it looks like the edge by the neighbor to my right, might have some dampness and a bit darker than the rest of the garage.
Short of having my plumber come and start looking for a possible leak, I am not sure what to do. There is no water by the garage door, just on the common wall edge. I do not see water anywhere else. There is a faucet inside the garage on that same wall, but it has been turned off for over a year; I don’t think my neighbor faucet is on that wall as I think they are all on the same side. I suppose I could still have a leaking pipe behind the wall, but it could also be my neighbors.
I hate to spend a ton of money on a fishing expedition, and might see if it goes away in the next week or so. Any thoughts on what I should look for or do?
Have you spoken to the neighbor about this?
Can you leave the garage door open for a while to air things out?
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Finding water leaks is literally a fishing expedition. Keep looking for stuff to rule them out.
First thing is to ask the neighbor. Check common walls for moisture on that side of the garage. Any moisture stains on garage wall? Your side or neighbors? (could be a some missing shingles such that rain water is percolating down.)
Has it rained heavily? Concrete is porous and moisture can wick up from the ground below the slab.
Check the cracks/seams and corners where the walls join the garage slab.
Any bathrooms on that wall above the garage? If so, check underneath sink. Flush toilet several times. Run shower/bath tub water and check garage.
Is your house on a slab, or do you have a basement/crawl space? We had a water leak in the fire wall adjacent to the garage that was a pinhole in the copper pipe. The pipe was not wrapped or insulated and as a result it was rubbing on the adjacent concrete. Over years, expansion/contraction wore a tiny hole in the pipe. (our house is on a slab)
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I’d encourage you to reach out to the neighbor, check if they know of any reasons for the water.
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It’s been years but we found water in the garage with zero clue. Finally discovered a wet spot in carpet on inside of house. Pin hole leak in copper pipe–the water fortunately flowed outside rather than getting our living room. It was easy to find. The plumber used some sound device (looked like a metal detector) and found it within just a few minutes. Fixing it didn’t take long either but required drilling since it was beneath a concrete slab.
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If I have a water source in your garage then bingo. The pipe could of cracked even if you have it shut off. You can also turn it back on and see if that area starts showing water. But it could be just humidity. Can you borrow a dehumidifier from someone and use it in the garage for a few day’s?
Also look at your water meter. Is it moving quicker then usual (yes, you probably never looked at one. Lol). It should move sloooow. If not then you could have a leak.
I do plan to speak to the neighbor in the next few days; I wanted to see if anything changes in the next few days.
I have checked the wall in the garage, as well as inside the house to see if I could see any damp spots; I did not. I do have a powder room and a full bath on that wall, but do not notice anything off in those rooms.
Garage is on slab. No recent heavy rains, but it has rained in the last few days.
Good idea to check the water meter, assuming I can figure out which one is mine, as there is a bank of 6 together. Our water bill is for 2 months at a time; the next is not due for a couple of weeks. Prior bills have all been normal.
Unfortunately, several neighbors, not in our group, have had leaks of some sort. Most were big issues, like water pouring out of recessed lighting. When I freaked out about one I heard about last year, I asked my plumber to maybe come and see if I had an issue. He talked me out of it, saying unless I an noticing a problem, don’t go looking for one!
When I went outside again just a bit ago, the garage didn’t smell. Now I am wondering it the concrete has always been that color! I am going to keep and eye and see if I notice anything else.
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I just squeegeed a big puddle of water out of our garage. It rained, I drove in the rain, parked, and water dripped off the car forming a puddle. You mentioned rain.. could this be the case? It is amazing how much water can come off a car that doesn’t look that wet.
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Unfortunately, this is not from my car. This on along the edge of the side wall, from front to back. I haven’t had my car out in the rain for a week, nor do I park on that side. But yes, I do get puddles from the rain or AC where I park!
Please talk to your neighbor. They might be the ones with a fractured pipe, or a leak, or something.
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We had a similar problem recently, but in a different part of the house. Our small leak was in the kitchen near the sink and the dishwasher. We suspected both, and had both carefully inspected. We purchased a moisture meter from a well known on-line source and used it to check what was humid and what was not. This for example ruled out water leaking from above, such as from the roof.
Eventually it turned out to be a small crack in the external siding where the caulking had fallen out. $22 worth of caulk and ten minutes solved the problem. However, we still needed to take some time and some effort to confirm that the problem was solved.
A hairline crack in a pipe seems like a possibility. This might be more likely if the area is subject to potential freezing in the winter, or if friction/rubbing is possible.
Some water on the opposite side of the basement wall is another possibility. Perhaps your neighbor had a bigger problem and got it fixed and it did not occur to them that it might have seeped through the concrete wall. I have also seen cases where a downspout outside the house, it if it dropping too much water next to an external wall, can cause some wetness inside the same concrete wall.
I think that this could be any one of a lot of different things. There are a lot of potential sources of water, and it can be hard to figure out what the source is in any particular situation.
We have had multiple water issues in our house (hot water heater leaked, kitchen water filter leaked, water came through stucco in front of house). Not to be alarmist but each of these was very expensive to fix (entire kitchen and most of first floor wood floor damaged by overnight, slow filter leak). We are still rehabbing our kitchen. 
A contractor I know said water damage is the hardest to rectify and he hates those projects more than any other!
I’d suggest that having a trusted plumber come and check things out would be more than worth the money. Good luck!!
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On your bill should be a meter number. Use that number to find your meter. We were surprised how fast ours was going when we bought our house till we replaced the 30 year old fridge with a new one that was energy efficient. Now ours is the 30 year old fridge 
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That’s the electric meter. This poster needs their water usage meter.
Both our water and electric bills have the meter numbers. I would be surprised if the OP’s did not.
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I was being stupid, and was thinking about our meters on the side of the block of 6 homes; those are the electric meter! 
The water meters are in the driveway, so easy to check.
No movement within an hour of no water use, although I did not turn off the whole house water, just had none running. Of course if these is a pinpoint leak, I would assume it might not show during a short period of time.
Neighbors must be out of town, so will check with them once back. I am really thinking that part of the garage has always been discolored and I just never noticed. My GD has chalk sitting on the edge there, and none of it looks like it was ever wet. The drywall is dry, and there is no actually water anywhere.
My water usage also is within range of previous months as best I can tell. My next reading will be in 2 weeks as we have 60 days cycles, so will be interested in seeing what they read then. That said, if there is a leak, and it is small and new, not sure if it will really show.
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How long have they been away. THEY could have a water leak of some sort that is damaging their side more than yours.
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You are very correct and I can’t believe I said that but there are water meters. I evidently can’t do two things at once.
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