Concrete floor in purpose built flats - leaks?

jules9

Looking to purchase a ground floor flat in a purpose built block.
The flats all appear to have concrete floors.
If the flat above had a leak, eg bathroom or kitchen, would the concrete floor prevent leaks into my flat or not?
Any assistance much appreciated.

G_M

jules9 wrote: »

Looking to purchase a ground floor flat in a purpose built block.
The flats all appear to have concrete floors.
If the flat above had a leak, eg bathroom or kitchen, would the concrete floor prevent leaks into my flat or not?
Any assistance much appreciated.

Depends how bad the leak was. Concrete floors will provide more of a water barrier than, say, a wooden/plaster floor, but at the end of the day water will always find a way downward.

BitterAndTwisted

As G_M said. One of the real positive benefits of concrete flooring is the sound insulation it provides.

sarah_elton

jules9 wrote: »

Looking to purchase a ground floor flat in a purpose built block.
The flats all appear to have concrete floors.
If the flat above had a leak, eg bathroom or kitchen, would the concrete floor prevent leaks into my flat or not?
Any assistance much appreciated.

I'm in the top floor of flats with concrete floors and I've leaked water downstairs twice.

Once when a certain high street white goods supplier plumbed in my new washing machine incorrectly, and it emptied out behind the machine where I couldn't see, and the neighbours knocked at 3am when the water made it down to their kitchen. The shop footed the bill.

Second time when the seal went around the plughole in my bath, so when it emptied half the water went under the bath.

Only saving grace was it was a different neighbour down there each time.

So no, accidents can happen and concrete floors won't save you. But it is rare (never heard of it in the building apart from my incidents), and as others have said concrete floors are huge plus in terms of sound insulation. I used to live on the first floor. I could a bit of noise from upstairs - only really loud things like the washing machine spin. But on the top floor I get no noise at all - it tends to travel down rather than up.

littlemissmoney

I live in a purpose build flat with concrete floors and have been flooded by the flat above :mad: Water always finds a way.

Fire_Fox

Several rooms in my flat have concrete floors (possibly all rooms) and upstairs' bathroom has leaked into my flat, and a flat downstairs has so far had three massive floods into the foyer.

jules9

Thank you for the advice, seen a house now so deciding whether that might be a better option!

SouthCoast

I have concrete floors but it still hear the guy above having a pee at 1.30 am and flushing the loo.

BitterAndTwisted

In my opinion a freehold is always better than a leasehold and leaseholds are always better when the leaseholders own a share of the freehold and manage the property and maintenance themselves as opposed to managing agents handling it.

sunnysea83

My last flat had concrete floors and i thought excellent no noise from the neighbours below or above.... how wrong was i, ive rented in converted houses with standard floor boards and heard less.

The people above us we could hear every move they made across the room, them turning their lights on and off, closing doors, closing kitchen cuboards etc and even having a wee.

The flat below we could hear there tv and music (but only at night when we had no tv on), they told us they couldnt hear us

we often wondered if the people had laminate as before they moved in we rarely heard a peep from the previous people, it was a women and her grandson btu saying that we could hear his music etc

As for the leaks, when we first moved in we hadnt realised the seal round th bath was crap and when i had my first shower downstairs came up to say there was some water dripping through!

littlemissmoney

I can second (or third) that they don't keep noise out either!