how to fix water seeping through to dowstairs flat!!!

jee

Flat downstairs have told me that water is seeping through to their bathroom ceiling. I had a look under my lino and noticed it's all wet as well as floorboards under bath soaked. I think this is because the floor gets wet from my long showers and the water must be slowly dripping through.
I want to tile the bathroom floor to water proof it better but what can i do under the bath that's quick and cost effective? I don't want to lift the bath out to tile under!
Is there a way to seal the floor boards? Will lino work and is there a water proof bond I can use?

Thanks for any help!

phill99

The floor shouldn't be getting wet from the bath onto the floor at all. Stopping the water getting into the downstairs flat is not the right approach. You need to stop the leak at its source.

It could be a number of things.

1) A leak from the waste
2) A leak from the supply (is your shower an electric one or do you use a shower mixer taps off the bath)
3) There is mastic failure on the intersection of the bath and the tiles. Have another look under your bath with a torch. If you can see water staing on the walls under the bath, then that is your culprit)

If you are not confident in looking at these things, get a plumber in to have a look, but your philosophy of tiling under the bath etc is very misguided.

jee

I think it's from the shower screen not being long enough. It also has a small gap where it should meet the wall and I noticed a lot of soaking there. I'm replacing the screen with a curtain which is much more effective in my opinion.
The bathroom was done up new a few years ago. I've checked underneath for leak in the waste/taps and electric shower but can't find any. There's no water on the walls under the bath and the silicon looks good around the bath. The only way i can see water getting beneath the bath is from the lino being soaked and then seeping through to behind the bath.

27col

There is absolutely no reason for there to be any water under the bath or anywhere else. If you do anything other than stopping water from any source from getting on the floor then you are going about the problem entirely the wrong way. Sort out the causes of the water being on the floor and not the result of it being on the floor..

keystone

Treat the cause not the symptom.

Cheers

27 beat me to it - Rats.

loracan1

jee wrote: »

I've checked underneath for leak in the waste/taps and electric shower but can't find any.

Have you checked while the bath is being emptied?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Over time and untreated, you could end up having your bath in the neighbour's. That would be expensive - and possibly not covered by insurance as you haven't done anything other than try to hide it.

googler

Keep the water within the bath or shower tray and the problem goes away (as long as it's not leaking from the waste below, or from the sealant edges.

Tiling the floor won't solve your problem unless you seal all round the perimeter of the room. Place a tile on the floor, spill some water on it and what happens? Eventually the water spills over the edge of the tile. If you tile up to the bath and spill water on the tiles, all it will do will be to spill off the tiles onto the floorboards under the bath, and accelerate their decay.....

As previous poster says, if you continue to let your floor get wet, it will weaken the floor, and in extreme cases, could lead to you joining your downstairs neighbour when it fails.

googler

Also - you don't want to merely cover the floorboards - once you've eliminated the cause of them getting wet, you need to let them dry out before you seal them in - however, as we've said - you need to eliminate the cause of lots of water ending up on the floorboards themselves. A properly designed shower tray or bath with screen or curtain should be trapping the water.

jee

thanks for all your advice guys. I took a light and had a good look under the bath and noticed that it may be a leak from the waste pipe that the bath waste pipe connects to. I had to feel around as I can't see it and it seems as though the floor is a bit rotten around there.

As I own the flat I called the managing company today who have told me that the building insurance only covers trace and cause and because it's in my flat I'm responsible.
I've argued that this pipe because it's covered by a wall which is part of the original building and I can't see it unless I go into the wall- should be covered by my service charge/building insurance.

I've never disturbed that area before so it's no accidental damage and the flat is only around 30 years old so really I don't think it could be wear and tear.

What do you guys think? do you think I'm wrong and should cough up!

27col

keystone wrote: »

Treat the cause not the symptom.

Cheers

27 beat me to it - Rats.

You win one, you lose one.