Problems with council bathroom replacement

daveandjadea

I live in a council flat and just had the council replace my bathroom suite - brilliant, but there are some problems...

The bath is too close to wall - today they fitted the side panels on the bath and I realised there was a gap between the bath and the flooring - I can't afford to replace the flooring, and it's too big of a gap to cover-up with some sort of border. This is what it looks like;



As the bath is significantly smaller than my old bath so it sits lower, this means there's a gap of 4-5 inches between the bath and the wall, due to be fixed tomorrow - I don't see how they're going to fix this as with the bath so close to the wall they'd have to take the plaster down onto the narrow lip of the bath. This would look unattractive, but it surely also poses risk of water getting behind the bath/into the wall and risks the flat below me too?

On top of the plaster there is also tiling - from what I can see the plastering plus the tiling would take the whole wall right to the edge of the inner side of the bath - I KNOW that's not good!

What worries me too is that they're not going to bother to try to take the tiling all the way down to the bath (re-tiling would be best, but that's even less likely to happen) - if this isn't done it will look terrible, and I'm guessing also risk damp. I can't afford to re-tile, besides as I said above it'd take the wall right to the edge of the inner side of the bath. I'm 100% sure they've positioned this bath wrong.

These (grainy web cam) photo's give an idea of what it looks like;




The council give a £30 voucher for decorating after big jobs - but this isn't enough to re-tile, re-floor and decorate, also of course if the bath is positioned wrong then it's going to take more to sort out than £30.

Can anyone tell me if there is anything I can do?
It's council and I AM happy to have the new bathroom suite, but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about how bad it looks or potential problems this could cause, does it? Do I stand a chance of getting them to do this properly? If I'm stuck with this, anyone have any VERY cheap idea's for re-tiling and re-flooring?

tanith

Thats certainly is going to be hard to make good, I'd get onto the council straight away and insist someone comes down and inspects the work . Its going to look rediculous and leak whatever they do from what I can see .. the tiling needs redoing what a botched job

phill99

Thats outrageous.

The bath can be dealt with quite simply. It needs to be raised up by putting timber (4" x 2" is ideal) under the bath legs, and the adjustable legs adjusted accordingly so that the bath moves up and sits under the tiles. Then a neat bead of silicon where the bath meets the tiles and this should give a watertight finish. They may have to do some minor adjustments in the pipework but this is neqligible.

In terms of the basin, the only thing to do would be to carefully remove the half tiles above the basin and replace them with a single row of white tiles, almost to make a feature of it.

I wopuld definitely get the Clerk of Works or Project Manager back as this is not acceptable.

If that doesn't work, get in touch with your Councillor who will normally put pressure on the Works Department to get it sorted.

leveller2911

As Phil posted, that is very,very shoddy work.Theres no reason why they couldn't raise the bath by packing up the feet with timber and a neat bead of sanitary silicone would finish the job off.

I'm afraid thats typical of council contractors, 99.9% are cowboys.You don't tend to find real tradesmen doing Council work..Phone them up and say its not acceptable, its shoddy workmanship and if they don't sort it out you will be filing a complaint with Health and safety and the Housing Ombudsman......

When fitting a new bathroom suite they rarely fit exactly as the previous set but thats ridiculous....

mondello

As others have said, it shocking work and could lead to further damage. Yes it's good getting a new bathroom but it has to be one that's safe to use and fit for purpose.

Raising the bath would solve one of the problems. Did you pay for the floor covering yourself? If it was included in the renewal then they really should replace it for you. I would ring the council and ask for a post inspection of works by one of their surveyors. They may not do this until they have attempted to put it right for you first though. If you don't get any joy that way then put in an offical complaint in writting which they will have to address.

k66yla

When the council replaced my bathroom, they fitted all bath/sink/loo then came back to do the tiling.....something about time for the bath settling??? Then about a week after that the vinyl fitters came and done the floor. Your council contractors should be doing that, there is no way it should be left like that.
Just to add they did take all the tiles off the wall before fitting the loo etc. Shoddy work by your councils contractors.

daveandjadea

The bath IS raised, packed with timber and legs as high as they can be.

This is apparently as high as they're allowed to have the legs (bath is FAR smaller than old one - I can barely fit, boyfriend can't fit so when he moves in we're going to have to find cash for a shower). If this is the case then fair enough, but still poses problems with the bathroom as it is - I'd say it needs to be moved, but it's already sealed so not sure it can be moved.

At least I know I'm not being too unreasonable with this.
Thanks for reassuring me that I'm not just being fussy, and that I may stand a chance of getting them to do something about this.

Oh, I should point out too that it took a few months to get this far...

First appointment - council said replacing the bath was a two-man-job and they had only sent one man and had no bath, they had forgotten to order the basin, and the stopcock in the flat had seized-up so they couldn't turn the water off. I couldn't be here, this cost my boyfriend a day off work and a £30 taxi fare.

Second appointment (1 1/2 months later) - as the stopcock was stuck the water to the building had to be cut-off, however the council had cemented over the access point a few years ago. Council worker got around this by freezing the pipes (if this had gone wrong the whole block would have been flooded), but this meant re-piping a small section, and in turn this is why it wasn't all completed in one day (we've not been able to wash properly for two weeks, and have had to lock cats out the bathroom). The council worker did the whole job alone - remember this was apparently a two-man-job. He couldn't replace the toilet bowl as it's cemented in place, and the sink was nailed onto the wall so when removed it took half the wall with it too. Had to get this guy out the next day as the pipes from the bath were leaking heavily and he'd put the taps on the wrong way.

Sorry, now I'm just whining, but as nice as it is to have a nice new bathroom suite I really regret getting this done, it's been too much fuss.

leveller2911

How high is the top of the bath from the floor?..........

phill99

I think they are telling you porkies. I'm not aware of any Regulation that says yopu can't have the bath as high as you want. Providing it's well secured, there shouldn't be a problem. It just means that there will be a gap at the base of the bath panel, but that can be easily rectified with a trimming piece.

leveller2911

phill99 wrote: »

I think they are telling you porkies. I'm not aware of any Regulation that says yopu can't have the bath as high as you want. Providing it's well secured, there shouldn't be a problem. It just means that there will be a gap at the base of the bath panel, but that can be easily rectified with a trimming piece.

My thoughts exactly.......

tpt

even raising it wouldnt help with the gap on the floor. they cant leave it like that - there are sharp edges everywhere and nothing will be waterproof.
I dont see how they can 'give' you a new bathroom suite without tiling it.