advice wanted - plumbing fitted by previous owner

muyl

This is my first post so please excuse any mistakes. I'm looking for advice - my fiancee and I moved into our bought flat last September and all has been well up until last week when the shop below us knocked on our door to say that they were getting a leak that was coming from us.

After investigating, we removed the bath panel to find that the waste water pipe coming from the bath was completely loose and unsecured. It is a 'push in (?)' pipe and was not tightened by the screwy collar bit - sorry, I can't remember the proper term for it!

Anyway, we tightened it up and kept an eye on it for a few days without any further problems and so had stopped keeping such a close eye. Unfortunately, we received another knock on the door this evening from the shop below to say that water was coming through their ceiling again.

Again, the pipe was loose and the floor pretty wet. This is understandable as we had both been working today and had each taken a bath. We have dried as much as we can and tightened the join again. Obviously we don't want another leak and the shop might not be as understanding on a third occasion.

Can anyone tell me if this is a common problem and is there an easy solution or if it is down to bad plumbing and can we claim against them if the shop wants to claim insurance (so far they have been very reasonable and have given no indication of going in that direction).

The flat had been newly refurbished by the seller before we bought it but the owner of the shop informed us after the first leak that we should check all our pipes as he had seen the workmen who had been doing the refurb and he gave the impression that they might have been cowboys.

Sorry for the long post, we haven't been that long in our flat and we don't want to end up paying for a lot of damage especially as we are also saving for a wedding later this year.

UsernameAlreadyExists

Your flat, your problem! Get it fixed (properly) and stop leaking on the shop below! There will be dozens of youtube videos showing you how to fit/replace the waste to the bath - it's an easy DIY job, but if you don't feel capable, get a plumber in

Example

muyl

Ah, that is what we suspected. It's just that we thought we had fixed the loose fitting the first time and hadn't expected it to happen again, especially when we fugured we wouldn't be facing such probs so soon. We've already looked at various Youtube vids and got the DIY manual out.

Thanks for your quick reply

macman

Any faults with the house are your responsibility alone from the day of exchange, unless you received some sort of warranty from the vendor-which you won't have. Fixing a bath waste should be a very simple job once you have got access.

thomasfreed

You should get a plumber or an expert to help over in this problem of yours.

muyl

thanks macman and thomasfreed.

we got someone in to look at it and they said that there wasn't anything wrong with the pipe as such but as it runs at an angle down with nothing to really support it, it is possibly movement that is upsetting the fitting - it is a shower over the bath so maybe us getting in and out is dislodging the position somehow so we are looking to see if we can get something to support the pipe at the join to stabilise it better. is there anything specifically on the market for for this kind of thing?

we are both not bad DIYers but have never encountered this problem before so at the moment we are leaving the bath panel off and being extra cautious about checking every time we are using the bath or shower.

currently, there have been no further leaks or drips at all - fingers crossed!

macman

So just support it as necessary, with an additional clip, or something wedged under it. Why didn't the 'someone' (doesn't sound like a plumber) do this when he checked it? I'd have thought it more likely to be a joint leaking though. Have you tried running some water through the waste and observing it with the side panel off?
It's presumably flexing as the weight changes; a full bath holds a lot of water, plus the weight of the occupant.

muyl

It was a friend who isn't a plumber but works with a lots of other tradesmen and so has some knowledge of what to look for. We didn't want to be charged a lot for something we might be able to fix ourselves - just getting a call-out can be expensive enough so we had him come to have a look first.

When it all first happened, we had the side panel off, tightened the join and did all the running water tests, etc.

Like I said earlier, after we had tightened the join the first time, it had all been fine for several days - no probs after baths and showers - checking all the time and so we had replaced the bath panel thinking there would be no more leaks. There are no signs of any damage or anything wrong with the pipe or join itself, the only thing seems to be the amount of room for movement and this is causing the fitting at the join to loosen itself as this is what we found to have happened with the second leak and it was me who had made sure to tighten the join after the first occasion.

What kind of clip would I look for? or maybe a block of wood would do the trick?

macman

A pipe clip...

muyl

oops, silly me

yes, a pipe clip would make sense!

thanks for your help with this matter

southcoastrgi

if it keeps coming loose i would say it was better to replace the trap with a proper mechanical one ie do up nut rather than push fit & or the waste in the bath, traps don't come undone on their own it sounds faulty