Building works (wet room) - do i underpay?

jsb1987

My builder has been renovating my flat for the last two months, and whilst he has seemingly done a good job on the whole, I have a few issues with the wet room...

Firstly, the grouting colour isn't consistent. I asked for a light grey grout as close in colour to the grey floor tiles as possible. Most of it has ended up being very dark grey. It is all metro tiles on the walls, so to redo it now would take a long time.

And secondly, the floor tiles have been laid in a way that puddles of water collect outside of the shower area. Shouldn't all floor tiles in a wet room slope slightly towards the drain? Especially in a very small wet room like this - it is 1mx2m.

I think i am now going to have to put in a sliding door, to stop the water getting out of the shower area. So basically it will no longer be a wet room...

I'm holding back the final payment until all works are complete and just looking for opinions about whether I should underpay based on the above issues? Or just insist that he sorts it all out.

Thanks!

Doozergirl

Trying to keep water inside a wet room area with no partition is like trying to herd cats. It will get everywhere.

It's usual to have part of the floor sloping, but not all of it, no. It's a feat of engineering as it is.

If you choose not to contain water anywhere, it will get everywhere. I stayed in a hotel a couple of weeks ago with a wet room. It was a sizeable room. The entire room was soaked.

When we have installed wet rooms, we have installed partitions. Even when I was young and my mum needed a wet room, the housing association provided a shower curtain.

G_M

The grouting should be as was agreed in the original contract.

Contractor should rectify, or you could agree a reduced cost to compensate.

Ir you could employ a different contractor to replace the grouting and deduct that cost from the original contractor's fee.

If the 'shower are' is contained (ie by screen or curtain), then water should not get elsewhere other than small amounts from dripping feet etc.

If the entire room is open, then water will go everywhere, and the floor should be laid so as to cope with this (as you say, a slope towards the drain).

For advice from professional bathroom fitters, try posting on DIYNOT tiling here.

ACG

Have you spoken to them about the problems?
Its usually a good place to start, they may be arsey about it or they may think you have a point and agree to put it right. But its best go back and to them and discuss and see what the outcome is.

Has all of the grout dried properly? It could be some of it is still wet and so looks darker? Although saying that, I dont think it takes too long for grout to dry does it.

jsb1987

Thanks for replies, i shall post in that other forum as well

Yes i've spoken about it all with him. He knows I am not happy. Though it is partly my fault - i wanted the shower area to be a small step down from the rest of the room but this didn't happen. I thought he understand that that is what I wanted, but I didn't write it down and should have been clearer. He is Polish, so there is a slight language barrier.

With the step i think the room would be perfect. The water wouldn't be able to pour out of the shower area.

We do have the area partially contained - by a hinged glass panel. But it is the area between the end of the glass, and the wall, where the water obviously escapes. It gets out onto the tiles next to the shower area, and stays there.

The whole room is lower than the hallway (so the water doesn't get out), so i think the best option is to add new floor tiles over the ones that have already been laid (but not in the shower area). That would then create the step. And it would still be a slight step to get out to the hallway as well. But this is more work, and involves spending about £100 on more tiles... Whether or not I am entitled to him covering this extra work i'm not sure! I just know that I made it very clear to him that i did not want a floor that got soaking wet every time i showered. He actually pushed the idea of a wet room. I had concerns.

With the grouting, it's definitely dry. It was done 3 weeks ago. My builder says it would be a weeks work to redo it. Unfortunately grout colour wasn't written into the contract either. We just agreed verbally...