Water Leak / Damaged stud wall

London28UK

Advice please. Last weekend a small amount of water appeared on my loft bathroom floor below the window. The water seems to come from where the wall tiles meet the floor tiles. Ive investigated and think Ive found the source of the leak. The bathroom sash window has a drainage gulley in it and any water from driving rain that goes into it should drain out of a drain hole on the external edge of the aluminium sash window. However it is not and seem to drain to the edge of the sash window and find its way into the stud wall.

The bathroom was fitted as part of a loft conversion 2 years ago and it has a 5 year warranty. The builder wants to just put some silicon in the window frame. The problem is when I look from the room below, luckily I have the plasterboard ceiling off from the room below as its now being refurbished. When I look up I can see the 2 year old Plywood is black with mould and damp and starting to rot.

So really it needs the window taking out and the source of the leak found. As I say I think its a window defect and maybe also the lead work the window is sat on not being sealed. Once this is done I have been advised the best thing to do is remove some of the bathroom tiles internally to see how much of the stud wall is water damaged / rotten. Ive also been told it might be worth taking some slates of the external face and checking the OSB board underneath to make sure this is also not rotten.

I feel I will have to send my builder a letter saying what I want to happen for the remedial works under the warranty. Do you think its fair I make him do this ? I did pay 40K to him for the loft extension and anther 80k the following year for the back and rear extension he built for me. So he has had a fair chunk of my money and overall has done a good job.

Also do you think I should inform my Home Insurance of this ? I have an Admiral Gold policy. Or could I inform them and they inspect the damage and maybe they will be better telling the builder what to do to put it right ? Cold I use them like this to project manage the repairs the builder would do ?

Or maybe I could hire a third party, maybe a surveyor to oversee the remedial works. Its a pain as the loft is only 2 years old and to find there is already a damp and rot problem due to a faulty window and or lead flashing issue is a major downer.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

jk0

I think you guessed correctly that your old builder is just going to bodge it again, so I think the surveyor and a different firm of builders is your best bet.


I hope you can claim the cost of this from the previous guy, but I bet it will be difficult.

London28UK

Hi JK

Thanks for the reply. Yes I might need to make a strong case to get him to do it properly. I feel I need maybe a surveyor or building control person to state what remedial works are needed. Thats why I wondered if I could call open my own home buildings insurance to do this. I suppose the down size of doing this is my premium might go up.

jk0

By all means try the insurers, but I bet they will say it's not covered, or so little of it is covered as to make it pointless claiming.


Really, seriously, don't get your old builder to rectify this. If he knew what he was doing, wouldn't he have done the job properly in the first place?

London28UK

He did a good job overall, the leadwork is dressed properly under the window frame I just think its bad luck the water had drained from the side of the window and not through the drainage gulley. It might be a design fault / defect on this type of window. Also as the builder has a 5 year warranty and as he built it, he is best place to take it apart to make remedial repairs.

I have checked my home insurance, I am covered for trace and access and also water damage. There is a £600 excess. so another reason to get the original builder to put it right.