Bathroom leak

putopao

Hi,
we just moved in our house and had the home insurance for just a month. But i  noticed a patch in our living toom ceiling where a  bathroom  is above it. We suspect a leak , is it worth claiming this as we dont know the severity of the damaged? Or just call a local plumber to check this?

pramsay13

Claim from whom?

Worth getting a plumber as it might be an easy fix, and just let the ceiling dry out.

anselld

Take the bath panel off and investigate.  It might be a very simple fix.

macman

For a small leak, the policy excess is likely to far exceed the cost of repair. And it won't cover maintenance issues.

putopao

Hi, i have a service insurance with british gas with excess of £66, is it worth contacting them or just a local plumber? Thanks 

putopao

Our bath is tiled, how would i know where the bath panel is? Sorry im a First time buyer and really have no idea.

pramsay13

putopao said:

Hi, i have a service insurance with british gas with excess of £66, is it worth contacting them or just a local plumber? Thanks 

Is the British Gas contract not for boiler repairs?
If it's for home repairs it might be worth calling them out although check if there is a call out charge.
Generally BG are not particularly money saving so worth looking into that longer term.
The bath panel is under the bath. Even if it is tiles sometimes the whole panel is tiled and it can be removed. You are looking for a few screws hiding amongst the tiles. If not the whole panel there should be a hatch to allow access to pipes etc.
Do you have a handy relative that can take a look for you?
How soon is just moved? Some policies you can't claim for a certain amount of time.

Jeepers_Creepers

putopao said:

Hi, i have a service insurance with british gas with excess of £66, is it worth contacting them or just a local plumber? Thanks 

As said above, it depends on what's covered - give it a good read. If, by a miracle, it includes sorting such leaks then by all means contact them. But read your docs first.

Also check if it includes making good the disturbed parts afterwards as this very likely cost more than fixing the actual leak.

Two obvious ways a bathroom can leak - one is through a faulty pipe (that's 'plumbing') and the other is via a faulty bath/shower seal (that ain't).  The former can sometimes/often involve a fair bit of destructive work in order to get to the pipe - is the bathroom floor tiled, for example? - whereas the latter will usually only require an hour of a handyman to reseal. 

And a failed silicone seal is really just a lack of maintenance rather than a 'fault', so might not be covered anyway. Have you had a really good look around your bath/shower to check on the condition of these seals? Do you have another bath or shower you can use for a week or so? If so, don't touch this one and see if the water mark dries up by itself. If it does, you most likely have a faulty seal. If it doesn't, you likely have a leaking pipe. 

AdrianC

putopao said:

Our bath is tiled, how would i know where the bath panel is? Sorry im a First time buyer and really have no idea.

The side of the bath is tiled, with no way to remove it and access the taps/pipe/trap/drain? No screws, no access hatch?

Oops. That's bad planning on somebody's part, style-over-maintenance. Getting to it's going to be destructive, then...

Soot2006

AdrianC said:

putopao said:

Our bath is tiled, how would i know where the bath panel is? Sorry im a First time buyer and really have no idea.

The side of the bath is tiled, with no way to remove it and access the taps/pipe/trap/drain? No screws, no access hatch?

Oops. That's bad planning on somebody's part, style-over-maintenance. Getting to it's going to be destructive, then...

Sometimes it just looks that way so worth knocking around a bit. In my old bathroom it looked tiled, but actually it was "fake grouted" with silicone around the panel, so you could run a stanley knife clean through it to remover the entire panel, tiles and all. Then v easy to silicone back in.

putopao