Bathroom Leak

deece1

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice and hope someone can help:

My neighbour in the flat below me has shown me the ceiling in her flat which is above my bathroom. She has a wet patch, maybe 10-15cm long. It has gotten worse in the past week. She got Pimlico Plumbers out who said they would need to go through her ceiling into our bathroom to see where the problem is - isn't this a bit excessive? And costly?

I got a plumber out and he agreed the issue was the bathroom (after ruling out the appliances in the kitchen). Still, after a general look around what bits were accessible (the whole bathroom has been tiled top to bottom the floor) he recommended I get a 'leak detection' company out who could tell me which of the three fixtures (shower, toilet or sink) were the problem.  The only companies I found doing this service quoted £400 to £1100!!!

I'm not sure what to do and my neighbours have said this needs to be fixed in the next few days.  How do I find out exactly where the wet patch is so it can be fixed?  If possible I don't want to have to rip off the tiles in my bathroom due to the cost (single mum with two kids) but cutting through my neighbour's ceiling, through the soundproofing and whatever else is there is going to be costly too.  I'm not covered by contents insurance and the buildings insurance only covers the cost of finding out where the leak has come from, not the repairs.

I moved into the Victorian conversion earlier in the year.  It was renovated 4-5 years ago from. The guy I bought it from bought it as an investment and rarely stayed here.

Many thanks in advance.

benson1980

Does the water appear after you’ve had a shower, and then dry when not in use? Where is the wet patch appearing? In the middle of the ceiling, by a wall?

Dependent upon above but First thing I would check is grout and sealant. I wouldn’t rely on a plumber to properly survey these (I speak from experience and a plumber telling me as you have been told, that he’d need to go in via the ceiling below after looking at the shower cubicle and assessing that all was well and must be a pipe/fixture leak). Any slight movement can lead to hairline cracks in grout and it’s surprising how much water can then get through. When I had this issue the water marks appeared as drips along that wall as well as damp on the ceiling, and only after a shower obviously. I just raked out as much as I could and re grouted with decent flexible stuff and all was good after that. Having been quoted hundreds for exploratory investigation that would have caused a total mess as well. 

turnitround

We just had a similar issue, water coming through one of the lights in the kitchen directly beneath the shower tray. I had visions of removing the tray, spoiling the tiling etc but it was so simple to fix. 

A slight leak in the silicon at the bottom of the shower screen was letting a drip of water through. Just a tiny repair which cost next to nothing and no plumber needed.

SaverRate

You have two options - go through the ceiling or the floor. Personally due to tiles I would go through the ceiling 

Bendy_House

As SaverRate says, since the ceiling will likely need repairing afterwards in any case, that's the best way to investigate the leak source. Once that damp patch is removed, it should be possible to trace where the water is coming from - use an endoscope if necessary.

I presume you pay for communal buildings insurance via your maintenance fee, annually or monthly? This is the sort of thing that should be covered - you should not be 'liable' for this as you were not 'negligent'; you were completely unaware of the issue, didn;lt cause it to happen, didn't ignore any warning signs. This is EXACTLY what insurance is for. The buildings insurance should also sort the damage to the ceiling below. If anything else was affected in that flat, then break the news gently to your downstairs neighb that that's what their contents insurance is for!  

Unless something has gone amiss somewhere, this should not cost you anything to sort.

Get in touch with the landlord and/or building manager, and tell them what's happened.

If your neighb got PP out, that's tough on them - they shouldn't have. It is not for you to pay for. (And these folk are extortionate...)

If it's true that the buildings insurance only covers the 'search', then use it for just that, and you get YOUR plumber in to sort it. I don't understand how this is the case, tho'.

And don't be harassed by your neighb saying it needs doing in X days. Lawdie, some folk...