Leaking bath waste but bath is tiled in

Participant

Participant

Participant

Caporegime
Joined
13 May 2003
Posts
34,462
Location
Warwickshire
Hi all

About 18 months ago we had a new bathroom installed and it looks great, with its fantastic unremovable tiled bath panel maintaining the clean lines :p.

However we've recently been experiencing slow drainage from the bath, so we used a plunger on the waste, which worked great at freeing up whatever blockage existed...

However, I've just noticed a dripping coming down from the light fitting underneath the bath when it's draining.

I don't really want to rip off the bath panel as it's tiled in, and making it look the same as the surrounding area with new tiles and with the grout and silicone colour will be a nightmare.

What are my options here? I have no comeback with the installer really, since the plunging has clearly caused the leak.

I might be able to access the waste from the room underneath, but that would create holes in the ceiling and a whole load of mess, and I'm not even sure that the waste pipes will be accessible from underneath as they may run above the bathroom floor.

My home insurance doesn't cover plumbing issues.

Any thoughts are gratefully received, thank you.
 
How is it tiled on? Skirting as well?

Ours is tiled to match the room and is a damn good fit.. Had a leak from the under bath area.. Bit of poking around and figured how they had built it. Skirting was screwed on with a couple of screws (which were covered then painted). Undid these, removed skirting.. Underneath was 3-4 screws holding side panel onto the wooden frame that was holding the bath up/in place. Undid these and it sorta tips out bottom first (pull bottom towards you then it just slides out).

Simple once you know how, but looking at it when water is coming through your ceiling (not drip drip drip either....) it was a bit WTF!!! Was ready to rip it apart but figured spending ten minutes poking at it was worth while.

Not saying yours is built like this, but it might be... And is well worth spending a half hour or so poking at it first trying to figure it out as you SHOULD be able to take it apart in a non-destructive way IF they have built it nicely. If not then it needs ripping off and redoing such that you can get in there in the future as things do go wrong and leak.
 
Participant said:
What are my options here? I have no comeback with the installer really, since the plunging has clearly caused the leak
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you've checked with them that they did not leave some kind of obscure access mechanism .. you could post pictures but you must have inspected it microscopically yourself
[I had thought the plug pull mechansim on ours was nac'd, but even with access seemed probelmatic to maintain it]
 
jpaul said:
you've checked with them that they did not leave some kind of obscure access mechanism .. you could post pictures but you must have inspected it microscopically yourself
[I had thought the plug pull mechansim on ours was nac'd, but even with access seemed probelmatic to maintain it]
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Tagging you as posted just before you replied. See pic - I've looked closely at it and there's no access without removing the panel, which I remember was some kind of thick foam affair that they tiled onto.

I did question the lack of access if any problems and they said, as tradesmen do, not to worry as it'll be fine. It might have been had the plunger not been required, though for some reason they left the old waste pipe in situ rather than replacing it with a wider modern plastic one, which I remember thinking was dumb.
 
Tap the side panel. Mine was the same and was leaking. Upon deeper inspection one area wasn't grout but some kind of coloured caulk. I sliced down that with a knife and there was a third of the panel which could be removed, it was a removable wooden piece. When tapping it gave a different noise (naturally, it was the third or 2/5s tap end!).

Initially I looked at the panel and thought, 'what idiot would tile in serviceable utility pipes' before realising they'd just done a great job of hiding it :o
 
Participant said:
Like this:

VMTn68wh.jpg

No skirting and snug as a bug in a rug.

:(
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Ahhh, No... Not like that... Our was very much a separate panel that was tiled/finished to match the rest of the room. Works very well and is very discrete.

Like this:
8zwYCnil.png.jpg
(also, at the far end, you might be able to make out a 'secret door' into the under bath area, behind it we have a basket full of all the cleaning stuff)

Hopefully the installer can give you some tips.. And when it comes to reinstall, make it removable with a couple of (hidden) screws.
 
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Skillmister said:
I've always wondered what people do in these situations, and clearly having to destroy some nice tiling is the answer :(
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Kol said:
Or not, in most cases it's seamlessly tiled with a panel which is removable like mine and samcat above.
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Absolutely.

Always work on the assumption that something will go wrong, and have a plan/solution so you can get to it without destruction. Not always possible, but where it is possible, do it. Might cost a bit more up front, but saves money down the line!
 
wedrum said:
ours is the same, had to break a few tiles off, luckily had some tiles left over in the loft to put back after repairing a leaking tap.
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We are lucky, when the previous owner did the bathroom they stashed all the leftover/spare tiles under the bath.. So if/when we need some we have spares.
In hindsight its a great place to store them, wish I had done the same with a previous house. Will do the same in the future. Same for kitchen tiles, will be tucked under one of the units.
 
samcat said:
We are lucky, when the previous owner did the bathroom they stashed all the leftover/spare tiles under the bath.. So if/when we need some we have spares.
In hindsight its a great place to store them, wish I had done the same with a previous house. Will do the same in the future. Same for kitchen tiles, will be tucked under one of the units.
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yes that is a great idea.
 
You should be able to pop a tile off, it maybreak so hopefully you have a spare. You may then have to cut into the ply/mdf to get access. Then add some new battons for the ply/mdf to attach back onto and re-tile. Ballache but not too bad.
 
Installer has come back saying in our case it would be best to access from underneath and cut ceiling / floorboards away to access. Doesn't solve the problem of if it happens again, but I guess I'll worry about that later as it will drive me nuts if the tiles go back on and they and the silicone and grout look different.

This is the ceiling underneath (it was like this before the leak):

NuRa4JDh.jpg

As you can see it needs work anyway.
 
samcat said:
We are lucky, when the previous owner did the bathroom they stashed all the leftover/spare tiles under the bath.. So if/when we need some we have spares.
In hindsight its a great place to store them, wish I had done the same with a previous house. Will do the same in the future. Same for kitchen tiles, will be tucked under one of the units.
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I know what I'm doing this weekend :D
 
Those look like cheap B&Q floor tiles. Find out how much replacements cost because you'll be breaking them. And get whoever refits the side to make it all removable.
 
samcat said:
We are lucky, when the previous owner did the bathroom they stashed all the leftover/spare tiles under the bath.. So if/when we need some we have spares.
In hindsight its a great place to store them, wish I had done the same with a previous house. Will do the same in the future. Same for kitchen tiles, will be tucked under one of the units.
Click to expand...
Wish ours were as courteous!

When we were ripping out our bathroom all we found was loads of rubbish and bricks dumped behind the bath panel :p
 
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