New bathroom, being told have to rip out the bath HELP! Drainage and wastage systems and plumbing help, advice and answers

[lauracharlton]

Hi there

I'm new here and have never posted before. Me and my boyfriend are basically having a slight nightmare. We noticed a few weeks ago that water started t seep through our bathroom ceiling. We called out a plumber - the seal had broken on the side of the bath. He fixed it by filling the bath with water and replacing the seal. Few weeks later more water through the ceiling. Called the same plumber out - the seal was intact, but there was water coming from under he bath, probably from something with the pipe. He fixed the pipe but warned us about the seal. He said that the seals on these types of baths (stading with a shower) are nt made to hold a lot of weight. This might sound slightly ridiculous, but my boyfriend is a pretty big guy, he's 6"6 and weighs 18 stone. But so far the seal had held, now we are a few weeks on and the seal has failed, even more water coming through then before which has spread right across the kitchen ceiling.

The insurance company are refusing to put us in a shower saying it's nt their fault my bloke is so heavy, but if we had cracked the bath we would have been covered. They say it is our responsibility to get the leak sorted. They also say that any more damage that occurs to the ceiling will ot b covered if we don't take reasonable action to resolve the leak.

My problem is this...the plumber said that this sort of bath won't do for us, and that we need to rip ou lovely new bath and tiles out and get a shower put in. We bought the house with new kitchen and bathroom because we knew that we couldn't afford to do anything like this!! Does anybody have any ideas about what we can do??

[stoneyboy]

lauracharlton,
Take the front panel off the bath and have a look at the supports, there should be five legs on a plastic bath. These may well not be situated on a stable piece of floor so you may have to fit timber sleepers under the bath to provide extra support.
end

[plumbbob]

Ok, your partner is no lightweight, but saying the bath is not up to it is just rubbish in my opinion.

Stoneyboy could very well be right and it is well worth examining the leg position. Get the boyfriend to walk in the bath and see what is moving.

A point that has to be said though is some baths are better and stronger than others. If it was a cheap shed bath then maybe it is weak and flexing too much. Check by pressing down on the corners to see how it bends.

Possibly the only answer is to remove the bath, fix battens along the walls to support the edge of the bath. Should solve the problem and not too difficult too.

[rosebery]

All "plastic" baths move and flex. Relying on the feet to support it on their own is a nonsense. There should have been timber supports fitted to the walls on which the rim of the bath sits. If there are none then the silicone seal will fail again and again.

If it were a particularly flexible (ie cheap!!) bath I'd be recommending a support frame on the open sides as well.

If such support isn't there then yes the bath will have to come out to put some in. But it shouldn't be a case of "ripping" it out. With care it can be done successfully although you may lose a few tiles in the process. There is no reason why the existing bath should be OK for you if its installed properly which I suspect it hasn't been. If this is the case and your "plumber" hasn't spotted this - get a new plumber!

BTW probably iro a days work (site unseen of course) so not that expensive really.

Cheers

[lauracharlton]

THANK YOU all for replies

We installed a wooden 'frame' /support under the bath which stopped the problem and the leak. Can't believe how much I forked out in plumbers and then my father in law brought around 2 bits of wood and solved the problem! Thank you for the advice, the floor underneath is bone dry!