Retiled bathroom continually leaking

Tilers Forums Official Sponsors

B

Beepboop

I’m having problems with my bathroom I’ve had retiled and really need some advice. Sorry – slight saga ahead.

The property is flat on the top two floors of a Victorian terrace house in London, I guess it was renovated about 5 years ago. The bathroom is on the lower of the 2 floors, but the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] floor of the house, and has wooden floors and partition walls. It has a bath with shower above it, the walls are tiled with slate and there’s a folding shower screen along the side of the bath.

There were previously problems with water coming through into the flat below when the shower was used, I put extra sealant around the bath and that fixed it. After a year the sealant became mouldy, so I thought I would re grout the tiles. Unfortunately as I removed the grout all the tiles just fell off the wall, they weren’t stuck on at all and were just being held up by the grout. At this point I thought I would get someone in as it was becoming a bigger job than I wanted to take on.

Because of come problems with the roof and gutter I’ve got people who work for the freeholder planned to come and do some work, so I asked them if they could do the bathroom, they came and said they’d redo the problem area for £200 using spare tiles I have, and assured me that everything would be sealed and leak free. The tiling looked OK when they had finished, but I was annoyed that the slate tiles were covered in a film of black grout. I started to polish it off, then realised I was doing work I had paid them for, and asked them to come back. I also noticed that no Silicon sealant had been applied, so asked them to come and do that as well. I would have thought that was pretty basic – they weren’t bad about it and came the next morning, cleaned the tiling and .

After a couple of days to allow everything to set I said my (very annoyed by this point) tenant-flatmate could use the shower. It leaked into the flat below. I inspected the grouting and sealant and found holes in the grout and gaps in the sealant, it was mostly leaking in the corner, along the long side, and a little on the short side. I called them back and more grout and sealant was applied. It still leaked, more sealant was applied yesterday. I had a shower this morning and can still see water leaking through.

I’m now fed up with this whole situation. I didn’t tackle it myself as I didn’t want to do a half-assed job and for it still to leak, but I’ve managed to end up with that anyway. I feel like I should give up on them and get someone else in to do it. Is there any way I can tell for myself exactly what the problem is? Should I keep getting them in until it’s fixed, or can I get my money back off them and get someone else in to re do it? I paid them to sort the problem out, but it’s worse now.

Pic is of the bath after I removed the grout. 13699077020010.jpg
 
It's all been said above, a strip out would be required and personally I would'nt entertain the dot and dabbers to come back, waste of time and money.
 
I can't actually see the image. But have you looked for water marks under the bath? Not saying that you don't have issues with your tiling but what about your pipework and wastes?
 
As i read it the picture is of the tiles removed before the builders attempted to repair it, so the dot and dab is from the original tilers who did the bathroom 5 years ago and not from the last lot???

How many tiles were replaced? just the bottom row that you removed or were more taken off?

If any of the original tiles were left on and they popped off as easy as you say they did then just think about what would happen if the top row was to fail whilst you're in the bath 😉
 
Also check that the bath is correctly fixed and stable. Retailing and sealing is a waste of time if the bath moves up and down when filled/stood in.

if the walls are plaster which I suspect from the colour in your photo then I'd also question the weight of tiling that is being fixed to it - the weight limit for plaster walls is only 20kg/m2 which will be exceeded by slate (unless very thin). Not the reason for the leak but should be considered if re-tiling.
 
I think SJ is thinking along the same lines as me. Put aside the poor tiling. Is the bath even supported? Dot and dab tiles wouldn't have any affect on the seal round the bath edge
 
Of course the seal around the bath to the wall is bad otherwise it wouldn't have gone down stairs but you can clearly see water damage much higher up where it's run past the dot and dab
 
To be honest I don't know how securely the bath should be fixed. I'll post some pictures tomorrow - it's mounted on wooden blocks which lie on wooden floorboards underneath. Plastic bath. Seems reasonably steady if not rock solid.

I'm pretty sure they didn't fill up the bath before sealing.

That's bad news about the weight capacity of plaster vs slate tiles. They're about 1cm thick.
 
As i said i can't they the picture. But from what everyone is replying the tiling must be pretty bad. Just highlighting another area that needs addressing as well.
No pointing getting all the tiling sorted if the minute 75kg of man steps in for a shower in a bath tub that's incorrectly fitted is there!!

Just to reiterate. I CAN NOT view the pictures. :thumbup:
 

Advertisement

Weekly Email Digest

Back
Top

Click Here to Register for Free / Remove Ad