My investment property has a leaking bath/shower that has to be replaced as over the years it has leaked between the bath and wall and caused extensive damage to the floor.
The plumber says it may be the whole bathroom floor that needs replacing.
Even if it is only the floor under the bath, should we just redo the whole bathroom? as it is very old.
The quote so far is $4250.00, where as a whole new bathroom will be about $7-8000.Thoughts?
If it's a unit/apartment – check that isn't an issue for Owners Corporation! A quick call to the Strata Manager should answer that.
If it is your responsibility, with your costing for a renovation- make sure that you've included money in there to cover the plumbing fix – sounds like it's necessary whether you renovate the whole bathroom or not!
If it has been leaking for a long time you will have wood rot in the floor boards right near the wall and you might have structural wood in the wall that is rotten also and the bath tub will have to come out to get at the floor boards to either replace them or bog them up depending on the damage
There is a product that is like a liquid that when smeared on the floor it hardens and is water proof
so that floor tiles can go on top. see http://www.constructionchemicals.com.au/PDF/Wet%20Area%20Waterpf%20Sys_web.pdf
http://www.totalwaterproofingsupplies.com.au/templates/content_template.aspx?pageID=34&productID=276
And Bunnings sell Poly shower cavities and bases to have a waterproof shower.Have a look to see if your insurance policy covers flood damage. We had a similar problem with a unit we had years ago.
Under our policy if there was "flood damage" and water from the bathroom was included in that definition, then the insurance company was liable to pay for all "subsequent" damage. Essentially that meant that they wouldn't pay for the structure that held the water, but they would pay for all damage that occurred as a result of the structure breaking.
Initially the insurance company said that they would only pay for the repair of the roof underneath (it was a two story place). That meant that they wouldn't pay for the bathroom repair or the rotting floorboards. However, we mounted an argument that the "structure" that held the water was actually the lining of the shower and that they had to pay for everything that was damaged as a result of the shower lining breaking. Of course, to get to the floorboards, the repairer had to rip out the tiles in the bathroom and replace everything. The company accepted our argument and the authorised repairer had to rip out the whole bathroom to repair the rotting floorboards. We paid for the new shower lining and any new things we wanted in the bathroom (vanity, shower screen etc) and the insurance company paid for everything else. Voila!!
Look at your insurance policy carefully.
Cheers
K
Get the whole lot re-done.
it is the only way to ensure you have a bathroom that will last the distance.
Would hate to spend $4k on a partial, only to find out 1-2 years down the track that the joists were rotten and are moving, and the new floor tiles have started to crack!
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