Bathroom insurance nightmare drags on til the end of time

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

There's a mahoosive damp patch on the external wall of my bathroom, around the window. I can't find any internal dampness at all and I have no idea where it's coming from. Unfortunately, my flat is on the 2nd floor so I can't really have a poke around the damp bit. So I've phoned a builder and he's going to explore it. He thinks it might be a leaking internal downpipe.  

[Wombat]

Kirst, I would gladly have come and helped you with your damp patch  , but it is rather a long way to claim I'm going to visit a resident who needs advice....

Good luck with it, people who think internal downpipes are a clever idea should be boiled in what goes down them, for a week.  Conventional internal soil pipes seem to be fine, but in blocks, with internal rainwater pipes, the friggin' things always seem to leak at some very inconvenient point.  I used to deal with an entire estate, with internal rainwater pipes wot kept leaking, and a bloomin' nuisance they were too..

Is this an ancient traditional Edinburgh-ish place, or a more modern atrocity, and do you own it?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I do own it, and it's 1890ish. Luckily pipes and roofs etc are communal so we all have to pay for repairs. We've already got a roof repair going on. 

[Mrs Pingu]

Oh dear, I hope it's not been leaking for a while cos dry rot is a bugger to get treated - we got ours done on insurance though, hopefully it's not gone that far for you.

[Martin109]

Is that why it's called 'auld reekie'?

[Wombat]

Unless its been leaking for ages, dry rot is unlikely.  It is a nightmare in the unlikely event that it does happen, though.  Best to let the tradesman uncover said pipes, and see where its leaking.  Often its from a floor above, and only shows at a point where it can escape from its confinement.  any idea if its a rainwater pipe, or the soil pipe, i.e. a trifle more malodorous...? 

I'd still be honoured to help see to your damp patch (working on the theory that e-flirting with someone many hundreds of miles away is safe 'cos Kirst won't realise I'm a wrinkly old married git from that range)  Oh bugger, just blew it....

Fingers crossed for an easily cured joint leak...

[Mike J]

I thought this was going to be a rude thread 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I don't know what it is or where it's from. There's nothing visible or smellable within the flat, it really all does seem to be on the outside wall. We've had some problems with the rhones and the roof lately so it might be all part of that.

[border-rider]

We've had some problems with the rhones

I had to Google that

Every day's a school day on YACF

[Andrew Br]

We've had some problems with the rhones

I had to Google that

Every day's a school day on YACF

Well you could have told us all 

Ish it the drain-pipes Maark Mal ?*

* In case of doubt, that's a Mark and Lard reference.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I thought this was going to be a rude thread 

 

[rogerzilla]

I was thinking of the Grosch "blue movie" advert, which I can't find anywhere on the web.

"Schtopp!  This blue movie is not ready yet!  Where is this guy's moustache?  Why is he actually fixing the 'fridge?"

[Torslanda]

Schmoke an' a pancake?

[SteveC]

We've had some problems with the rhones

I had to Google that

Every day's a school day on YACF

So did I and am none the wiser!

S

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The builder was supposed to come tomorrow to look at it but events have since taken a turn for the worse.

Tonight I could hear water dripping into the bath and couldn't work out why as the shower's been turned off since this morning. I went to have a look and water was dripping steadily from the ceiling. My bathroom ceiling is a false ceiling, plasterboard, hiding the boiler flue and there are no pipes above it. I went upstairs and checked with the bloke in the flat above (he of the thong) and he said "no, no, everything's dry." So I made him come downstairs and look at the water dripping through my ceiling, and he said he would go and take his bath panel off and check.

Half an hour later he came back down and said everything was fine up there so I realised I had no option but to call a plumber. There are two plumbers I have used in the past - Alexander Ritchie who is no longer in the phone book so I think isn't in business any more, and Eddie the Plumber who is quite elderly and I didn't want to call him out at night if I could help it. Luckily my adaptations work brings me into contact with tradespeople and I have a good relationship with the excellent Special Care Bathrooms who I would be delighted to recommend to any of you if I was allowed to do so. I have one of their guys' numbers in my work mobile so I rang him and asked him to recommend someone in Edinburgh who would come out and not rip me off. Garry (for that is his name) came himself, all the way from Ormiston on a Tuesday night.

He took a board out of my false ceiling and we realised that my real ceiling and the top flat's floorboards are wet and rotten through, and I have a lovely crop of fungus growing over the top side of my false ceiling. There was lots of water visible and it seems pretty obvious that that's where the external damp patch has come from. We went upstairs and got the neighbour to come down and look, and then we went upstairs and Garry had a root around in the upstairs kitchen and bathroom and found the problem in seconds. Upstairs, which is a rented flat, has clearly been plumbed by morons. Various things aren't connected properly, including the toilet overflow (that's not connected at all) and the bathroom sink waste, and water has obviously been soaking into the floor and into my ceiling for months, if not years.

My neighbour is very apologetic and says he'll fix the plumbing tomorrow but doesn't seem to understand that he's probably going to have to get a whole new floor for the kitchen and bathroom. He doesn't seem to want to involve the landlord so I will have to use my cooncil contacts to find out who it is and notify him myself. I don't think there's any point in me fixing my ceiling until I know that upstairs is fixed, or this'll just happen again. I'll notify my insurance company tomorrow that work will need to be done and let them sort it, but there's no point covering it all up until I know it's dry upstairs.

I think that the water has eventually soaked its way into the outside wall and the sandstone has just sucked it up like a sponge, hence the massive damp patch. 

[Adrian]

We've had some problems with the rhones

I had to Google that

Every day's a school day on YACF

So did I and am none the wiser!

S

Yeh, he could have posted the results of said googling for the rest of us.

[border-rider]

Who do you think I am: Reg ?

 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Rhones are downpipes.

[Oaky]

my googling efforts found this: Rhone

[Wombat]

At least you know what it is, now....  I'm puzzled at the tenant upstairs not wanting to call the landlord, that would surely be the first thing to do, after all, its the landlords problem, surely?  Your insurance company may well want to be rather firm with him about needing the landlord information, as they may well be seeking recompense from him.  If you suggest to him that your insurance company will need the landlord details (rather than you yourself being "awkward") he may understand the need for that involvement.  After all, as well as him needing plumbing and flooring work, you'll be needing a compete new ceiling, and soem decoration and mould treatment work.  And of course you may be allergic to the mopuld treatment, so you'll need to go into a 5 star hotel over Christmas...

Those adaptation plumbing types are very good, they always seem so, well, adaptable, and work out how to solve a problem.  So good in fact, that one of our staff here is marrying said equivalent person....  We're on the local authority side, after the OT's have said what they want.  Its not what I do (at the moment), but I can design adaptations, 'cos I is a designer by profession, innit?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The bloke upstairs doesn't have very good English, but he told me last night he's a plumber. I don't think he works as a plumber here, and I did think Garry was going to punch him last night when he said he was a plumber - Garry's standing there saying "you're a plumber and you didn't notice your toilet overflow isn't connected and there's water pouring out of the bathroom sink waste?" I don't think he's really understanding that the floor is rotted and therefore my ceiling is rotted and it is a big job to put it right. I know a man in housing who can find out who the landlord is for me so I will be contacting the landlord myself. Since last night the screws holding the bathroom light have come loose and the light shroud was hanging off, so I won't be using that till it's all sorted. Luckily I spent a lot of money on a mirror with lights so I won't have to shower in the dark meanwhile!

Special Care Bathrooms are the company I've dealt with most often for bathroom adaptations and I've never had any problem with them. They do what they're supposed to, they don't do what they're not supposed to without checking first, they understand the grants system, they listen to the OTs and don't treat us like daft wee lassies who know nothing, they do very good quality work and clients say they're always very good while they're in the houses, as quiet and tidy as they can be, no swearing, no loud radios, they tidy up after themselves without being asked - they're great. And coming out at 8 o'clock on a Tuesday night from Ormiston and not charging is above and beyond!

[Polar Bear]

Your insurer will seek to claim back from the idiot upstairs.   They will also be able to identify, if not locate the actual owner.   

Good luck.   

[PhilO]

...he told me last night he's a plumber.

There's a possible answer as to why he doesn't want to involve the Landlord. What are the odds that the botched work was done by him, without the Landlord's knowledge? 

Can open; worms everywhere! 

[Mrs Pingu]

Oh dear Kirst, that sounds terrible! If it's been going on that long then you may very well have dry rot (fungus like stuff) which will cost an arm and a leg to treat as well. Hopefully your insurers should do all the chasing for you, it shouldn't really be up to you to have to hassle the guy upstairs and his landlord, and I bet his landlord will want to know about the state of his flat!
Poor Kirst! <hug>

[Domestique]

Presuming this is a converted house/leasehold situation, wouldnt this sort of thing be covered by the building insurance?