I'm on a roll......

[arivecchi]

so I need to vent some more.

We discovered a leak from our master bath into our breakfast room this past week. Had to cut the ceiling open and the plumbers have determined that the tile in the shower needs to be ripped up and the entire shower base redone. Ugh.

This happens right before my family is coming for a visit and a halloween party for my kids. (Thankfully, we were able to use halloween decorations to cover up the hole in the ceiling.)

So we all using the kids bath and this morning - water gushes from that bath into our powder room below. It's an old bath and the previous owners never used it. Yay.

I want to cry but also need advice if you have any for me as we have never dealt with this kind of issue before.

[glbb35]

Oh my, this sucks, big time too and can be expensive. I am sorry about this. Let's cross our fingers and hope this time that things don't happen in 3's!!!
If it makes you feel better, when we first moved into this house, on the first day of school, I was putting on DS#1's shoes and kept feeling water hit my head. I looked up and saw water coming down from the ceiling. We have 12 foot ceilings in the family room. The water had clearly been leaking for at least a day or two. It ended up being a toilet that was not bolted down properly. Why this wasn't checked in the house inspection is beyond me! IT took us 2 months to get the hole in the ceiling finally replaced with drywall. Another 2 months to get it painted. Sigh. As soon as this was done with the repatching, I came downstairs to the dining room and noticed a dark spot across a section of the ceiling. IT turned out my shower was the culprit and it it took us a month to figure out (going through 3 plumbers!) to figure out that it was a pipe that had disconnected as it was welded together with plastic of all things by the previous owners (they did everything so cheaply!!!!) and the plastic finally broke. The shower was finally fixed (albeit, I have a huge hole in my bedroom wall currently covered by a mirror) and I worried that we had a lemon house on our hands. Of course we had the outline of the family room disaster and the hole in our dining room while I had two mom's gatherings and my sisters Baby Shower. That a PITA! IT took us a year to end up having the dining room ceilings repainted.

We didn't have to have tile redone like you which can be expensive so I can only feel for you there. I just hope nothing else happens and you can resolve these issues without a lot of $$ and heart ache. Good luck!!!!!! When it rains, it pours, bathrooms!!!

B

DS 03, 06, twins 09, 7/11

[TwoBees]

No advice, just :hug:

[mommylamb]

Oh no! I am so sorry!! Here's hoping that you hated that tile and would have wanted to replace it anyway. Sorry, there really is no good way to spin this one. :(

[specialp]

Oh no! I'm so sorry! All I can do is say I've BTDT with the first issue and offer you a hug. :hug: Our first home had that problem and it was discovered during the home inspection, but we were naive and just asked the seller to give us the $ rather than going ahead with the repair prior to closing. (We were told only the bottom tile of the shower would need to be replaced and it looked easy enough to match.) Of course, once we eventually got to the repair, the subfloor and shower step needed to be replaced and who knew white tile would be hard to match so we had to retile the whole thing. It was a small shower with plain tile so the money wasn't as big of a pain as the mess and dealing with the sandy/dusty house for a week was.

[elbenn]

I'm so sorry! I hope you get it all repaired quickly!

[TwinFoxes]

Oh no! I have no advice. :hug:

[jal]

Yea, redoing a tile shower can be expensive. However, it's also something you can do yourself if someone is anything of a handy man in the family. Obviously will take longer to fix, but if you do it yourself, it will likely come out looking as good or better than a professional, and if you learn to do it "right" (which obviously the original builder didn't unless this house is more than 30 years old).

See, the difference in a professional and DIYer is that the DIYer effectively has all the time in the world to get it right. The professional has to do it FAST so that he can make a living at it. If you want to save potentially thousands of dollars and DIY, then check out this forum: http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1 That's where I learned about tile and did a whole down stairs bathroom (tile floor, tile walls, and a tile tub). The only thing I haven't done is building a shower pan (I had a bathtub for my base).

So if you have the time, it's really worth doing it yourself. Even if you don't have the time, check this forum out and look for the things about how a shower SHOULD be done. There are a lot of professionals out there that do a "good enough" job that the shower lasts for about 5 years. But if you do it "right", it should last for decades.

Specifically look into how a shower should be water proofed, pre-sloped shower pans (sloped UNDER the water proof layer... and tile/grout are NOT the water proof layer) and open weep holes in the drain. Let a professional skimp on these details (any many do, not fully understanding why these issues lead to longer lasting showers) and you'll be doing this all over again in 5 to 10 years.

[boolady]

That doesn't sound good. Sorry...I wouldn't be happy either, but hopefully this is the last issue for a while.

[sste]

Oh no! What a stressor!

Something similar happened to my inlaws when they moved into their most recent house. In their case, the leaks had been longstanding and it rotted the floorboards. Not to say that is the case for you! But I would ask the plumber or even have a general contractor come by to make sure the floor and structure underneath is OK. It would suck to retile and then discover more issues after the fact.

Does the powder room now need work too? Or was that a one time leak? That may be something as simple as I think it is called the overflow needing to be replaced on the upstairs bathroom. My old condo had endless bathroom water leaking issues and the overflow and also I think the caulking around the seal (perhaps to the overflow?) were the usual culprits.

Angieslist is usually good for contractor recs. Try to stay focused on the lovely new tile you will be picking out. :)

[joules]

Oh no. I'm so sorry to hear!!

As I type this, I am sitting next to the guy who is ripping out the ceiling in our first floor family room.

During our inspection, our inspector found a leak from the master tub. The seller fixed this, which required the ceiling to be opened up and found that when they installed the new tub, they didn't connect the plumbing. (This house was a flip and in horrible shape at the beginning of the year, a company bought it and had to replace just about everything). The leak was not noticable at all. It took an infrared camera to see it.

Right before we moved in, the cleaners discovered that the master shower did not drain. DH tried to snake it but found out it was clogged with grout!! We contacted the seller and thankfully he is covering the repairs. So once again, our ceiling is being opened.

We have a second bathroom that we can use. Do you guys have another one? I hope they can fix it fast (and correctly) and at least get one of them up and running for you guys.

[arivecchi]

We have no extra bathrooms right now as they both have leaks. It's truly unbelievable. We have had two guys come over and look at the issue and will be selecting someone today to start working on this asap. Nothing had come up in the inspection. Both bathrooms seemed to be working properly and there was no evidence of water damage. My guess is that the peole who used to live here (an elderly couple) just used the master bath and never used the secondary bath. Now with more people in the house, the leaks seem to have gotten a lot worse from the more frequent use. I am hoping we just have to retile the floor and one inch up from the floor. This is just crazy but I am trying to not let it drive me completely bonkers. All this stress can't be good for my heart issues. :/

[elektra]

I am so sorry! I can't believe they both went out!
I guess it's good to just take care of it all at once (?)

[Melbel]

Oh no! Have you considered filing with insurance due to the cumulative amount to repair? Wishing you a speedy, inexpensive as possible repair.

[scriptkitten]

oh man i feel for you.

sometimes buying a home is a gift that just keeps on giving.

[arivecchi]

I'll definitely be filing a claim with our insurance company. I'm hoping the repairs needed in the second bath are not as drastic as the ones for the 1st one.

[theriviera]

that sucks!! i hope that the repairs will be faster and less expensive than you are hoping for. :hug:

[DrSally]

Omg, horrible! I do have to say that this happened to me in my last two places-- massive water leaking from the upper level ( broken water pipes). Our homeowners insurance covered the replastering of the ceiling, refinishing the wood floor, and the amish solid cherry dining table, all with a $1000 deductible. Stinks big time.

[DrSally]

Can you take sowers at your gym in the mean time? The few days my water heater was out, I was tempted to knock on my neighbor's door, lol ( no gym membership).

[kara97210]

Usually I would say that you should use this as a chance to remodel (since you already will have at least a plumber and tile person over), but since this comes so close to a party and visitors this is one of those completely unsatisfying house expenses that seem to always come in the first couple of years of owning a house. We bought last year and have had a number of things come up (nothing is less satisfying than spending $$$ to add a French drain). Good luck with getting the right contractors and getting this done in time for your events.

[mom2binsd]

For the love of god please tell me your DH's ipad/cellphone/wallet didn't get wet......

So sorry this is all happening, especially with all the stuff you have on your schedule!

[arivecchi]

Thankfully, the repair in the kids' bath was a simple one so we have one bath again. We have also selected the contractor and his quoted rate was pretty reasonable so we hope this will all be worked out soon. Thanks for the commiseration! oh, and we have DH's ipod, ipad and briefcase back!

[crl]

So glad you have a functioning bathroom! Fingers crossed the repairs to the other one are done on time and on budget!

Catherine

[marymoo86]

Thankfully, the repair in the kids' bath was a simple one so we have one bath again. We have also selected the contractor and his quoted rate was pretty reasonable so we hope this will all be worked out soon. Thanks for the commiseration! oh, and we have DH's ipod, ipad and briefcase back!

Great news!!! I'm glad to hear that it will be easier fixes.

I have a friend who purchased a great house in a fab location that needed updating. One night after we had gone out for drinks, she comes home with DH out of town to a flooded home. The plumbing guy had left a toilet on the 3rd floor with a leak that turned into a huge gush. Entire home had to be stripped down to the bare walls. So while she was inconvenienced for a while she did a get a total remodel and great downtown apt while waiting courtesy of the contractor.

Sigh - I need new bathrooms but would prefer it to be on my time table!

[WatchingThemGrow]

That's great one bathroom is fixed. I was going to suggest - contacting insurance company, showering at the gym, making sure EVERYTHING is dry as a bone before putting it back together. Buy or have someone use a moisture meter to prove it.

[mommylamb]

Yay! :boogie:

[TwoBees]

Thankfully, the repair in the kids' bath was a simple one so we have one bath again. We have also selected the contractor and his quoted rate was pretty reasonable so we hope this will all be worked out soon. Thanks for the commiseration! oh, and we have DH's ipod, ipad and briefcase back!

:bighand: Glad to hear the good news! (at least about this part)

[Kindra178]

Oh no! I am so sorry!! Here's hoping that you hated that tile and would have wanted to replace it anyway. Sorry, there really is no good way to spin this one. :(

This. I am so sorry to hear about the second bathroom as well.

[arivecchi]

I have a friend who purchased a great house in a fab location that needed updating. One night after we had gone out for drinks, she comes home with DH out of town to a flooded home. The plumbing guy had left a toilet on the 3rd floor with a leak that turned into a huge gush. Entire home had to be stripped down to the bare walls. So while she was inconvenienced for a while she did a get a total remodel and great downtown apt while waiting courtesy of the contractor.

Holy smokes. Counting my blessings! I think I would have had a heart attack if this had happened to me. We also have a local family who just lost their home in a fire so that certainly gave me some perspective!

[AnnieW625]

Glad things worked out okay. My uncle once had an air conditioning unit fall through the attic onto the living room floor. He was at least thankful that there weren't any rooms that the AC had to go through (ie: wasn't in the attic above the second floor!)

[arivecchi]

I have to report back on this! So demo started yesterday and our seemingly super honest contractor told us that he is 98% sure the leak originated in the shower doors because everything fell apart easily when he took those out and everything underneath the doors was still soaking wet. The contractor who installed the doors did not seal the shower door base properly and he is pretty certain that is where the leak is - which means it is a pretty small repair. Yay! I am so relieved we do not have to redo the entire shower!

[roseyloxs]

YAY for good news.:thumbsup: