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Home Repair Renovating Bathrooms

Look what we found behind our ensuite walls!

3 years ago

Wife and I discovered some dampness in and around the ensuite door frame so we started looking into what may be causing it a couple of weeks ago. Anyways, to our surprise the dampness was going all the way from the door frame into our carpets, and we also discovered some mold under our carpet and in the skirting boards, etc.

So over the course of 2 weekends, we completely ripped out the carpet in the bedroom, and most importantly all the tiles, walls in the ensuite. And to our surprise, we didn't find any leaks on this instance (but clearly there must have been leaks in the past as the house is about 35 years old) but we noticed most of the studs in the wall have completely rotten! Hoping it doesn't collapse as the base is all rotten too. I suspect the previous owner has fixed the leak in the past but did a dodgy job with poor waterproofing of the wall prior to selling the property, meaning we are left with the pointy end of the stick!

We tried to go with our home insurer but they rejected our claim as no leaks found on this instance, and our policy with them has only been over a year (which is when we bought the house) so technically any issues otuside of the policy term are not covered :(

What should we do? And seeking some opinions on how we go from here around getting this all fixed so we can have our ensuite functional again. Would appreicate any advise you may be able to share.

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Comments (3)

oklouise
3 years ago
a great example of poor workmanship and household insurance won't cover that but despite the horrible surprise and expense this is an opportunity to get it right and also add your own style but first decide if you want the shower, toilet and vanity and even the walls returned to the same location?? it look's like you've done a great job removing all the damaged walls but you need to be careful about asbestos..post a plan of the ensuite and all adjoining rooms with dimensions for ideas about alternative floorplans, then, once you've decided the best arrangement you'll need a carpenter to replace the walls, plumber electrician, waterproofer, tiler and all the new tiles, toilet, vanity, shower and taps..unfortunately a very expensive surprise..the challenge will be juggling everyone to arrive in the correct sequence as well as choosing all the new fixtures and fittings so i would start with a quote from a specialist bathroom company, best of luck
Nav Batra thanked oklouise
Kate
3 years ago
Oh dear that is bad luck. All mouldy furnishings, skirting, plaster and timber have to go. It’s so insidious. You will feel better once it’s all rebuilt to your taste and properly drained and waterproof
Nav Batra thanked Kate
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macyjean
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I'm sorry you are experiencing such an inconvenience. My suspicion is the previous owner trusted the builder to repair the leak. We learned the hard way that it is better to pay someone else to redo a bathroom with a leak than to insist the builder comes back to rectify such a major problem in a new building, and we have since spoken to others who also found problems down the track due to builders cheap lazy bandaid fixes. We now have a very dated ensuite that we don't feel justified in updating because it has already had multiple renovations. I agree with the other replies, get it all redone properly and take the opportunity to choose everything to your own taste.
Nav Batra thanked macyjean

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