Non-motoring > Cracked bathroom floor tiles Miscellaneous
Thread Author: bathtub tom Replies: 20

 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - bathtub tom
I'm trying to buy a bungalow (and have ben since April!). Getting close to exchange and I inspected the place again. A bathroom had a wet floor (lavatory cistern leak), but I now noticed the ceramic floor tiles had a crack across several of them. It's '50s built with solid floors. I hadn't noticed this crack on the previous two visits before and it wasn't in the home buyers survey. Could it have been caused by the water leak?
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Robin O'Reliant
I can't see how. More likely something was dropped on them.
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Manatee
Or the slab is cracking underneath...any signs of heave/settlement elsewhere?
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Manatee
I'm in tile mode at the moment. The tiler has been laying Ditramat on all the floors (Caber deck upstairs and screed downstairs) mainly to prevent cracking. The screed would probably have been OK without had it had more time to dry out, apparently. Ours got about 4/5 weeks, rather less than the commonly recommended one day per mm. which would have been about 3 months. Some small cracks have indeed appeared in the untiled areas of screed since then.

If you have a (slightly) unstable floor you could try this if you re-tile.
Last edited by: Manatee on Wed 10 Nov 21 at 16:38
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - bathtub tom
>> Or the slab is cracking underneath...any signs of heave/settlement elsewhere?

NO, and I don't think it's consistent with anything being dropped on them as it's a line across several ceramic tiles, not straight, but almost. I don't know when the tiles were laid, but as the previous owner died in February I guess the floor was stable.

I had a home buyers survey, but not a full structural.

This transaction seems blighted. I'm already more than a grand in and we're still no closer than we were in April. It's a probate sale. The vendor's solicitor took eight months to obtain probate (yesterday) and there's a mistake that means it has to go back to the probate office (eight weeks!). It looks like no-one's been tending the place and the gardens are jungles. I'm supposed to be getting a report on the central heating and have it serviced (at vendor's cost).
The place is still full of some very nice furniture and furnishings. My family would've been in there to grab the good stuff months ago, I've numerous young family members that are setting up home and would be glad of stuff.
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Wed 10 Nov 21 at 16:44
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Kevin
Sounds like it could be a sinkhole that is beginning to collapse. In which case it will need excavation, sinking of concrete piles into solid bedrock and then filling with layers of reinforcing rods and concrete.

Probably at least £100k (plus tiles).

:-)
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Zero
Sink hole? Probate Sale? There is a dead body down there.......

They will be digging the whole place up after you move in,
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 10 Nov 21 at 21:22
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Ted

Forget it all. Find a nice little bedsit....Bed with urine stained striped mattress in the corner, threadbare rug on rough wood floor. Net curtain, dirty and torn, hiding flashing neon sign outside. cracked bowl and jug and shared loo in the yard.,
What more do you need ?

Ted
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - bathtub tom
Kevin, Zeddo and Ted. Thank you so much for your very helpful contributions. Next time you're about to splash half-a-million on a property, let me come and p155 on your parade (except zeddo - a whole lot more).


;>)
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Ambo
My reaction would be to get out of the deal now, even if the grand you have spent is unrecoverable.

More generally, is there a legal obligation on vendors to point out faults in their properties?
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Clk Sec
>> More generally, is there a legal obligation on vendors to point out faults in their properties?

Not as far as I'm aware. It's down to the buyer to arrange a suitable survey.


 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - No FM2R
>>Could it have been caused by the water leak?

Yes, if it was bad enough and for long enough.

Depending on where it is soaking away it will wash dirt away with it. If it happens to be running away under the floor then it can wash away sufficient dirt to cause minor local sinking.

A mini "sink hole" effect.

How bad and how long was the leak?
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - bathtub tom
>> How bad and how long was the leak?

It was an occasional drip from the lavatory cistern, I don't know how long it's been dripping as I was last in the place in April, when it was surveyed. I've spoken to the surveyor and he's certain he would have spotted a crack running across ceramic tiles as I'm sure I would. The surveyor has offered to come and see the crack and we're arranging an appointment.
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - VxFan
>> The surveyor has offered to come and see the crack and we're arranging an appointment.

Good to see someone is looking into it ;)
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - bathtub tom
Re-visited yesterday with the surveyor and estate agent. The leak had been reduced, but not stopped completely and realised the hall carpet was also wet!

No heating on and the plumber had charged for 'trying to fix boiler ignition problem', so it looks like the boiler's kaput.

Anyone had a replacement lately to give me a ball-park figure. It's a Gloworm Ultimate, wall mounted with a balanced flue, so I guess it's a condensing boiler, although it looks quite old. There's not a pressure vessel and the place has an airing cupboard (which SWMBO would like to retain). There's a couple of water tanks in the loft.
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Bromptonaut
>> Anyone had a replacement lately to give me a ball-park figure. It's a Gloworm Ultimate,
>> wall mounted with a balanced flue, so I guess it's a condensing boiler, although it
>> looks quite old. There's not a pressure vessel and the place has an airing cupboard
>> (which SWMBO would like to retain). There's a couple of water tanks in the loft.

I'm pretty sure wall mounted boilers with a balanced flue existed long before the condensing type came along. Ours is a Baxi, installed at construction in 1998. It has a fan driven balanced flue - the fan is the on component to give trouble more than once - but otherwise heats an indirect copper cylinder and feeds directly to radiators.

Come to think of it there were similar units in houses I occupied from 1980 on.
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Zero
Sounds like its a standard indirect hot water boiler. Price of course is boiler output dependent, but a Gloworm fitted in existing place with not much required in prep and changes, should be about 1500-1800 quid.

That includes a power flush and magnetic filter installed to meet boiler warranty requirements.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 13 Nov 21 at 10:37
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Kevin
I don't know where you are located BT but this is the guy I called in to fix my old Potterton. He's a top notch old-school type who knows how to actually repair a boiler rather than just replace bits ad-hoc.

www.miketheboilerman.com/glow-worm-ultimate.html

He's based in Hungerford now and charges travel time so maybe out of scope for you. Maybe give him a call? He'll probably be able to tell you what's wrong over the phone.

Anyway, isn't it the perfect opportunity to install a ground-based heat pump while you're filling in the sink hole?
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - Manatee

>> Anyway, isn't it the perfect opportunity to install a ground-based heat pump while you're filling
>> in the sink hole?

The deep ones are the best of course.
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - bathtub tom
That's my tick. I haven't (quite) lost my sense of humour over this.
 Cracked bathroom floor tiles - sherlock47
bt

I have just had had a small combi replaced around for £1900 with new TRVs flush and magnetic filter, (in a rental property).

Am i correct in placing you near St Albans?? If so, personal mail me and I will give you a plumber details who has served me well in the past.
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