So I have an apartment and recently decided to renovate the main bathroom, and also put an ensuite in the main bedroom as I had a large built in wardrobe space which just about had enough room for one. The bedroom wall with the ensuite backs on to the kitchen, so the corner of the bedroom and the kitchen corner are both close to the main vertical soil stack that each apartment connects to. The first few pics show the kitchen corner with the new pipes that were added for the shower and toilet waste. The other pics show the soil stack from the ensuite side.
The work was finished about 2 weeks ago, and the main bathroom turned out pretty well, however I'm having a pretty major issue with the new ensuite. I was away for a week, so it was only Sunday night this week that the ensuite was used for the first time. The shower and toilet seemed to work fine, but the next morning I noticed water under the floorboards, so obviously this points to a pretty major issue.
The new tiled floor was completely dry so the water seems to be coming from the pipes somewhere behind the walls. In the days since Sunday I noticed that water is coming back up the shower sometimes, and the toilet is occasionally making bubbling noises, like there's air coming back up through it, and the water level in the bowl rises a bit also. Just today I noticed that the water coming back up the shower and the toilet happens when the kitchen tap is running for a couple of minutes, or while the dishwasher is on.
I said all this to the builder today, and his reply is that there are 5 waste pipes all connecting to the main soil stack (kitchen sink, washing machine, dishwasher, new ensuite shower, and new toilet), that's why it's backing up, and that I'd probably need to re-plumb the kitchen stuff and "possibly get another waste pipe out the back wall of the bedroom". He seems pretty nonchalant about it and by his tone I'm thinking he'll expect me to pay for this work. He hasn't come back to look at it yet as he's on holidays.
So this is a major headache and my floorboards are now water damaged. I'd appreciate people's thoughts on this:
- I've forked out a lot of money for the job and now have a blocked ensuite shower and toilet. Surely he should make this right without me paying more?
- Shouldn't he have realised when he first looked at the job that there would be 5 things connecting to the soil stack, and should have known this could be an issue?
- Is his assessment correct, would these 5 things connecting to the main soil stack cause the shower and toilet to back up, or is it another problem? Maybe the work was shoddy and not done properly, and he's using the 5 things as an excuse?
During the work there were a couple of other things I had to pay for, like the new 4-inch pipes came too far into the kitchen which meant the dishwasher in the corner wouldn't fit any more, so the sink had to be moved into the corner and the dishwasher moved to the centre. I had to pay extra for his kitchen fitter and plumber to come and do this. When moving it they cracked the sink, so I had to pay over 300 euro for a new one. I also had to pay for a few other things, like he moved the bedroom door but used the existing architraves which were in bits and just screwed back on, had to pay his carpenter to come and fit new architraves. This is why I'm thinking he may expect me to pay more to get this fixed 😐️
Any thoughts or feedback much appreciated.
