Waiting for plumber to arrive...

[ChatterMonkey]

Said he would be here 'early teatime' but no sign yet. Which is ok, i know he will turn up at some point as weve used him before.

But he will need to be working on the kitchen ceiling (leak from bathroom upstairs...) And i want to start making dinner!

Would it be rude to be cooking while hes working? It would be dar enough away from the cooker that there would be minimal risk of ceiling in my dinner, but worried it wohld be rude.

Other issue I have is that i dont have any cash in. Would have to nip to the cashpoint but have no idea how much its going to cost, so cant go until he gets here.

Is it acceptable to leave him in himself while i nip to the cashpoint round the corner? Would be 5 mins max.

Overthinking it, but dp is away for work, and he would normally deal with this sort of thing so dont know whats acceptable or not!!

Firstly I would suggest you start doing something it's hard to stop, he will definitely arrive when you're in the middle of it. I wouldn't make dinner while he's there but would definitely feel comfortable popping out to the cash point.

Good luck, the waiting is the worst but

Why is a plumber working on the ceiling?

Plumber is working on the ceiling to access pipes from the bathroom above, to avoid damaging the relatively new bathroom.

Ive made my dinner, still no sign...

When would you say early tea time is??

If you go to the loo he will arrive. It's guaranteed.

Can you text him to see if he's going to be coming today?

Ahhh i hate this sort of thing. So plumber has been, and has quoted £200 just to cut a hole in the ceiling to investigate, and to make good again the whole that he's cut.

He cant quote for what needs done once he gets access cos he doesnt know whats causing the leak. So could potentially be 4-500 potentially

Does this seem high for the work?? Told dp whos working away atm, and he was shocked at the cost. But i have no idea what it should cost so have no frame of reference.

I hate this sort of thing.

We had the same thing last year. I hate to break it to you, but it was an insurance job for us. They had to cut several holes in the ceiling to find the problem, then still had to go through the shower tray, as the pipe that takes the waste water away had become disconnected. They made such a mess of the ceiling the whole thing had to be replaced. Our claim ended up being for about £2k.

Oh no.... Will the insurance pay out if the work has already started?

Worried that if the cost goes up after we've started cutting holes in the ceiling that they wont get involved.

The sort of silver lining is that we were always going to need to redo the kitchen ceiling, as we had knocked down an internal wall for a bigger kitchen, one room had a textured ceiling so just now we have a weird half and half. Hadnt realised plastering/redoing a ceiling would be so expensive though.

How new is the bathroom?

Bathroom is a couple of years old. And most likely shoddy workmanship from that being fitted is the cause of the leak... But tried to get on at them about it and they arent interested.

Current plumber is going to write us a report on what he finds the cause to be to give us ammo on going back to the orginal company to complain.

Its just so frustrating, were going round in circles trying to get it resolved, while watching this damp patch get bigger and bigger... I just want it done with. Im just dreading him cutting the hole and finding a much bigger issue than anticipated...

I'd stick a call into your insurance company and tell them you've had to hire an emergency plumber as there was an active water leak and you wanted to minimise the damage. Then you can decide what to do once you've seen his report. If it's a massive job, you can thank him for the work he's done and pay him, then go through the insurance company for the rest.

That's what I guessed please remember to check your policy to remind you of any exclusions regarding professional/ recent work before you call your insurer.

Something like this happened to a friend a few years ago, turned out she wasn't insured for most of it.

So we found the leak... And it was indeed shoddy plumbing from the cowboys that fitted the bathroom.

The mains water feed leading to the bath taps is the one that you can see dipping way down and then going up again, which apparently it shouldnt do. So too much presure on that join, hence the slow constant drip leak. Ceiling is soaking, beams are pretty wet as well but hopefuly caught in time to dry out fully and be ok.