No shower for up to 8wks. Reasonable?

[justjuanmorebeer]

I live in a rented flat and since last year there has been a leak from behind the shower soaking the wall and going through to the next room.

LL has been aware since the patch started coming through but nobody has been to fix it until today as the workmen they use were all booked up.

Now what has to happen is it is being taken apart to see where the problem is and then it will need to be left for up to 8 weeks to dry out the wall before we have access to a shower again.

I understand that these things happen but is it reasonable to expect us (me, dp and dd (age3) ) to be without a shower for so long. We have a bath but try to limit due to such high cost. Now if we have to have at least 3 x baths per day I am panicing at the thought of the gas bill.

Dp also leaves really early so wont be able to shower before work and will have to bathe at night obviously.

Is this anymore than just massively inconveneient or do you think we should ask for some sort of rent reduction/ money off our bills?

if that's how long it takes for the wall to dry out, not much to be done.

BUT

• is it possible to fit a shower attachment to the bath taps? (Curtain/screen obviously)
• if the shower was a power shower, baths use about the same amount of water.
• the gas bill shouldn't be that bad, you can always share water.

There is no curtain or screeen at the bath no. No shower over it as they are in separate rooms.

Our bath takes ages to fill and we have quick showers so it will absolutely be more usage.

I can share with dd and I do that already but we are in at different times so that won't work.

could you attach a shower hose to the bath taps and kneel in the bath to have a sort of shower. We had to do this when our shower was out of action

something like this?

we knelt in the bath and didnt have a shower screen or curtain - just had to be careful not to spray water everywhere

I will try and get something like that

Why would you need to have a bath each every day unless you are all working down the mines.

It isn't necessary to have a bath or shower daily. You could just have a body wash at a sink with a fannel.

Are you serious? Dp STINKS if he doesn't shower properly. Dd will be fine definitely you're right.

What I meant was you can have a really good all body wash just using a sink full of water and a fannel. It's a pain in comparison but definitely quicker and cheaper (if you are on metered water) than a daily bath.

What sort of shower have you got when it's working? I think some power showers use more water than a shallow bath.

We had no shower for a year. We shared bathwater in the mornings, but if that doesn't work for you a sink of water will do the job. It's a PITA but I think if you're going to ask for a rent reduction I'd do it on grounds of inconvenience rather than increased bills.

Eight weeks to dry out my asre.

The landlord wouldn't go that long him/herself, and if his buddy was busy s/he would use another. How much rent reduction has s/he offered? If you have a gas boiler, it might cost about 15p per bath. If you have electric water heating, about 45p,

A builders big dehumidifier will dry out a small wall in a week. The landlord can pay for the extra electricity it uses.

They haven't offered any reduction. I have a pretty decent dehunidifier myself here that I have agreed to put on in there for a week. They are coming back in 7 days to check progress and if it is dry enough they will put the shower back in and retile it

So a week is fine.

...in which case, not really a problem. Landlords can't get things fixed more quickly than home owners do.

I'm a landlord. We've part replaced the bathroom in our house, which meant shower but no bath for a while. Finishing the job will mean the other way round. Inconvenient but not hardship.

the property I rent also has both shower and bath. If either fails I will get it fixed ASAP, but meantime the tenant has use of the other. Having neither is not good.

A builder's dehumidifier is a thing the size of a washing machine. Much more powerful that a domestic one. They can be hired.