Building Regs...Showers in Baths?

[julesapple]

Does anyone know about this?

We have a walk-in shower and a bath. The landlord wants to take out the shower tray (because, since a cowboy came round to 'fix it' it has leaked very badly and the floor is damaged under the tray) and turn the shower around so that it's running over the bath. This would mean that the shower will be over the round (non tap) end of the bath, which has a very sloping back.

It's a really stupid plan as we'll have no standing room and the window will be in the way too, so no curtain/blind either to protect our modesty. It's being done simply for cheapness.

Does anyone know if there are there any regulations about this as I don't have time to trawl the regs myself (and don't know where to start) before they get here.

Jules

[chris]

I don't know about the regs, but we have a shower over a bath (double ended - tap in middle) in our main bathroom, which is great for sharing a bath as it has two sloping ends, but showering in it is a bit of a pain, you can't stand near the end and have to angle the shower to get the spray to hit you.

Have you voiced your concern to the landlord? He could at least provide a blind or similar - but if the shower isn't powerful enough to reach you, then I'd be asking for a pump to go in as well?

[Nicos]

No idea- but would something like this work better????

Mobeli Shower Head Holder - Assist Ireland

[julesapple]

Sadly, it's absolutely no good voicing anything to our landlord. I was very subtle this morning and said that if he carries out these plans and any one of us has an accident resulting from showering in the sloping end of the bath (and you'll have to almost climb the slope to shower) then I will sue, especially if it's the BH that slips as he's physically unable to use the bath to bathe and has to shower.

I have pointed out, in a more reasonable tone, before I got cross, that what he's proposing is most unsuitable for several reasons. What really makes me cross is that he is treating this leak as if we're the cause (it must be having the Orgy Club meeting in the bathroom every week that's doing it.......not) when the actual cause was very shoddy work done by his pet cowboy a few months back. We did take photos and point out the 'quality' of the workmanship back then, but to no avail. The same cowboy is back today busily ripping everything out, before the true nature of his work can be seen.

We've done a lot to this house in the decade that we've lived here, spent a lot of money and keep it very clean and tidy, so this is really getting me down. To make it worse, the landlord, who is a relative of my husband, knows exactly what we've done and how much we've spent and he still treats us like scum and cannot admit that, as tenants go, we're ideal. We hardly ever ask him to do anything and he makes a such huge fuss at simple maintenance jobs that you'd think we were asking for blood. And yet, he spends thousands at his other properties just along the road in the next village.

Jules

[chris]

Sorry to hear that... it's either bad tenants, or bad landlords - you don't really hear much of great landlords and tenants in the same property contract! Is there a property lawyer or something that can inspect the work after it's done? If he's being awkward, then I see no reason why you shouldn't get the work checked to make sure it's up to standard.

[julesapple]

Right, progress has been made. It has been discovered by Uncle Landlord that his pet cowboy has caused the flooding and rotten floor. UL arrived whilst ripping out was going on and saw that the cowboy had put the plastic wall cladding (like waterproof tongue & groove) into a trough at shower tray level. The sealant he used was peeling up so water was running down and the trough bit was acting like a gutter and draining shower loads of water straight onto the floor boards and through into the boiler cupboard and kitchen directly below (narrowly missing the electrics) Oh, and there was no solid wall behind the cladding either, so it flexed.

Anyway, it has now been realised that none of this is our fault and I feel better about it. There hasn't been an apology but, hey, I can live with that. We get to keep both shower & bath and the pet cowboy gets to repair his wrongs at his own cost!

We have to put up with said cowboy for however long it takes for him to complete the job, and you can cut the sulky atmosphere in my bathroom with a spoon, but I can live with that too. This time I will not be offering cuppas and slices of cake either.

Jules

[Incy]

Glad you got a result Jules.

[HeyWayne]

Good news!

[Mikey]

I wouldn't stop the teas and cakes personally, I've always found it much easier when the cogs are lubricated. If you get my drift.

[OverWyreGrower]

Tea, no cake....

[Mikey]

What about a biscuit?

[zazen999]

Cup of tea, radio on downstairs to drown out the sulking and just hang on til he is done.

[snohare]

What about a biscuit?

No no Mikey, his work is crummy enough !
Speaking as an amateur DIYer who does favours for friends, I have no sympathy for him. You can always tell when the end result is dodgy (especially where running water is involved) and when you are taking shortcuts. I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing unless told to by the homeowner, and even then under protest. So good to see someone has brought a cowboy to book for his crimes !

[Mikey]

He obviously can't be that much of a cowboy as he is prepared to come back and put it right.

How many cowboy can you think of that would give too hoots to bother.

Just a thought following on from snohare's comments, If he did a bad job first time round perhaps he was told to do it that way by the landlord?

[Potstubsdustbins]

Jules,

So far as I know there are no specific building regulations about which end of the bath you place a shower over.

However your landlord does owe you a duty of care. This implies that everything within the property must be fit for purpose and safe to use.

Most local authorities have a department that deals specifically with private rented property and their powers are fairly wide ranging.

As an example I recently dealt with a property where the local authority had been involved by the tenant.
The primary complaint was that there was no radiator in the dining area, however when the council turned up they did a front to back, top to bottom inspection and then issued a list of required works.

This included new stairs (a couple of treads were loose). New bannisters to the stairs and landing (the gaps between the uprights were to large). New power sockets to the kitchen and bedrooms (not enough supplied). Full equipotential earth bonding and new comsumer unit (original deemed unsafe. And yes a new radiator to the dining area.

There was a time limit put on as to how long the landlord had to get the improvements done with the threat of legal action should he fail.

Colin