Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"badgolferman" wrote:

It appears the remodeled shower stall in the master bathroom is leaking
water below the floor of my one-story house. The shower has marble
tile on the wall and granite-like tile on the floor. The grout on the
floor has separated from the wall and water is getting past that.
Investigation by contractors reveals there is no shower pan under the
shower and the subfloor is damaged. There is some mold under the house
also. I am told the shower was constructed incorrectly and that this
problem has been going on for a long time. Evidence of clear caulk at
the junction of the floor and threshold supports that idea.

The home inspector that I had look the house over before purchasing it
13 months ago missed all this despite there being no insulation under
the house at the time of inspection. The owner of the company which is
reputable in this area claims if there was a problem at the time his
inspector would have seen it. He hints since the house was vacant
there is no way he could have determined any trouble with leaks or
copper pipes since the pressure wasn't fluctuating due to use. He also
reiterated several times the 12 month liability has passed and refused
to come inspect it himself.

I have contacted a lawyer to inquire of my options and am awaiting
word. One contractor has provided a quote for repair of $1700 plus
cost of new tile so it appears the damage isn't large. Considering the
estimate is lower than I expected it will probably not be worth
litigation.

Let my experience be a lesson for potential home buyers. Go into the
crawl space with your inspector and look for yourself. You may save
yourself some trouble later.

Thanks for sharing your story. GF and I just bought a house last
December that had the exact same problem. Fortunately our inspector was
a little more thorough, and the problem was found and corrected at
seller's expense.

Chuckle. My inspector missed lots of stuff I knew about before he came,
and several things I discovered months later. I grew up in the business,
so I knew the place had no serious flaws, and was just getting an
inspection to have an impressive-looking report to use as a price
negotiation technique. The $350 for the inspection kept the
offer-counteroffer down to a single round, and they came down about 10k,
so it was worth it.

As to OP's problem- he is correct, this falls into the Life Is Too Short
category. Write it off as expensive education, fix it the right way, and
move on. Even properly-installed showers fail on occasion. One of the
houses my mother had, with a 3/4 bath in the master, failed in a similar
fashion and for similar reasons. One of many reasons I hate crawlspaces
versus basements. Makes it too hard to see problems from below. I'll
note that many inspectors do not want or allow the customer to watch
over their shoulder- turns a 2-hour inspection into an all-day thing.
(or so previous threads on here have said, at least.)
--
aem sends...