Hello, I have an apartment where the paint on the wall outside the shower had started to bubble a little.
I had a plumber attend and complete the below list of items;
- Attended site to carry out leak detection test on shower.
- Located bathroom and found bubbling on painted wall behind shower taps.
- Removed shower head and attempted to carry out static pressure test on bridging piece between hot & cold spindle heads and shower head.
- Unable to carry out test accurately due to hot spindle leaking.
- Isolated cold water supply via control tap under laundry tub and hot water control tap at North Western side of the building.
- Carried out servicing of both hot and cold spindles.
- Reinstated hot and cold water supply.
- Carried out thorough testing of bridging piece.
- Pressure held at 300kpa.
- Suspect issue could be coming from the leak on hot spindle, which has now been fixed.
- Tenant has informed me of excessive temperature of the hot tap.
- Carried out dye testing on the shower base to find no evidence of leaking from the water proofing.
It was recommended to excavate into the tiles and look at the pipe to find the leak. After excavating into the tiles and concrete he found that he couldn't find the leak in the pipe and recommended getting a leak detection specialist. He initially said he could carry out the test. It was confusing as to why there needed to be a test given that there was no where else where there was a sign of leak and it was only a small section where the paint was bubbling so I found it bizarre that a leak couldn't be found. He temporarily patched it up and said to wait a few weeks to see if there was any no change. There was no signs of leaking.
He re-attended the site to patch it all up and now given me a $900 bill for going into the tiles and then repatching it only to find no leak and advised;
"In my experience, if there’s a leak from the spindle that drips into the flange, it typically results in water leaking inside the shower. It seems improbable that the leak would manifest on the opposite side of a brick wall, especially since that area was completely dry upon excavation.
I still suspect that the leak may have been due to a different issue that either resolved itself or stopped due to seasonal changes from colder to warmer weather. I do not believe the leak was caused by a leaking hot spindle."
Does this sound normal or is this suspicious?
Would be really grateful if someone could advise if I'm being taken for a ride.
For the work done, and while I'm no expert in plumbing, $900 doesn't sound unreasonable.
To go on from there, I'm sure if your man had found a leak, he would be keen to fix it for you … after all, this would mean more business for him. It would be very odd to go to all the apparent effort up to this point, only to then say, "yeah, nah … there's no leak here", when there actually is something there.
Obviously the damage you have observed has been caused by something, but it may be possible that it's difficult to determine what that thing is. My parents' place has some paint blistering in a very specific spot that would appear to be caused by water, but it's (1) nowhere near an obvious water source and (2) it's effectively a patch in the "middle" of the wall with no damage surrounding it. Where it's come from is a complete mystery.
Now, whether or not you should have stopped to consider your options before "excavating into the tiles" becomes the question. Only you can determine whether or not the issue warranted further work immediately after the initial pressure test was done … or whether it may have been better to observe the problem further before committing to more "invasive" investigations.