When Your Neighbours DIY Plumbing Goes Wrong

Article by David Powell, 10 September 2018

A tenant in Southsea near Portsmouth called us on a Sunday morning complaining of water coming through the bathroom ceiling. The water was dripping quite heavily from the light fitting and out of the extractor fan.

On arrival I found the property was a ground floor flat and all the electrics had tripped but the leak had stopped.

The tenant of the ground floor flat had spoken with his neighbour in the flat directly above, prior to my arrival, and determined that the leak only occurred when the bath/shower was used.

After talking to the occupant of the 1st floor flat it came to light that the bath was not emptying, in an attempt to clear the blockage he had release the screw inside the plughole. He happily proclaimed that the bath then emptied successfully.

What he didn’t realise was that by loosening this screw he had actually detached the waste pipe and trap from the underside of the bath resulting in the backed up water running directly onto the floor under the bath and into the bathroom of the flat below.

I refitted the trap and tested for leaks. Again the water started to back up in the bath indicating that the trap was still blocked.

Cleared the blockage using a plunger and tested for flow and leaks.
 

See more about our related services here:

• Plumbers In Portsmouth