I got a call from my tenant reporting that some enamel had "come off the bath" and that since then she has heard a cracking sound when filling the bath. She says there wasn't an accident, that she didn't drop anything, etc. and on balance I would probably give her the benefit of the doubt.
My question is how could the enamel have "just come off" without there being an accident? The bath is about 2 years old so I wouldn't expect a failure due to age. The tenant says that it looks like the enamel has come off near one of the legs would be, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get to the property to inspect
My insurance says that I'm only covered if there has been an accident, but I can't see how it could have occurred in any other way.
The usual trigger for such an incident is a point impact. Not necessarily a heavy impact but enough to create a local stress point and once the enamel fails the small localised "hole" in the enamel spreads accompanied by audible crackling noise especially if there is a temperature change. On balance I expect something was dropped into the bath but the tenant did not notice at the time. From a cover point of view maybe a recollection might be in order?
At 2 years old, I presume this is pressed steel rather than cast iron?
Most likely, excess stress and consequent movement of the steel at that point, the steel being more flexible than the enamel.
I can think of two causes. A common one is fitting the legs wrongly such that the steel is over-stressed, e.g. over-tightening the fixings or leg braces (depending how they're held on). It might be that not leveling the feet correctly could also do it too. The other possibility I can think of would be something like jumping into the bath, stressing the steel at the point where it's supported. This second case might show up as an upward dent at the foot mounting point, and might be most easily seen from the underneath. Unless something like this is obviously visible, you're just going to have to believe the tenant.
I would tell the tenant to stop using the bath immediately - they are effectively having a bath mixed with broken glass. Unless there's another bath or shower available, I'm afraid this is likely to mean an emergency fix is required. Maybe some really heavy duty gaffer tape sealing the area against shards of enamel breaking free would give you a few days grace, but this is a H&S issue.
cynic Agreed if it was an impact then that makes sense. The audible cracking sound was when the tenant tried to refill the bath - which is consistent with what you say about a temperature change.
Andrew I was pretty careful when fitting the bath not to overtighten the leg braces and I screwed them into the floor to prevent them from moving and checked and double checked everything was level (but I'm willing to accept that I'm not perfect)
Regarding someone jumping into the bath, then I guess this is possible. She is a rather robust lady or it may even have been a previous tenant (6 months ago). As you say I'd have to go and inspect the bath. I have asked the tenant to stop using the bath and use the shower instead so the H&S issue is covered.
RobertL I don't remember dropping it when installing it, so I'd probably have to rule that out. But thanks for pointing that out.
Last question - do you think the bath can be repaired, considering the cracking sounds when refilling the bath? I'm guessing the damage is not localised anymore.
I can't imagine that repairing a pressed steel bath would be worthwhile, nor that it would last.
A Kawaldi (sp?) pressed steel bath cost me about £100 in
2002 and they stayed about the same price for several years afterwards, although I've not looked recently. Fitting it and making good is more hassle though. I'd hate to have to take mine out - it's glued to the walls along 2 edges with silicone (invisibly). I'd probably have to use a cheese wire or similar to cut it out, after removing bottom row of tiles so I can get to the silicone.
I'm inclined to agree with you, replacing the bath will be a real hassle. In my case my bath panel is tiled 18mm waterproof ply, which is heavy and not 100% rigid so I just know that some tiles are going to fall off it. However the repair guy I spoke to said that if he couldn't repair it he wouldn't charge a call out fee (he's local).
If he can't do it I think I'm going to have to get someone in to do the job for me. And regarding the panel I'm thinking of just getting him to put an new acrylic panel on for convenience. I think they're pretty horrid but I can redo it properly when the tenant moves out.
It shouldn't take a plumber more than a day to replace the bath and fix the panel should it?
I'd go for the leg fitting - or a bad weld on it's mounting before it was enamelled - too. For comparison, our plastic bath also has stress cracks around where the feet are attached, but that just looks naff rather than being dangerous. Is the tenant a weighty person who always steps into the bath at that point one wonders.
Overall, probably best for the tenant to remember dropping say, a heavy glass bath salts bottle...
Other bads for enamel are 'soap' powders, but I doubt if many people wash clothes etc in the bath these days (except me of course - well duvets anyway.)
I'm inclined to agree with you, replacing the bath will be a real hassle. In my case my bath panel is tiled 18mm waterproof ply, which is heavy and not 100% rigid so I just know that some tiles are going to fall off it. However the repair guy I spoke to said that if he couldn't repair it he wouldn't charge a call out fee (he's local).
If he can't do it I think I'm going to have to get someone in to do the job for me. And regarding the panel I'm thinking of just getting him to put an new acrylic panel on for convenience. I think they're pretty horrid but I can redo it properly when the tenant moves out.
It shouldn't take a plumber more than a day to replace the bath and fix the panel should it?
Charlie
Shame you didn't think of making the panel easy to move in the first place...
How long it takes the plumber depends on how thoughtfully the last one did the job.
...Last time I had to rip out the bath was in a hurry after I went to turn off the water supply 'thoughtfully' hidden behind the bath (while I was fitting an isolator to a new bog cistern that presumably the same plumber had decided not to supply with an isolator...), and the stopcock broke clean off because it had been bodged from incompatible fittings that were pared down to fractions of a millimetre thick. Amazing how fast you can rip a bath out, and then get to an outside supply valve when the house is flooding at midnight in the middle of the winter... Always pays to think ahead and do the job carefully yourself, in the long run. (Oh and make sure you know where the supply valve turn off bar has been hidden and you don't have to break down the garage door to get at that just to turn off the water supply... Whew!)
We have a chap around here who repairs baths, he re-enamels them and it's gauranteed - he does a lot of work for the council, fairly inexpensive too IIRC.
The dripping tap lines/marks are one of the things easily tackled with my always to hand 20% citric acid spray. Cleans scum and lime and splashes on taps at a wipe.and leaves things shining.
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