New Bath leaking

[General Barney]

Hello All,
Just fitted a brand new L shape bath from B&Q, customer supplied..
Fitted last week, filled 3/4 with water and leak tested, alls good.
Tiler has been and sorted tiling..
Today, I filled bath right up to overflow, and fook me, when level went past 3/4 a drip manifested itself from the bath chassis itself...There is no holes or scratches inside the bath, first time I have ever seen this, fitted 100s of baths...
Well customer has been on phone to B&Q all day, banging his head, back on the job tomorrow to see whats happening.
I did ring a local bath doctor, but they said, if no apparent crack in the bath, not much they can do.....any tips pointers advice or similar storys appreciated.....

 

[terryplumb]

Can you see the point where the water is finding its way out GB ? I have not ever seen a bath that leaks either .seen wc's and basins leaking thru the ceramics a few times though.

 

[General Barney]

Terry, nothing at all...
It just starts dripping about 2 inches away from the waste...
No holes or cracks above... the waste and the "drip" are not connected in any way ???

 

[terryplumb]

You know most of these acrylic baths are so thin a torch will shine through them !! So I suppose its not beyond the bounds of possibility that the naked eye can't see a flaw thru which water can pass. Does this drip just appear at a given point ,ie not running down from higher up ? Given the fact that these baths are thermoplastic ,so expand / contract with temperature and the weight of water , a microscopic flaw could easily be present. I use trade point ( B & Q ) quite a lot ,their store is round the corner from me , and have lost count of how many of their baths I have fitted ( plumbsure brand ) without issue. Think you are unlucky getting a duff one mate.

 

[General Barney]

No its just the one spot, and obviously checked first if water was running down....I think you have hit the nail on the head with that micro hole, because after all, that's all it can be...Do you think its worth ringing the bath doctor again and putting this theory to them?

 

[terryplumb]

I would not consider trying to effect a repair to a brand new ,under guarantee, bath . as you did not supply it ,the responsibility is clearly on the person who did ( your customer I presume). Its up to them to pursue the issue with the supplier. The contract between them and B & Q is really none of your concern. You fitted it ,you get paid .if its faulty and the fault is not visible until plumbed in you can not be held responsible in any way. I had a similar situation a few years ago with a tap ( kitchen sink mixer tap ). Customer bought the tap ,engaged me to remove old one and fit new one. Fitted it all good. Then noticed a bit of water at base of tap body ,where meets sink top. Dried it and low and behold another tiny bead of water started to appear from the middle of the tap body ,out of nowhere right in front of my eyes !! Just appeared on the chrome surface . I have a 4 dioptre eyeglass ( like a jeweller uses ) absolutely impossible to detect anything on the chrome surface in the way of a pinhole ,nothing !! So I told the customer the tap was faulty and they had to take it back. Showed him and her the water appearing from nowhere. They had the audacity to say to me " well we shouldn't have to pay you to fit it if its faulty " I said you can pay me now what I quoted you ,or you can pay me a lot more including costs once we have been to court ,its entirely up to you.they then gave me the cash ,and meekly asked me if I would take it out so they could take it back to where they purchased it .I suggested they go buy a new tap and once its fitted then return the faulty one for a refund. Which they did and I got paid again when I went back .no idea what they did with the faulty one I just left it with them after fitting the replacement.

 

[Nige F]

A bit of an aside but - when the first Jap bikes came over here, the chrome went rusty ! Turned out that they were chrome plating straight onto mirror polished steel Chrome plate is micro porous. The Good Ole Brits used to triple plate- Copper, Nickel, Chrome - you didn't get much of it but it lasted

 

[General Barney]

Thanks for input fellas...
Situation as it lies, B&Q bath manufacturers have just opened dialogue with customer, job has stopped...I haven't got a minute till the middle of January...so will keep you posted.....

 

[roguetrader]

We had a large bath that had been a special order with a pinhole leak.
It had around 2k worth of tiles around it so we fibreglassed the outside.
Seemed to sort it.