My inexpensive bathroom renovation in Sacramento was destroyed!

My inexpensive bathroom renovation in Sacramento was destroyed!

I posted about an inexpensive renovation of a bathroom in Sacramento in December. Updating your current bathroom does not have to cost a lot, and it
can be done quickly too. Having these improvements done to your home doesn’t guarantee that it will last forever.

Here is an example.

After completing the inexpensive bathroom, the homeowner has had nothing but good things to say about it. He is telling his friends and neighbors and I may be getting new jobs from the referrals. He called me recently to tell me his bathroom has flooded; not just the one that I renovated but the adjoining bathroom too.

I was confident about the work that we had done, but thought that maybe the toilet had flooded or the sink overflowed – it was neither. Just outside the bathroom exterior wall is the main water shut off and irrigation valves. There was a broken pipe in the irrigation pipe that flooded the planter outside and the water flowed back into the house.

Fortunately, the homeowners’ insurance covers the broken pipe and I was asked to be the contractor to do the insurance work. I hope to get an approval and get this project started so that the owner can get things in order again. That’s all fine and dandy, but let’s takes a quick look at the source of this problem.

Why did the water get into the home?

That’s what I’m looking at because we need to solve the problem first. The claim did not even address this issue but I will have to bring it up to the owner. The planter box holds dirt that is too high on the building. A broken pipe, a heavy rain, or a running hose could easily cause this damage again.

When the soil in the planter is higher than the concrete slab, water will fill up the planter and the water will seep into the building. The building is not protected from water intrusion. The building needs to have been flashed and waterproofed to protect against this possibility. A simpler solution in this case would be to remove the brick planter and some of the soil.

Doing this will prevent the water from entering the home, eliminate the water intrusion, and water related damages that has already occurred. A licensed general contractor may be able to help in correcting this problem for you. If you are in the Sacramento area, Tromler Construction we would love to help you with your water intrusion problems.