Leaking Tap - Tile Cutting Required?

Hi all,

I've been told by my tenants that the laundry tap is leaking. Had a plumber out and was told the following:

'Inspected laundry and found a crack in the seat whereby it looks to be fairly deep indicating that we
will have to replace laundry combo. To do this we need to cut tiles to expose combo and replace with new one.
Note: We can try to reseat and service the laundry taps as a first attempt, if this does not fix the issue then the quote will be the next step. If it holds than great we will see how far we can stretch the life of the breech.'


I'm obviously no plumber, but I thought that if it is just leaking from the spout of the tap, that the copper breech wouldn't need to be replaced. Just a re-seat and O ring replacement. I've been quoted $600 which doesn't include waterproofing or re-tiling.

Will probably get another quote to make sure, but just wanted to check if anyone here could provide any information too.

Thanks

 

Dont forget to add the call out fee for diagnostic work already done, if you decide to go with another plumber.

 

$600 is average for a full tap set replacement.
You may get lucky and the plumber has used these...can make it work until you do a full bath reno....
Kinetic 12mm Push In Tap Seats - 2 Pack
or
HydroSeal Tap Seat Replacement Kit

Also - use the tap washers with a larger "O" ring...Hydroseal I think they are called. Less plumber call outs for leaking taps...
Good luck....

 

Experienced a similar thing earlier this year with a property built early 90's on a shower tap.

Taking out the seat, the crack in the breech was about 3-4mm, plumber tried wrapping the tape around the seat, putting it back in and see if the tape would fill the gap. It slowed the leak down, left it for a weak but still dripping, left it a bit longer but still not stop dripping.

To get access to put a new breech in had to chip tiles out of shower and get a handyman to retile after he was done.

Think it was around $1k for plumber and handyman to fix.

 

Thanks. I think we have the exact same issue. Good to know the cost will be quite close to that (assuming the tiling will be <= $400)

 

you and your tenant have caused this by not fixing the leak in a timely manner

it's probably been leaking for months or years on end

the plumber sounds very professional and $600 for a breach replace is a great price

 

Diagnosed in point 1, you might get away with point 2 if there's no serious crack but it won't be long from requiring replacement. If they try to reseat, the crack may open up anyway.

Point 3 - yup, you're not a plumber

 

Call your insurance company. Any leaking pipe/breach behind the wall is generally covered. U usually just have to pay for the repair to the breach and then they usually pay to fix the investigative and resulting damage (waterproofing/tiling etc)

 

Check your excess as well , if you have a $500 excess it might not be worthwhile.

 

The plumber is already at $600, add waterproofing and tiler (or handyman) and you're more than covered.

 

Sorry I thought the previous post said insurance wont pay for the breach repair but will pay for subsequent damage, waterproofing tiling etc.
Although as soon as insurance is mentioned everything normally goes up in price.

 

You might get your whole bath retiled if insurance are covering, as to waterproof properly you can't have sections replaced, you need a seamless barrier