Griping

One of the reasons we bought a brand new house was because it would be YEARS before any repairs or replacements would become necessary.  Well, guess what.  Not three weeks after moving in, the shower leaks. 

A few drops, no more than about a couple spoonfuls per shower, I guess.  Leaks into the unfinished basement – no harm to the leaked-upon, especially since the air is incredibly dry in the house and many drops of water probably evaporate before they even hit the concrete floor nine feet below.  The rest disappear in less than an hour.  I had noticed that the caulk had shrunk around the base of the shower, leaving very visible cracks.  My suspicion was that the water was very very slowly leaking through those cracks, making their way through the floor/ceiling.

However, since we don’t know for sure why it leaks and where the water travels before it comes out of the ceiling, this needs to be taken care of. 

Our builder came promptly this morning to look at things, called his plumber who showed up after noon and who eventually called the other plumber to help him figure things out.  Took all the shower fixtures off and apart and peeked into holes, concluded: nothing wrong there.  They go talk to the builder who returns with them shortly after to look at things and to discuss matters.  I am informed that it is very likely a nail that got inadvertently hammered into the water line / hose which causes the leak.  Excuse me??  Well, I guess shit happens. 

In order to get to that, from the other side of the wall, they cut out a two-foot by two-foot square of the bedroom wall.  Where they find that everything is just fine.  Oops.  So now we have an ugly square wound in our bedroom.  In our – otherwise – brand new house.  Our builder says he’ll have the drywall guys fix it. 

Next.  Since the fixtures are apparently fine, and no nails were inadvertently driven into the water line / hose, our builder suggests that there must be a crack in the “lip” of the shower base.  To get to THAT, he wants to tear out the bottom row of tiles around the shower base. 

When I email to tell him that tearing out tiles seems a bit drastic and if we couldn’t start by replacing the caulk (or whatever is between the shower base and the tile) first, and if that doesn’t work, still have the option of going after the tile, he emails back and says, “Yes we can try that.  It may work fine, but I suspect the caulk may fail again.” 

Why on earth would caulk fail??  “Again”?  After many years, yes, of course, but – ?

Sigh.

I thought we were done with having repair people and crew in our house when the house was finished and minor left-overs had been taken care of.  I thought this was a brand new and therefore perfect house, not in need of repair for many many years. 

Sigh.