Bathroom Work In An Occupied Apartment

A bathroom in an occupied apartment is one of the harder jobs to run well, and very little of that difficulty is the construction.

There is usually one bathroom. Somebody lives there. Neighbours are on the other side of every wall. And the waterproofing underneath has to be right, because failing it means doing the whole thing again.

The sequence is fixed and it includes waiting

Strip out. Repair whatever is found underneath, because there is nearly always something. Screed to the correct falls. Waterproof. Let the membrane cure. Tile. Grout. Fit out.

The step that cannot be rushed is the membrane cure. It needs the time it needs, and tiling over a membrane that has not cured is how a bathroom leaks into the unit below within a year.

Anyone offering to compress that step is offering to do it twice.

Falls decide whether it works

Water goes where the floor sends it. If the screed does not fall properly to the waste, water sits, and sitting water finds the edges of the membrane eventually.

This is the most common reason a bathroom that looks perfectly good has a damp patch showing up in the next room. It was tiled level, or nearly level, and it has been holding a film of water at one end since the day it was finished.

Getting the falls right is unglamorous and it is the difference between a bathroom that lasts and one that gets redone.

What is behind the wall

Older apartments hide a lot. Pipework that has been repaired more than once, waste connections that do not match anything current, timber that has been quietly wet for years.

None of that is visible until the tiles come off, which is why an honest job allows for it rather than pricing as though the wall is clean. Finding it is normal. Discovering it was not allowed for is what turns a job into a dispute.

Related: it is the same problem as a shower that keeps leaking, seen from the other side.

Living there while it happens

This is the part worth planning properly.

How long the bathroom is out of use, and whether that is workable. Where the dust is contained. Which hours are noisy, especially in a building with rules about it. How access works if the occupant is out during the day. Where materials sit, because an apartment has nowhere to store a bathroom's worth of tile.

Getting that agreed before the first tile comes off is what keeps the job civil.

The building's rules

Most buildings have requirements. Approved working hours, protection of common areas, notice to the committee, sometimes approval before any waterproofing work begins because of the risk to the lot below.

Finding out after starting is a stop-work.

Doing it once

A bathroom done properly should not be revisited. The falls are right, the membrane is continuous and cured, the junctions are detailed, and what was behind the wall got dealt with while it was open.

If you are weighing one up, talk it through before it is booked. The plan is most of the job.