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I recently moved out of a house with a freestanding bathtub. During our tenancy there, the floor developed cracks which I reported and 2 months before we left, we would find water on the floor every time my wife or the kids took a bath, so we stopped using the bathroom.

Now that we've left, the landlord has brought in the plumber (the same people who installed the tub) and they are saying that the tub drain was damaged due to excessive wear. I'm trying to figure out what kind of wear would cause a tub drain to leak and if this is a normal thing for freestanding bathtubs or not? We have a family of 4 (minus the baby) and the wife and boys were the only ones to really use the tub.

The drain is in the center of the tub so you have to sit on it whenever you take a bath. Additionally, the tub is on a raised platform above a slab.

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    Are they trying to make the "excessive wear" argument so that they can stick you with the bill? If so that is ridiculous if indeed they had notification from you that there was a problem.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 13:27
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    By "freestanding" I imagine you mean not fitted adjacent to a wall. Was the tub itself fixed to the floor or was it held in place only by the pipes connecting it to water supply and waste outlets? Either way, it's their problem. I can't see how any amount of normal use of a bathtub could cause "excessive wear" to the drain if the original fitter did the work properly.
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 14:30

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There would be no such thing as "excessive wear" on a bathtub drain - unless there was caustic material being poured down the drain which ate away at the drain pipe and joints.....although from the sounds of it this is far from the case here.

For the sake of discussion let us assume that the tub is a quality name brand product.

It may be that there was excessive flex on the drain pipe joint to the tub, especially in the case of a plastic or fiberglass type of tub. Excessive flex would only be brought on by an improper installation of the tub where it was not supported in the correct manner or the drain pipe was improperly installed.

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    Agreed, this is probably the case of a sub-standard installation where there was some kind of flexing of the subfloor/platform. The landlord should get on the plumber who did the initial work. Good luck OP.
    – Ed Griebel
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 16:01
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    It is also possible that the tub may indeed flex some and that the drain pipe is meant to exit away from the drain connection in an manner that the drain pipe could flex a little along with the tub. However if the drain pipe was anchored tightly to the base / sub-floor this flex accomodation may not have been provided for. An installer who knows his product would never have done a job that failed to take the tub flexure into account.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 4:56
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Poorly preforming contractors make things up to explain problems which they do not understand......this is especially true if said contractors were involved in any way with the installation of the object(s) in need of explanation. As this is the case here, I would like to say that as a retired General contractor and an experienced plumber......you are being sold a bill of goods. If it were the case that continual use by your family were to have caused a problem with the drain it would be called either: a poorly installed, poorly designed or normally used and subsequently worn out drain......not an excessively used one. Landlords are required in virtually all 50 states to allow for normal wear and tear on reasonably used items....make sure that if an attempt to charge you for repairs is made that an explanation for unreasonable use is included.

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They probably plumbed it with a solid PVC piping connection. I installed a free standing tub but the connection to the tub was too rigid. My solution was to use a Flexible PVC pipe. The instructions for the tub were not great, however a Google search found products made for this application. These products started around $65.00 up to $285.00 . I made mine with the Flex pipe and Solvent weld drain kit from Menards. http://youtu.be/08x62nlQMZM

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