We had a leak. Based on the water that was slowly advancing across our living room floor we anticipated that it was coming from the outdoor faucet that perhaps had frozen in some unusually cold winter weather and was only now making itself known. By chance a plumber who had been here before was working just two doors up from us so he stopped in but couldn’t determine the source. A call to someone else whom a neighbor had recommended brought a plumber equipped with sound detection gear that he used to trace the pipe from the point in the living room (photo to the left) where we were seeing the water all the way back to the bathroom tub where the leak actually originated…inside the wall, of course.

That location, in reality, was a good thing. We’d been wanting to renovate the bathroom for quite some time and the bathtub itself was pushing the issue. It was beginning to rust in a couple of places to the point that we wondered if we might fall through it one morning. Gaining access to the leak was going to require pulling the tub out anyway but first prying the marble tiles off the wall which would then have to be broken through. The plumber explained that because this was a leak, our homeowner’s insurance might cover a portion of the expenses from tracing its location, to demolishing the tub and wall and returning it to a usable condition. We hadn’t considered making a claim but he insisted that in France when you have a genuine sinistre the insurance is there to cover the loss without adversely affecting your future rate or eligibility.

We tested out that theory right away by scanning the initial bill for the service call and leak tracing and uploading it to the insurance company. Within 1 business day the reimbursement was in our bank account. That speed might be because we arranged for our insurance through our bank although they are two separate companies. During this process we discovered that the insurance company could have arranged for their own contracted plumber to come to our house had we not already chosen one. In any case we were happy and it was time to move on to the next phase of selecting new tiles and furnishings.

Using the online catalog of a bath supply store we selected components like the shower floor, glass walls, and fittings, the sink, its base, and fittings, and the electric towel dryer. We printed those and took them into the showroom which made it easier for the advisor to place the order. About 4 weeks later he emailed that everything had arrived and was waiting in their warehouse for pickup. We had followed the suggestion of one plumber by using a particular bath showroom where we could receive his professional discount yet the installing plumber said we could have gone to any “brico” (home improvement/hardware store) and bought similar items for much less money that he would have been equally happy to have installed.

After 12 hours of work over 2 days, the tiler had demolished the bathroom to a bare floor and walls and transported the rubble to the landfill. Today’s cover photo across the top shows the result. The plumber arrived next, first to repair the leak (although it ended up being faster and cheaper to work around the leak by installing new supply pipes), and then to replumb for the new shower and sink. Next, he coordinated with the tiler to put the various components in place to allow for the installation of the tiles. Although we were without a bathroom for more than two months, the actual professional work days were about 14 spread over those weeks because of concurrent scheduling with other clients, worker vacations, and weekends, among other inconveniences.

To be precise, the leak itself was never fully pinpointed, other than being somewhere between the meter and the bathroom. Because our current tiled floor sits on top of two similar floors with their own pipes, the sound equipment heard lots of misleading vibrations. The solution choice was either to dig up the three levels of flooring, one tile at a time to eventually locate the leak, or simply cut the old supply line and install a new overhead pipe (we already have exposed radiator pipes) from the meter to the bathroom.

We did a bit of “glamping” during this renovation process since we could still sleep at home and the toilet in a separate room continued functioning. For morning cleanup we rented a house, 2 doors down, that happened to be available exactly when we needed it. We could even do our laundry there, thank you Jon, so the adventure was less stressful than it might have been.

Since we get lots of questions about our overall budget, below are the costs for the materials and labor. We could have economized on some of the fixtures but we chose items that we expect will last a long time. The genuine bonus was that our homeowner’s insurance reimbursed us for about 50% of what we spent in total which was the amount they felt would have returned the bathroom to the state it was in prior to the leak.

• Tiler—demolition, disposal, tiling: 2,550 €
• Plumber—finding the leak, new plumbing, installations, disposal: 7,047 €
• Bathroom supply store—shower walls and floor, sink, furniture, tiles: 6,444 €
• Project coordinator—sourcing workers and scheduling: 220 €

We had 2 estimates for the project, both of which came in at around 8000 € for the labor only and we went with the company that said they could “do it now” (translation: start it now) compared with the other who was working with, what we’ve since discovered, is a fairly standard backlog of 3 months. Had we known in advance, we would have ordered all of the furnishings (sink, shower walls, tiles, etc.) and had them delivered to our home well before the project start date to avoid any possible material-related delays.