ᐅ Bathtub – The general contractor does not want it to be installed recessed or lowered.

Hello everyone,

We have a large 80x180 cm (31x71 inch) bathtub in our bathroom. The bathtub is placed in front of a window with a sill height of 69.5 cm (27.4 inches) above the finished floor level. The tub itself is about 60 cm (24 inches) high. It is installed on a bathtub support frame set on the finished floor. The construction manager insists on this because I mentioned that the tub feels too high for us and we would prefer to place it directly on the rough floor. He says that it must be placed on the finished floor to prevent water damage from penetrating the building structure.

I continued planning and realized that there will be almost no space left for the faucet fittings, as there are only a few centimeters between the top edge of the bathtub and the window sill height. So, the faucet cannot be installed where it is planned in the execution drawings.

After confronting the construction manager, he now says he will check possible solutions. For example, removing the faucet fittings and instead supplying water through the overflow. This would incur additional costs, which we would have to bear!

I’m really not satisfied with this! Someone else who is also building with the general contractor has their tub placed directly on the rough floor—it seems they have a different construction manager.

My question to you:
What arguments can I give the construction manager to have the tub placed on the rough floor after all? Are there regulations or current best practices that require placing it only on the finished screed/floor for reasons like “water tightness” in case of water damage?
Is such a “compromise solution” to be paid for by the homeowner, or is it the contractor’s responsibility? According to the construction manager, “it’s your house, individually planned and built, so your wishes and your costs”...

Edit:
We set the window sill height as high as possible. Higher than 69.5 cm (27.4 inches) is not possible due to the window and knee wall.

Ultimately, it is a matter of contract and liability. The general contractor (GC) may argue that you want the wrong bathtub for your house.

I am not familiar with the communication between you and the site manager. If I understand you correctly, you want your bathtub, including the fittings, to fit properly and for the window to open.

In your question to the forum, you are asking how to persuade the GC to install the bathtub on the rough floor. This is not necessarily aligned with the overall goal and excludes other possible solutions.

Are there any options to avoid placing the bathtub under the window or to raise the window sill height?
If you are building with a general contractor, it might be that you have little influence regarding the “rules of technology” (building standards).

hampshire schrieb:

Ultimately, it’s a matter of contract and liability. The general contractor (GC) can argue that you want the wrong bathtub for your house.

This combination has actually been fixed since February 2019 and was finalized at the latest during the material selection in August 2019. In the construction drawings from September 2019, at least the wastewater pipes were shown, and the planning department should have noticed that there was no space for the faucet fitting.

I’m not familiar with the communication between you and the site manager.
If I understand you correctly, you want your bathtub with its fittings to fit and the window to open.

Yes, that’s how it looks.

Your question in the forum is about how to get the GC to place the bathtub on the raw subfloor.
That is not necessarily aligned with the overall goal and excludes other possible solutions.

The other options are currently being reviewed, which I, as a layperson, am not aware of. I will probably receive some suggestions. Until then, I want to gather arguments to have the bathtub placed on the raw subfloor. After all, a fellow GC homeowner advised me "not to give up easily."

Are there any possibilities to do without placing the bathtub under the window or to raise the windowsill?

Unfortunately not. The planning is already set, and the bathtub in front of the window makes the most sense due to the low windowsill height. Raising the windowsill would probably only be possible by lowering the windows. The windows measure 1.76 x 0.76 meters (5 ft 9 in x 2 ft 6 in). We also had to remove the roller shutters because of the ceiling height/roof. With a lower knee wall, I would probably have planned a roof window above the bathtub.

The general contractor’s argument is nonsense. If the bathtub leaks, water will still flow into the building structure. This very unlikely failure cannot be the basis for planning. In all projects I am familiar with, the bathtub support sits on the raw subfloor. The screed is applied up to it. Before installing the support, the tiler should apply waterproofing. Ultimately, it is the client who decides what they want and therefore what they pay for.

And as a nice added benefit: The entry height is more comfortable.