DIY GONE WRONG

When the Bath Gets Priority Over the House 🛁🏠

I inspected a house today where the bath waste clearly won the argument with the floor joist.

To make room for the plumbing, an entire section of floor joist had been cut out. The solution? A true DIY masterpiece:

A short off-cut of timber

Sitting on a cinder block laid on its side (the weakest way to use it)

Carefully “packed” with broken asbestos base cladding for that extra touch of danger

If you’re wondering whether any of this is structurally sound, moisture-resistant, or safe — the short answer is no. The long answer is absolutely not.

Cutting structural members to install plumbing is never a “just wing it” situation. Proper trimming, load transfer, and fixings are needed — not a game of Asbestos Jenga under the bathroom.

This is exactly why pre-purchase inspections matter. What looks like a perfectly normal bathroom upstairs can be hiding some truly creative engineering underneath.

If you’d like your dream home checked for surprises like this (before you own them), you know where to find me.

👉 Book your inspection at www.bookabuilder.co.nz

When the Bath Gets Priority Over the House 🛁🏠

I inspected a house today where the bath waste clearly won the argument with the floor joist.

To make room for the plumbing, an entire section of floor joist had been cut out. The solution? A true DIY masterpiece:

A short off-cut of timber

Sitting on a cinder block laid on its side (the weakest way to use it)

Carefully “packed” with broken asbestos base cladding for that extra touch of danger

If you’re wondering whether any of this is structurally sound, moisture-resistant, or safe — the short answer is no. The long answer is absolutely not.

Cutting structural members to install plumbing is never a “just wing it” situation. Proper trimming, load transfer, and fixings are needed — not a game of Asbestos Jenga under the bathroom.

This is exactly why pre-purchase inspections matter. What looks like a perfectly normal bathroom upstairs can be hiding some truly creative engineering underneath.

If you’d like your dream home checked for surprises like this (before you own them), you know where to find me.

👉 Book your inspection at www.bookabuilder.co.nz