‘We do not want hole in ceiling over Christmas’
PLASTER IN BATHROOM COLLAPSED
A FAMILY fear they will spend Christmas worried about whether their bathroom ceiling is going to collapse.
The Checklands, who live in a Midland Heart property in Burnmoor Street, close to the King Power Stadium, had a problem with part of their bathroom ceiling at the start of the month.
It began to cave in and staff from the housing association removed a section above the toilet, covering it with a wooden board.
Since then, some paint has chipped off the plaster next to the hole, the extractor fan has begun to hang low, and the family think the board is starting to warp.
Paul Checkland, who lives at the property with his mum Donna, brother Jordan, sister Shannon and nephew Zach, is worried the ceiling will come down.
He said: “My brother, Jordan, has autism, and the situation has left him feeling afraid to enter the bathroom.
“We’re also worried something will happen when Zach is in there, too. He’s only a toddler.
“But it’s the main bathroom for the entire family – things get cramped enough here at the best of times.”
“Midland Heart workers came out, pulled out the damaged parts of the ceiling, put the plywood board over the top, and left.
“They’ve not been out to do anything else. They didn’t tell us when it would be fixed, they just said it will be done on the other side of Christmas, or possibly into the new year.
“They also said there was no evidence of a burst pipe or major leak, but we don’t think the original issue has been addressed.
“Ideally we don’t want a hole in our bathroom ceiling over Christmas.”
Since being contacted by the Mercury, Midland Heart has returned to the property to fix the issue
Paul Barker, head of maintenance, said: “An engineer attended within four hours of the customer calling to report a wet patch on their ceiling.
“The issue was being caused by a faulty pipe running from the boiler. Due to there being no credit on the meter when he arrived, the engineer was unable to carry out any further work on the boiler.
“The customer was advised to top up their gas meter but not to use the boiler and that the engineer, who needed to visit another customer, would come back once this had been done.
“Later that evening, we were advised the ceiling had collapsed and when we attended we saw this was due to boiler being turned back on.
“We then boarded the ceiling up until our engineer was able to return.
“The leak has now been temporarily resolved and a surveyor has been out to assess the damage and next steps.”