The ground has settled - Shower

Hello everyone,

we recently bought a prefabricated house from 2006. Since we are not experts and have never had to deal with the topic of houses before, we have some questions.

We have a small bathroom with a shower on the ground floor. The floor throughout the entire ground floor has settled, in some places quite significantly.
Could it be a problem if the floor in the area of the shower has settled, for example that some pipes/connections are no longer tight?
I would assume that something like this is taken into account during construction and that there is a system in place that prevents any problems. Does anyone have experience with this?

We came across this topic because when walking over the tiles in the bathroom, you can hear the shower "creak" as if something were under tension.

Thanks in advance for your answers

The creaking can come from a substructure, it is a siphon that lies in a board and goes directly onto the raw floor and tiles are laid there.

But nothing should creak or crack otherwise the tightness would no longer be guaranteed.

What is under the bathroom?

Are the joints still intact?

Under the bathroom there is nothing, it is located on the ground floor and we do not have a basement. The silicone joints still look very good.

The floor has settled throughout the entire ground floor, in some places quite strongly.

That normally shouldn’t happen. At least not “strongly.” Maybe 1-5 mm, so that you have to renew the silicone on baseboard tiles, for example, but visible sinking should not occur with correct screed insulation. Possibly not enough pressure-resistant insulation material was used. But now it’s too late. If there are no major cracks or other damage, it’s not a big deal.

Can it be a problem if the floor has settled in the shower area, for example that some pipes/connections are no longer watertight?

The shower tray is usually placed on the raw floor with feet or a Styrofoam tray carrier. The drain pipe then runs on/in/under the floor slab, so it is not directly related to the screed. Damage due to screed settlement is not to be expected.

because when you walk on the tiles in the bathroom you can hear the shower “creak” as if something were under tension.

Because of the floating screed, which most likely settles unevenly, it obviously “wobbles.” But the shower tray stands firmly, which is why the edge of the tiles at the tray rubs or presses against it. More critical is if the shower tray itself wobbles when you stand in it.

Aren't these all questions that one answers before a purchase...?

5mm would be nice, in the worst spots it's easily 10mm. But well, I also think it's not that problematic, we're currently renewing the silicone joints, some of them are really big gaps now. Well.

Luckily the shower tray itself doesn't wobble.

Thank you all very much for your answers!

Sure, normally you sort that out beforehand, but unfortunately you don't notice a lot at the beginning. If we could have moved in for a week on a trial basis, it might look different.

Best regards

Dennis