Quality and Trustworthy Builder matters Really?

Our house was built in 2009, during the course of the 10 years, there have been several minor issues that we thought nothing much of. Since it was our first house, we didn’t look much into it.

But a few weeks back, something major happened and something really big

One day (~1am) after i took a shower, i walked out form the bathroom and as soon i stepped on the bedroom floor (laminate, newly installed in December 2018) i could hear water swishing sounds under the flooring.

I immediately called the insurance the next day and they sent over people to remove part of the affected laminate flooring and dry it before any more damage could be done. 2 fans and a dehumidifier all industrial grade had them running for 3 days straight until it was completely dry.

Then came the insurance adjuster, did some quick measurements and an estimate of the repairs. But the insurance company wanted to know more of the damage before cutting me a check for the claim so i had to get a company to tear apart the shower and to dig in until they could find the cause of the leak.

After the team tore up the bathroom they called me over to look and to take some pictures for the insurance company.

According to the contractor doing the job, the builder when they installed the vinyl plastic under the shower pan all the way up to the bench seat and upwards, they used nail/screws to attach the vinyl on the framework instead of some adhesive. Therefore over time the holes on the vinyl that got punctured from the nailing started letting water seep through the vinyl barrier thus entering under the wall and onto the adjacent master bedroom floor. I am no builder or contractor but seems reasonable to what he is saying. Or is he wrong?

Besides this mistake of using nails/screws on the plastic vinyl for the shower pan, the original builder also used regular dry wall material then laid tiles on top instead of a hardie board with tiles. Should i do anything or notify the original builder of this issue? Since it’s been 10 years and this is not a wear or tear damage, i still think that i need to let them know, maybe its the person that was installing it messed up or is it the ‘practice’ of this certain builder?

After a week, that job is finally done in the bathroom. We decided to not go with the bench since it was just taking up space and we don’t use it at all.