Leaking shower tiles.

Discussion in 'Builders' Talk' started by wealdrise, Jul 11, 2005.

  1. wealdrise

    wealdrise New Member

    Hello,

    This is driving me mad. And is a long sorry story...

    I have installed a shower cubicle. The substrate is aquapanel on timber studs, down to the stone resin base, allowing for the chamfered edge. I then installed a teleseal, following the instructions to the full. (Have installed two of these seals before without any problems, once I understood the instructions!)Tiled over this seal and grouted with a waterproof grout, as normal.

    Fixed the shower cubicle edge using ss screws, through the tiles, after drilling through using screwfix tile drills (excellent tool) following the manufactures instructions, to a stud I had located in the wall behind for the purpose. Sealed on the outside only, as per instructions. Used a small amount of silicone in the screw holes to stop water leakage.

    The plumbing was run in from the other side of the stud wall, making things easier. The supply pipes come in from the ceiling above, eliminating them from this leak nightmare, as they are about 3 feet above the leak.

    The ceramic tiles for the shower cubicle continue past the cubicle, but finish short of the floor, where we are going to put cut floor tiles in as the skirting (nice idea of my other half, but I spent hours using the diamond wheel cutter..)

    We have not fitted the skirting tiles, which is a good thing, as there is a leak of water coming out from behind the wall tiles....

    I have replaced the shower head with a length of hose and a hose head to direct the water at the seal and get no leak!

    Idea two was to put a sheet of polythene over the tiles, stopping the water from the shower rose hitting the wall, to see if there are any leaks there. Still get a leak!?

    Any other ideas? I scraped out the Wickes 'water resistant' grouting and replaced it with Unibond 'waterproof' grout thinking that this was the cause, but the polyhtene sheeting seems to discount the grout.

    I did think of using a tracing dye, as if I can't stop this leak, the whole thing will have to be ripped out and I got the silicone seals perfect!!!

    Any ideas?

    Thanks
     
  2. Bob Property

    Bob Property New Member

    What type of shower is it? Make and model may help people. What sort of mains water pressure do you have? I ask this as I have seen a shower leak internally when the water pressure (effectively) went up during the night. The manufacturer suggested using a pressure limiting valve on the cold water feed to the shower.
     
  3. bathstyle

    bathstyle Active Member

    I would run the shower into the waste only for a few minutes to eliminate the waste leaking.

    I would be looking into the sealing strip between the tiles and the tray if I were you. The water could well be leaking behind the wall channel and the bottom.
     
  4. Mr. Handyandy

    Mr. Handyandy Screwfix Select

    Picture this: If you haven't sealed the inside, imagine water getting in where the cubicle is fixed to the wall tiles, or even just running down where it meets. Between the edge of the cuble and the tiles there is nothing to stop the water running down, and where does it go then ? What is to stop it running down the outside corner of the tray, down to the floor ?


    Maybe not, but....




    Mr. Handyandy - really
     
  5. bathstyle

    bathstyle Active Member

    I know what you're saying HA but you should be sealing the gap between the tray and the tiles before you begin installing the enclosure. If you look at the instructions for say a Showerlux door they say silicone the inside wall profiles and then the outside sill or cill ( :) ) and 100mm up the wall channels and that's it! I fitted lots of these doors and they dont leak if sealed in this way.
     
  6. Mr. Handyandy

    Mr. Handyandy Screwfix Select

    I know that, bs. My middle name is silicon. I'm from the family that believes that if water can get in(or out) it will. Not with me about, it won't.



    But does the poster know that ?



    Mr. Handyandy - really
     
  7. bathstyle

    bathstyle Active Member

    A few pics would be a good idea wealdrise!
     
  8. Chippy John

    Chippy John New Member

    You don't say that you've sealed behind the U channel, (the first bit you fix) you are supposed to use silicone behind that when you fix it to the wall.
     
  9. mj

    mj Guest

    99% of leaks blamed on the shower door are down to the joint between tray/tile immediately behind the wall channel of the enclosure/door not being sealed correctly.
    As you've used teleseal i would say that the joint between this seal & the shower door and also the above mentioned is where your problem will be.
     
  10. Walterfilter

    Walterfilter New Member

    Gotta go with bstyle on this, always start with the waste and then the joint between tray and tiles. On my own shower a couple of weeks ago I noticed water rising from the recently fitted Karndean floor, had to hack of the Mosaic stone tiles covering the plinth on the offset quadrant and found that the shower trap had fractured top to bottom...............
     
  11. wealdrise

    wealdrise New Member

    Phew, thanks everyone for the response. I thought i was a lost cause with this, but I am not alone....You guys like a challenge.

    The waste is discounted as it is well below the level of the shower tray and would show up a leak on the nicely plastered lounge ceiling below. No nasty water marks to be seen.

    My wife has joined in the battle for this one. She was playing about in the shower last night (sorry no pictures of that - on her orders!) I have been concentrating at the end where the valve and shower rose are, which is the wall where the leak occurs.

    Problem is there was the plastic sheeting over the end wall and not the side wall, where she had decided, using feminine logic, to concentrate the shower head. Lo and behold, the water started to come out from between the tiles. Yes, she did make me look like an idiot and not for the first time.

    This means I have indeed got a leak down that side and the water is travelling a good metre or so to find its way out! This really concerns me as I will have a potential rot problem. I will isolate that side wall with some more plastic sheeting and then get the silicone out and gun some in under the teleseal and hope that this heat wave can drive out the remaining moisture. Fortunately there is plenty of air flow under the floor area in this case as the room juts out over the room below and I have all the cladding off as it was rotting due to the old in -suite (yes in the old bedroom) shower cubicle was a worse job than this one. I was not the culprit there. Someone had fitted it in 1996 as there were some newspapers behind some of the tiles, used as packing, from that year! No wonder that one was leaking! My pride is hurting on this one, but many thanks for the confidence boost from those admitting they have had similar problems and those with suggested cures.
     

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