Water leakage due to movement in bath problem

boongywoongy

Guys, I need some advice here.

I've spent close to £1000 pound on two 'plumbing' companies to fix a problem whereby the bath to wall silicone seal lets water down the side of the bath causing water leakage into the flat below. The problem lies with the fact that when the bath is stepped in for a shower, the bath flexes and hence the movement overtime just erodes the silicon seal until water is eventually able to seep through the tiniest of gaps.

Failed solutions attempted so far:

1. The last plumber built a wooden frame to support the bath.
2. Some overlapping bath to wall seal mechanism which allows for movement bought from B&Q.

Both the above solutions didn't work and water is coming down again. Any suggestions on what else to try? Should I just get a new bath instead or is there some other solution?

Thanks.

olias

Sorry to say, but I think you have been well and truly stitched up and ripped off by the previous plumbers. For the money you have quoted, you could easily have had a brand new top of the range heavyweight steel or heavyweight acrylic bath fitted that would not flex at all. I think this is the route you should go. It sounds to me like your bath is one of the really cheap, very thin acrylic baths that will continue to flex no matter what you do and further work is just likely to be false economy.

By the way, the work you have quoted as having had done should not have cost more than about £200 at the very most!!!!

Olias

andyhop

The bath should be placed under the tiling

It may not be the bath thats the problem, Is the tiling/grout OK

Are the floor boards under the bath damaged or loose?

diable

I would agree with Olias but as a stop gap can you fill the bath with water and try to seal it again to see what happens as there should be less flexing on the silicon seal.

Have a lookie here http://www.byretech.com/acatalog/prod-bath-seal-ultra-10.html
it might help you out, I haven't used the product myself but I have bought other bits from them.

boongywoongy

Thanks all for your replies. I have tried that seal gadget but that didn't work. I think for piece of mind, I will be getting a new bath installed after I double check that the floor, nor supporting legs are causing the movement.

seabreeze_3

we had the same problem as well we built the wooden support under the bath and then went all the way around the underneath with expanding foam then filled the bath with water and sealed it all the way round with a good sealent not a cheapie. this was 6 months ago and no problems as yet
hope u solve it !!

zax47

I think a fundamental fault is that people don't apply the sealant (especially when using silicon) with the bath full of water - other than cast iron baths, regardless of support frames all plastic/acrylic baths will sink to some degree when full of water (and you). Remember that 1 cubic metre of water weighs 1 metric tonne! This stretches the sealant and ultimately it peels/tears and leaks.

Always fill the bath with water, then apply the sealant.

daveyjp

As Olias says to stop this you need a steel bath or a very expensive plastic one. Our steel bath replaced a thin plastic one and it hasn't moved in 5 years. The steel bath cost £90!

27col

I have to say that I entirely agree with olias about the cheap bath. If it is a good quality bath and is well supported , it should not flex as you say it does.

Atelier

If your problem is caused by the flexing of the bath then I would have thought that one approach would be to stop the bath flexing by ensuring that it has nowhere it can move to. The more expensive baths have feet that support it

Can you not build a number of cradles out of wood that will sit tightly between the bottom of the bath and the floor? They don't need to be pretty and are effectively just packing out the gap.

Hope this helps.

boongywoongy wrote: »

Guys, I need some advice here.

I've spent close to £1000 pound on two 'plumbing' companies to fix a problem whereby the bath to wall silicone seal lets water down the side of the bath causing water leakage into the flat below. The problem lies with the fact that when the bath is stepped in for a shower, the bath flexes and hence the movement overtime just erodes the silicon seal until water is eventually able to seep through the tiniest of gaps.

Failed solutions attempted so far:

1. The last plumber built a wooden frame to support the bath.
2. Some overlapping bath to wall seal mechanism which allows for movement bought from B&Q.

Both the above solutions didn't work and water is coming down again. Any suggestions on what else to try? Should I just get a new bath instead or is there some other solution?

Thanks.