How soon can I use the bath after applying mastic?

confused_landlord

Basically, water is leaking from my bathroom to the room below. I have no idea what could be causing this but I hope that it is just water leaking in from the side of the tub or something where there could be a gap in the mastic (silicon sealant). If I re-mastic, how long will I have to wait before the bathroom can be used again?

dave82_2

Not sure how long it takes for the mastic to dry ready for use and not sure if this applies as your bath isn't new but normally with new baths the bath is filled with water before applying the mastic. This means the mastic is applied with the bath at it's lowest point.

27col

If you have a leak from your bathroom you need to find out what is causing it. It is no good saying that "I think it might be the silicone". You need to be sure that that is the cause. In my experience it is more likely to be a leak from the waste trap or one of the taps. I don't know about you, but you would have to be a pretty messy bather to displace lots of water down the side.
Of course, if you are using a shower in the bath then faulty mastic could let a lot of water through. You really need to get the bath panel off and do a few checks to see exactly what is the cause of the leak. The one thing to remember about leaks is that they tend never to stop leaking on their own. Therefore it is necessary to be certain as to the cause of the leak before tackling it. If you are just guessing, then chances are that you will be wasting your time.

Johnhowell

Our bathroom became damp after my partner had a bath. She would fill the bath as far as it would go. So much so that the overflow would have a continuous trickle whilst in the bath. It turned out that the sealant around the overflow leaked.

Re-sealing the overflow - no more damp on the concrete floor under the bath - for a while, and then the main plug sealant failed.

Now both sealed, no more damp.

Did not touch the seal around the bath itself.

Good luck.
John

googler

Take the bath panel off to see if you have a leak from the pipes.

As to how long to leave the silicone to dry..... it'll tell you on the tube

confused_landlord

googler wrote: »

Take the bath panel off to see if you have a leak from the pipes.

As to how long to leave the silicone to dry..... it'll tell you on the tube

Excellent advice. Thanks. I did just this and found that the leak was from a pipe which I have now had replaced. Thx

27col

Actually johnhowell, that is exactly what happened in our bathroom. I tend to have the bath so full that the overflow runs when I lie down in it. My wife doesn't, so there was never a leak when she used it. The problem was that the overflow washer was abutting some rough fibreglass reinforcement around the overflow. An application of mastic around the outside of the hole cured the problem permanently.