Buildings Insurance and shower sealant

SallyG

Having a chat with my buildings insurance company about the leak from my shower. They say that if the sealant has black mould on it the sealant is "damaged" and should have been replaced to prevent leaks.
Are they right?
I know black mould isn't good for your health but does it destroy the water tightness of the "mould resistant" silicone sealant?

phill99

In my experience the black mould can get between the mastic and the tiles/shower tray and reduce its adhesive qualities thus allowing water to seep through.

bryanb

Why not clean the mould off? Then check it is still sealing. Are you in a dispute?

phill99

bryanb wrote: »

Why not clean the mould off? Then check it is still sealing. Are you in a dispute?

You can't clean the mould off silicone sealant. It 'roots' itself into the sealant so no matter what you do to clean it, it won't come off.

keystone

So reading between the lines OP has made a claim for water damage from a leaking shower. Insurance company is wriggling having, presumably, sent an assessor around who has found mould and they are trying to use this as a reason not to meet the claim on the grounds that the leak occured because something that was obviously damaged could have been fixed and had it been the leak would not have occured so OPs fault rather than an accident so yah boo sucks not paying out.

Is that correct OP?

Cheers.

SallyG

I think you're right keystone - I gave the insurers the symptoms - new brown stain/small area of bellying/cracking on the ceiling of the room below the shower with water slowly dripping from it; the claim logger advised me to get a plumber to identify source of leak - plumber looked under shower tray from side wall of shower - which adjoins the old redundant hot water cylinder cupboard - but could find no sign of a leak - he said in view of being unable to locate the leak the best approach was to reseal - which he has done today -and see if it still leaks.Next step if it does [have to wait 24 hours for sealant to cook] he says is to get to the waste pipe.
At some point I mentioned to the insurer that we'd had it resealed recently but mould had quickly returned. They seem to have fixed on that - I was told the claim could be "repudiated" - frighteningly legalistic terms they throw at you - why not just turned down ?- because of the mould.
Reading my policy that seems to mean that any reasonable person will replace the sealant on the shower as soon as black mould appears in order to prevent leaks - the inference is that mould causes silicone sealant - even the mould resistant sealant we paid extra for - to fail in its primary task of keeping water inside the shower and that's common knowledge.
Because I think the escape of water might have damaged/weakened the floor underneath the shower I asked for a surveyor to come and survey it but I worry about how objective and independent he'll be.
We usually have a maybe two month post-reseal mould free shower before the black stuff returns but until now the shower hasn't leaked since we had it rebuilt 6 years ago.
Tomorrow the surveyor cometh - I've decided to say nothing - plead the 5th amendment - just keep stumm until he's said his say.
I've resolved never again to volunteer information when claiming on the insurance.

keystone

Reading my policy that seems to mean that any reasonable person will replace the sealant on the shower as soon as black mould appears in order to prevent leaks - the inference is that mould causes silicone sealant - even the mould resistant sealant we paid extra for - to fail in its primary task of keeping water inside the shower and that's common knowledge.

In other words we've had statistically too many claims resulting from leaking showers so we'll invent an exclusion that allows us to repudiate (perfectly resaonable word) enough claims to bring our stats back into line and make sure its written into the policy too so nobody can argue. Pure BS really. So "n" percent of claimants roll over and accept their claim has been turned down but a few will fight their corner and after a while we'll give in an pay but on balance we are better off. So its a try on, well orchestrated but nevertheless a try on.

The fact remains that if the sealant parts company with the tiles/tray irrespective of whether or not there is mould present then there will be a leak

Just my 2c.

Cheers

keystone

phill99 wrote: »

You can't clean the mould off silicone sealant. It 'roots' itself into the sealant so no matter what you do to clean it, it won't come off.

Actually you can. Boric acid and sodium hypochlorite applied separately and 24 hours apart will get it out. Having said that the answer is to a) live so that the opportunity for the stuff to grow in the first place is minimised and b) when it does appear clean it off instantly rather than just leaving it.

Cheers

seagull_1

I would think if all householders claimed for leaks due to mouldy sealant then house insurance costs would triple. It is not worth even trying to clean sealant, better to remove and re-seal as soon as it starts to go which is a really easy task. I seem to do it every couple of years in our bathroom which is in heavy use and doesn't often get a chance to properly dry out.

I'm no supporter of insurance firms but surely householders have to take some responsibility for their property?

SallyG

So the consensus is that mould can indeed cause showers to become incontinent?
I've tried to replace sealant previously but I can't reach the back sealant from outside the shower and I find crouching/kneeling in the vertical coffin style shower cubicle quite difficult. The plumber charged £60 for replacing the sealant - the surveyor surveyed - he said the fact the plumber had replaced the sealant meant there had to be a problem with the sealant.
I told the surveyor that the plumber couldn't identify the source of the leak and had resealed as a strategy for eradicating possible causes.
I believe the technical term is suck it and see?
He then observed that the grouting was cracked in places - all in all he politely repudiated my claim - something about a slowly operating cause - used to be called wear and tear?
So, I reckon, unless I reseal and regrout every 6 months, in the terms of my buildings insurance I will not be maintaining the shower properly.
Can you regrout tiles without first removing all the old grotty grout?

seagull_1

You need to scrape out grotty grout first - you can get a tool for it that works well in my experience. You definitely don't need to regrout every 6 months! The only problem is if the tiles haven't been laid well initially. In that case water will get in and ease them off the wall. Otherwise tile grout mould is more a visual problem than leak problem unless untreated for a long time.

Silicone sealant is a different matter and depends on your bathroom - I replace mine probably about every 12-18 months but it is a well used bathroom with poor ventilation. You can put up with a little surface mould but it usually spreads underneath the sealant and causes problems without it being obvious - until you remove it! There is removal tool for it too and is also pretty effective.

I have found the mould killing stuff to be no more effective at killing mould than the "humane" stuff...