high water pressure causing shower to leak?

hotcookie101

We have a Mira thermostatic mixer shower, it was fitted about 7 years ago-the pipes come under the bathroom floor, into an understairs cupboard and then back into the bathroom to attach.

Last year we started to noticed some damp patches on the wall next to the bathroom, there are no cracks in the grout or gaps in the sealant. There are no pipes in the wall as far as we can tell (there is no where for them to come from)

We put some sealant against the shower screen attachment in case water was coming through there (shower flow rate is VERY high, and powerful shower, it doesn't have adjustable flow, only temperature) and we put some plumbers mate (sp?) around the joints, used a dehumidifier and it seemed to work. However the cartridge has gone in the shower now and the wall is peeling and horrible again, and getting worse the worse the drip from the shower is, so we think it must be coming from there.

OH is sure that when we had something done in the house the water pressure was checked and was about 15 bar (which seems massively high, I'm not sure if an actual pressure meter was used, or if it was actually flow rate that was checked) and the shower says min 0.1 max 10 bar. Could this cause it to leak, and if so, is there anything we can do about it? Would a regular plumber carry a water pressure gauge to see if we really do have pressure that high (seems impossible!)

We have bought a replacement shower (cheaper than a cartridge!) so will be fitting that, but don't want to knacker it as well if it is a water pressure issue!

Thanks in advance

southcoastrgi

Most plumbers would have a pressure gauge but ask them when you ring to make sure, if the pressure really is high then a pressure reducing valve set to 3 bar fitted just after the incoming stop tap is the answer

fezster

You can buy a monument pressure gauge from Amazon for about £10. It fits onto an outside tap to measure the pressure. It's also likely the pressure increases overnight, so measuring it at any particular time of day won't give you an accurate answer. Best is to just fit a pressure reducing valve onto your incoming main.