Sealing around shower tray

jmsa7

Hello all,

I had a shower fitted which have been fine until a few days ago I noticed a leak in the kitchen below.

After close inspection I can see that there is a big gap between the shower tray and the wall tiles, around 5 to 10 mm. I guess the builder used silicone to seal around and also to fill the gap but he didn't do it properly.

Now I'm going to have to reseal it. My question is what shall I use to fill the gap before sealing around? I thought about using grouting or waterproof expanding foam or some waterproof flexible filler.

Any recommendations? Thank you.

Jay

TheCyclingProgrammer

If it was done properly the tray should be under the tiles. I have a feeling that no matter what you do you're going to end up with leaks.

martinsurrey

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

If it was done properly the tray should be under the tiles. I have a feeling that no matter what you do you're going to end up with leaks.

and if the fitter did this basic thing wrong what else have they done wrong?

I pulled out a leaking shower cubicle that had tiles that had dot and dab adhesive on the back, and a low quality grout, looked okay but leaked, water was running behind the tiles after soaking through the grout.

be careful OP.

Grenage

There is often a fair gap between a tray and the tiles, but I'm assuming this is horizontal, rather than vertical? Have you got a picture?

martinsurrey

Grenage wrote: »

There is often a fair gap between a tray and the tiles, but I'm assuming this is horizontal, rather than vertical? Have you got a picture?

that was my assumption as well, the suggestion of using expanding foam wouldn't go along with it being a normal vertical gap (5mm vertical and a tiles depth horizontal)

jmsa7

Grenage wrote: »

There is often a fair gap between a tray and the tiles, but I'm assuming this is horizontal, rather than vertical? Have you got a picture?

I will take a picture later and post it. Gap is horizontal. It's where the tiles meet the shower tray at the bottom. The tray sits under the tiles but the gap is quite wide. I can feel the edge of the tile with my fingers as I press on to the silicone and mould is growing there as well. Maybe just needs a wider silicone bead...

spadoosh

5-10mm is quite a big gap for silicon, will be hard work to ever get it to look tidy.

You can get flexible sealing strips. Basically 2 covexed strips of plastic that slide over each other with a flexible seal joining the two. Will give you a much nicer finish. Just use a thin bead of silicon to fix both sides down.

Wassa123

Just resealed ours this week, some had gone mouldy and it was starting to lift.

Our biggest gap was around 1cm, looks like the original tiler started from the ceiling and went down, then figured it wasn't worth cutting a really thin tile. I just squirted all the sealant in and smoothed it with a finger.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Shouldn't the tray have been sealed where it meets the wall before tiling, then tiled down to the top of the tray, with a line of grout at the bottom and then siliconed again where the tiles meet the tray? That's how I understood it should be done, the water then needs to get through the outer line of silicone, the grout and the silicone where the tray meets the wall.

Our shower has a tiled base and uses a preformed tray - the preformed tray was sealed to the wall with special sealing tape, then pre-made corner tapes, then more tape partially up the wall in the corners, then the walls were tanked, then tiled down to the preformed tray, then mosaic tiles on the tray, before final grouting and another bead of silicone around the edges of the tray and up the corners.

jmsa7

Wassa123 wrote: »

Just resealed ours this week, some had gone mouldy and it was starting to lift.

Our biggest gap was around 1cm, looks like the original tiler started from the ceiling and went down, then figured it wasn't worth cutting a really thin tile. I just squirted all the sealant in and smoothed it with a finger.

That is exactly what the builder did. The tray was fitted after tilling the walls from top down.

ohreally

https://www.byretech.com/acatalog/shower-tray-seals.html?