Help with sealing bath (huge gap!)

veritree

Hi, I'm having a lot of trouble sorting my bath out. I had already tired to fix this a few months ago and it was working fine, but the problem has just come back again.

A few months ago, water was leaking through and staining the ceiling below (it wasn't pipes leaking, just bad silicone seal) so I had taken all the old silicone out and I discovered that there was a huge gap of about 10-15mm all around the fibreglass bathtub where the tiles end. I removed and cleaned the old silicone areas and bought some trim to cover the majority of the gap, which I then sealed all around it. The first time I didn't fill the bath when I did it so it started to split- which I then redid and it seemed to work fine. Now there was major splitting again, and the silicone was all discoloured around the trim. I've taken everything off yet again, and now I'm at a loss of what to do. To me, the original tiling doesn't look like it was done very well, and there is a huge amount of flex to the bathtub (having baths obviously seems to make the flex the most!). I guess my question is, is there something I can pack into the gap to stop the silicone just falling away before it sets, or do I need to seal with silicone in stages? It just seems like an enormous amount of silicone to fill the gap...

I'd attach photos but I can't seem to as I'm a new user.

Thanks so much.

knightstyle

If you go under the bath you should see it is supported on adjustable legs, screw these up to close the gap.
You may be able to put a piece of wood under the legs to spread the load and stop this happening again.

veritree

Thanks knightstyle, I'll try this out first. Thank you.

Tom99

Maybe a strip of foam insulation like you put round pipes just to stop the sealer falling through the gap. Also maybe apply the sealer with the bath full of water so that any later movement is squashing the sealant rather than stretching it.

sevenhills

veritree wrote: »

The first time I didn't fill the bath when I did it so it started to split- which I then redid and it seemed to work fine. Now there was major splitting again, and the silicone was all discoloured around the trim.

I have never had an issue with a leaking silicone seal, but I have never filed the bath whilst sealing.

veritree

knightstyle wrote: »

If you go under the bath you should see it is supported on adjustable legs, screw these up to close the gap.
You may be able to put a piece of wood under the legs to spread the load and stop this happening again.

Okay so I've taken the bath panel off and tried to adjust the legs... thing is, the tiling is so wonky that the tiles touch all 4 corners of the bath, but it goes up and at an angle from there, causing gaps. So I can't adjust the legs because the corners of the bath are nice and snug up against the tile!

kerri_gt

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/seal-large-gaps-between-tub-wall-71278.html

Sounds like you need the backer rod method

neilmcl

What silicone did you use, did you clean your surfaces down properly and with what exactly and how long did you leave it before emptying and using your bath?

Correct preparation and application of a good quality silicone and you should easily be able to handle gaps of 10mm or more.

Have a look at the following - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DI4hfHM_Hg.

Don't bother using the expensive Unibond stuff, you're just paying extra for the name. Get the cheaper, and imho better, sealants such as Dow 785 or Everbuild 500.