Bath panel, water getting behind...

delmonta

have a painted bath panel, which sits under the rim of my bath and is flush with the edge of the bath, as the instructions said.

I just took it off to check the plumbing, and found water was creeping around the bath rim and sitting on top of the bath panel, and leaving a bit of a mess. Also over time this will not be good for the panel.

Is there anything I can do? I need access to underneath so I don't want to seal it with silicon. Can you even seal a gap like that with silicon nicely? I've only ever siliconed corners, not a gap between two things

See below

Alter_ego

Draught proofing foam strip, self adhesive

delmonta

Alter_ego said:

Draught proofing foam strip, self adhesive

Thanks, but is this waterproof? Would this not just get messy from contact with water over time?

grumbler

If you want to keep it removable, then silicone is out of question. Can you move it down a little to make the gap a little bigger and accessible for cleaning?

Polyethylene foam used for toys, packaging, underlays, pipe insulation is waterproof, but it won't look very nice.

delmonta

grumbler said:

If you want to keep it removable, then silicone is out of question. Can you move it down a little to make the gap a little bigger and accessible for cleaning?

Polyethylene foam used for toys, packaging, underlays, pipe insulation is waterproof, but it won't look very nice.

Thanks, yeah I also think siliconing the gap could look a bit ugly. But I do want access. 

I can't move it down at all, and to be honest I think the gap would look quite bad any bigger. It could be possible to clean in there as it is, with a thin cloth and a credit card or something to push it in. But I would rathe stop water getting in after every shower. 

I considered something like the strips you have on the bottom of shower doors, the rubber ones, something like that I could glue to the underside of the bath rim or the top of the bath panel. But I can't be sure it will work that well!

grumbler

Also, white EPDM D or P profile glued to the panel may work.

delmonta

grumbler said:

Also, white EPDM D or P profile glued to the panel may work.

Is it usually waterproof?

grumbler

yes...........

Belenus

A wipe down with an absorbent cloth after every shower or bath would take no more than 10 to 20 seconds and would probably solve the problem.

Use a very thin cloth so you can get into that gap.

Do you have a partner, children or teenagers who won't reliably follow such a practice?

delmonta

Belenus said:

A wipe down with an absorbent cloth after every shower or bath would take no more than 10 to 20 seconds and would probably solve the problem.

Use a very thin cloth so you can get into that gap.

Do you have a partner, children or teenagers who won't reliably follow such a practice?

Yeah thats the issue, even if I follow it, others won't! And to be honest I could easily forget too! But that might be the only way

Murmansk

The paint on the bath panel looks like it'd be reasonably resistant to a bit of moisture so I'd be inclined to wipe it every week or so and the gap looks just the right size for the edge of a towel to fit it nicely. If you're really keen you could get some grey silicon and apply it to the top of the panel (having first removed it) to make it have a slope of silicon that stops before the edge of the panel and would fill the gap but encourage water to flow to the edge. Depending on how well you did this I think it would be invisible unless you really got down on your knees to look