shower leak: where from?

silvercar

Picture this: Stand alone shower, three walls tiled and fourth wall is 2 glass panels with glass door in the middle. This fourth wall/ door has a metal lip all along that sits on the shower tray and the glass fits onto it.

Grout around the floor tiles next to the shower looked damp, so I prised out an edge tile and the board underneath is black and damp. Stick kitchen roll in the space and work out that the water leaks 20-30 minutes after the shower has been used.

Called a plumber who showed me that water was seeping out between the glass shower wall and the shower tray. He sealed this from the outside and went away.

Next person has shower and the problem is not fixed!

Called regular DIY guy who resealed all four sides of the shower from the inside.

Next person has shower and the problem is not fixed!

Where to now?

The leak can't be coming from the drain as the ceiling underneath is clean.

The shower fixtures are on the back wall which happens to be the old back wall of the house so is 2 foot thick. The shower head comes down from the ceiling but is set in a little eaves section of the roof so won't be accessable from the loft.

DIY guy suggested cutting a panel out of the ceiling of the garage underneath to see where the leak is coming from, does this make sense?

Any ideas?

Powerful_Pierre

I recently had a leaking shower and the first I knew about it was water dripping from a down lighter down stairs. Checked and doubled checked all of the obvious but everything was OK. What it turned out to be was the grout which had crazed in places. I raked it all out (horrible job!) and a few tiles came away. I was amazed at how much water was trapped behind the tiles at low level just because of old grout. Could this be your problem?

Bungarm2001

We had this once and it turned out to be the actual rim of the drain hole was leaking because the silicon or plumber's mait had broken down. Water was slowly seeping out and along the base of the shower and out at the bottom of the shower tray..bit hard to describe, but it might be worth checking the drain hole.

Failing that, cutting a hole in the ceiling under the shower might be worth a go. Hopefully it won't come to that.

silvercar

Thanks for the suggestions.

Grout looks OK and the tiles are 60cm wide by 33 cm tall, so there aren't actually many grout lines. At waist level there are three rows of mosaics, so I guess there is a lot of grout at that level. Grout is some beige coloured stuff - just hope they used a product suitable for a shower wall!

I did wonder about the drain hole, but the drain is a sort of u-bend so would be lower than the floor boards.

I think the ceiling may have to be cut - thank goodness its only the garage underneath.

nalyo

quick one......once it has been siliconed make sure it is not used for a day to allow it to cure fully. some peeps say you can use in a few hours but better safe then sorry.

phill99

I'm conytracted to a House Builder to undertake all of their defects work and a number of houses had unexplained leaks from the shower. When we investigated, we removed the shower screen from the aluminium carriers that are attached to the wall. The inside of the carrier at the bottom where it meets the shower had not been siliconed. This meant when showering, water was getting in between the carrier and the door frame and dripping (ultimately) into the room below. Worth investigating.

silvercar

Screen holders are now siliconed on the shower side and outside, so unless water is getting in from the top I don't see how the ywill fill with water.

Leaked again today.

DIY guy coming to cut panal out of garage ceiling tomorrow to try to trace leak; will report back.

silvercar

DIY guy just called to say there is no point cutting out the ceiling below as no damp marks on it mean that the level of the water is higher and we won't see anything from there!

Its got to be coming out from the shower tray as the leak is just below the floor level, but the shower tray has been resealed so it can't be from there.

help!

myrnahaz

We had a mysterious shower leak that nothing seemed to work on (we tried replacing dodgy grout, replacing silicone round the plug etc) - I eventually found that there was a crack in the (plastic) tray itself. I couldn't see it until I kneeled down to clean the tray - I'd put my left hand on the tray and leaned in, and the pressure of my hand opened up a crack that was running along the crease of one of the anti-slip treads.

weekendwarrior

Sealing a shower is never easy, but I would check first that silicone has been used in the correct areas. It should be used in the corners and between the shower tray and tiles, like this- http://www.ultimatehandyman.org/videos/156/how-to-silicone-a-shower

If that does not fix it then you may have to cut out some of the ceiling underneath, unfortunately!

Steve_xx

Get some black plastic bin bags. Cut them so that they are an open sheet of plastic. Tape them at the highest point on the tiled wall that you can manage while allowing the bottom to drape into the shower tray. This will effectively seal the unit so that you can ascertain that water is not leaching out through the grouting. Another way that you can ascertain this would be to turn the shower on and play the sprayhead directly into the shower tray, ensuring that no water splashes onto the walls. You need to find out whether the water is leaking from above, at or below the shower tray.