.... anyone any advice on grouting tiles??
We have a standalone shower cubicle, two walls tiled and the rest is formed by the glass cabinet. We have a leak appearing on the ceiling below, looking under the shower tray itself, although there is sign of leak on the plasterboard at the base, it doesn't actually stretch down to the floor.
This makes me think that its actually leaking through the tiles / grout and down the inside of the plasterboard.
This happened once before and I had to scrape all the grout off and re-grout and a more soul destroying / boring job I have not had.
Any clever ways to scrape out grout and regrout?
At the moment . much to my wife's disgust, I have went to B&Q and bought a sheet of thick plastic and stuck it to both walls temporarily to at least stop the water getting to the tiles!! Also stops the tiles getting dirty...... in fact might just keep it like that :)
Really wish, with hindsight, we had got the wetwalls - at the time I didn't cos the missus said it would remind her of showers in static caravansbut I can definitely see the merits!
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>> .... anyone any advice on grouting tiles??
I get someone else to do that sort of stuff :-)
If there's a hairline crack in the grout water will find it's way out. Is there a loose tile anywhere? We had loose tiles along the edge of the bath when we moved in but only when you stood in the bath (sealant pulled the tile down).
I'd have suggested something similar to the temporary solution to identify the problem area - you might only need to regrout a small part.
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Have you checked the join around the shower tray and the wall?
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All showers with joints eventually leak, I have had one of these for about ten years. No leaks.
www.douglasjames.com/easyfit_quad.html
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ON, that looks good, kind of the same principle of the wetwalls.
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>>Have you checked the join around the shower tray and the wall?
Yeah it looks solid enough and I feel if it was leaking from here, then the water mark underneath would be all the way to the floor. But its not, which makes me think its going through the grout.
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When I installed a shower a few years back, as well as all the usual waterproofing solutions I put a sheet of polythene on the floor under the tray extending beyond the shower walls as much as possible.
The idea was that if I had a minor leak the water would sit on the sheet and not drip into the room below. I've no idea if it's worked as I can't see it - I just know that for maybe 10 years now there are no drips on the ceiling below.
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>>The idea was that if I had a minor leak the water would sit on the sheet and not drip into the room below
So where would the water go?
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An oscillating multi too is your friend for removing grout.
www.google.co.uk/#q=oscillating+multi+tool.
The bottom edge of the tiles where they touch the tray is the weak spot due to slight movement in the tray. Likewise the rear vertical corner. I prefer to use acrylic sealant, nice and deep as opposed to silicon which can be messy. Acrylic can be worked with a damp cloth. More flexible than grout. Its the lower part of the shower that gets the most water thrown at it.
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I have 3 sons with new build homes & leaky showers from the builder installed cheapy plastic showertrays.
Solution was not grouting & sealant - the replacment of the plastic showertray with a ceramic one - messy as it involves stripping tiles, fixing plasterboard, re-plumbing & re-tiling.
The annoying thing is the difference in B&Q buying ceramic Vs plastic tray is really very little - to a builder a few ££s & you hundreds of thousands ££ & get plastic rubbish.
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We've not long had our shower unit replaced. The cheap plastic one which kept leaking because the flexing exposed gaps in the sealant was replaced by a ceramic.
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"So where would the water go?"
Well, being the thick *rse that I am, I simpy presumed that the family of spiders lurking under the shower was drinking it all.
But, not being up to the level where
“I know I'm more intelligent than the average person on the street. Quite probably more intelligent than you too - that's not a dig just fact. “
I hadn't given much consideration to the thought that the duration of a shower is relatively short and the actual quantity of water in a leak is likely to be fairly small. Then, the water is spread thinly across a wide area of polythene sheet and has considerable surface area relative to depth. Dependant on humidity levels, temperature and ventilation there will be an element of evaporation. Over time, say 23 hours between showers there is a considerable chance that any water will have dried up.
Of course being fairly thick, all I know is that when temporarily dealing with roof leaks in my 200 year old house I found that spreading polythene on the floor and laying timber battens on each side forming a bund or trough I found that the rain water that had dripped onto it disappeared quite soon.
But then I suppose we do get a lot of thirsty spiders in the often unoccupied house.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate II on Sun 3 Jul 16 at 10:24
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Assuming non politics discussion is allowed here.. - rtj70
