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Property/DIY

leaking shower - help/ advice needed!

5 replies

VelvetSpoon · 03/12/2015 18:54

To start off, I have no plumbing knowledge so if any of this is irrelevant or I miss out anything important, sorry!

Shower was put in about 6-8 weeks ago. The room is a first floor extension so nothing in it before. It was a blank canvas which had been previously fully boarded floor and walls with waterproof marine ply. Guy who did it fully tiled floor including under the tray, and walls.

Round the edge of the tray he fitted some sort of flexible seal, which was shit and popped out every time I used it. Due to this I was v careful not to get much/ any water on the walls or near seal.

After a week or two, my bf took out the flexible seal and replaced it with silicone sealant. After that we used it a lot more (but still only 1-2 times a day on average).

2 weeks ago I noticed a patch on my living room ceiling, about 30cm square. There was also water dripping through the light in the adjacent utility room, and down the wall of that room.

We used the shower once, to see if it got worse. The dripping down the wall did - we've not used it since.

Contacted the guy who fitted it. He's now said (without looking at it, I asked him to come round, he hasn't) that the leak isn't a leaky pipe, as if it was it would have blown my ceiling, and is just the seal.

He suggests I reseal and it'll be fine. And the ceiling patch (now at least 3ft x 1.5ft) is just water that had already leaked coming through. And it'll take up to 3 months to dry out

Is this all bs? Or is he correct?

In either case, what do I do?

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VelvetSpoon · 03/12/2015 19:24

Oh, just to add, ceiling patch in living room as of tonight seems not to have got any longer but to have widened at the ceiling/ wall join, and there's also a patch on the wall itself.

I really can't believe this is just the seal...

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Cedar03 · 04/12/2015 12:20

Well sounds to me like you've had a rubbish fitter because the sealant shouldn't have popped out every time you use the shower. And he should have come back and fixed his work in the first place.

I would get someone else round to have a look if you don't trust this fitter any more. Is the shower head fixed to the wall/ceiling or can you take it off and therefore run the shower so that the water goes straight down the plug hole? If the dripping got worse again this could mean there's a leak somewhere rather than the faulty sealant.

The damp patch will take a while to dry out properly. You can draw a pencil line along the edge to see if it is getting worse. But when I had a leak in my ceiling in a flat caused by my upstairs neighbours not plumbing their new heating system properly it stopped spreading any further the second they fixed it not carried on spreading for another couple of weeks.

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PigletJohn · 04/12/2015 14:52

Poke a skewer through the ceiling so any trapped water can drip out into a bucket.

you can test if it is the waste, or the seal round the top of the tray.

One day, point the shower head into the tray, pointing at the waste hole. Squirt water into it. Then go and see if the leak has occurred.

Another day, point the shower head at the gap between the wall and the tray, and play it back and forth. See if the leak has occurred.

For a stronger and more accurate jet, you can unscrew the shower head from the hose.

The plumber is a buffoon (1) for doing a bad job (2) for not fixing it.
Make sure you tell everyone, including whoever recommended him.

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VelvetSpoon · 04/12/2015 18:17

Thanks for the tips. Will try it out over the weekend. Just fed up with the leak growing and my house smelling of wet plaster :(


He wasn't recommended, I just got his details from a trade site but I certainly won't be recommending him to anyone.

He's a mug because I had a lot of other work to be done in the house which I'd have used him for if he'd been prepared to come back and sort this out.

He said he was certain it was the seal (even when I said we'd replaced it) and the only way to seal it properly was to buy some stuff that costs £150...which is nonsense right? I know loads of people with showers, none of them leak, and all are just sealed with normal sealant afaik!

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KanyesVest · 04/12/2015 18:27

We have a shower that was poorly sealed by the installer. After I fell out with him massively, I got someone else in to reseal it. He used a really string sealant, I don't remember the name, but he also sealed the grout up 2 tiles to ensure the seal.

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