Can't stop our shower leaking.

[steppemum]

so, in the family bathroom we have a shower over the bath and a shower screen with a hinge. (needs to be a hinged one otherwise you can;t clean the bath)
The shower leaks.
Dh is very DIY savvy and does most things round our house, and money is tight.
This screen has always leaked. The leak is in the corner where the screen meets the wall. The water drips down the outside of the bath and makes a puddle on the floor.

The shower has always leaked, For years dh blamed the kids for having the shower door slightly too far open so the water ran out. They always maintained they didn't.
Dh put a thing on the inside of the door so that it could not be opened beyond the edge of the bath. It still leaked.
He scraped out all the sealant, rehung the door, replaced the sealant. Watched dozens of online videos about the sealant /corner etc. Nothing has worked.

If the kids don't put a towel on the floor there is a puddle and then the water goes under the lino and we have mould etc.

This shower is such a bone of contention in our house that we almost cannot discuss it any more. Dh is genuinely really good at DIY and has done thousands of good jobs round the house, but he does tend to get fixated.

I would call in a plumber, but to be fair, everything I have read says that this is a common issue and hard to fix, so we could end up paying out for a plmuber and still have a leaking shower door. I have suggested that we just start again, new door, etc , dh is very reluctant and he thinks that any door will do the same.

ds is 18 and gets really irritated about the leaking shower.

Anyone had this/solved this? Anyone know anything constructive about shower doors?
Thanks

@pigletjohn

is there (should there be) a rubber fin on the door to bend against the frame?

is the water leaking between the door and the frame, or the frame and the wall? Run some water out of the spout of a teapot onto each suspect area.

is the shower head in the middle of the back wall, or towards one side?

Oh thank you for coming piglet john!

shower is over the bath taps, so on the middle of the back wall.
The shower is quite high (ds is 6'4") and the screen isn't that high, but it leaked before we raised it, and it leaks with shorter girls as well.

there is a rubber fin on the bottom of the screen all the way to the hinge, but there is a small gap under the actual hinge.
So door frame screwed to the wall, about 2 inches wide, well sealed aroudn the bottom, then the hinge and under where the hinge itself is there is no rubber fin. Dh says that there is no way to put a fin under the actual hinge space?

There is much disagreement about where the water is actually leaking from. It seems to me that it is leaking on the hinge, so between the screen and its frame, as that is where there is a tiny gap.

I will go and find out. But just cooking dinner so will be later.

The thing is, from everything we have seen you can't seal under that bit of the hinge.

Dh has at one point replaced the fin under the door as well, but it didn't get into that bit under the hinge.

It is a very tiny gap!

As you said it's quite common. Ours does the same. Frame is well sealed so it's not from there, it's the 2mm gap of the hinge to the glass where the seal doesn't get and you can't put sealant as it then won't hinge.

However ours does not cause a huge puddle,
I'm not sure how practical this is with a tall son, but for us we aim the shower head slightly towards the solid wall and it's tilted up so it sprays further down the bath so we are standing further away from the hinge.

in fact come to think of it we have the shower head quite high on the riser, it annoys me when I'm cleaning as I have to get in the bath to reach it to spray down the bath after and im 5ft 8.

yes, I was thinking if you could put the squirter close to the door, it will squirt away from it.

We had the same, we removed the hinge and 'fixed' the glass as a panel. The leak has improved but not 100%. We've now replaced the sealant around the bath. There is still a small leak onto the wall just before the screen/panel.
We occasionally have a few drops leaking into the living room below (too many back to back showers). I think ours is a bigger job with some leakage into the wall as well - putting it off as long as we can as we have huge tiles in the bathroom and a wardrobe on the other side of the wall. So major project!

Sorry no solution but listening..

We had this problem but eventually admitted defeat and put in a shower curtain. I know this isn't an ideal solution for everyone but it did stop the leak.

We moved into a house with a glass shower panel like this, and evidence of water having leaked through to the hall ceiling below. I'm afraid our solution was to replace the glass panel with a shower curtain. We haven't had an leak since it was taken out. I suspect there's complex geometry about the angle between the bath and the wall so the water doesn't pool inside the panel, on the bath side, and so that water doesn't leak through under the panel. Our home's walls just aren't at 90 degrees, i suspect.

Well, I'm blown away.

I took a jug up and poured the inside of the door.
The water is not coming out under the hinge gap, it is not coming out along the seal, it is coming out about 6 inches up on the door, where the white plastic that holds the screen is leaking.

So, new shower screen is in the offing. And this time I will get a say in which one we buy...

and I realised that the fin does actually now go right across in front of the hinge (after I moaned about the gap before).

I realised that the leak is really hard to see, the first drop comes out where the leak is, and then is runs down the door, so you can't see where it is coming from

Can I just say that in my humble experience, unless your kids tuck the shower curtain right round against the bak wall, you get the same problem, the water goes roudn the bacl of the curtain, and then runs down the side of the bath.
Which is why we got the screen....

Forgot to say we have the screen and ALSO a curtain. Didn't help beyond a point. I have almost given up!

well.
update.
I showed dh where the leak is an proclaimed that we need a new screen.
ds jubilnatly happy.

dh said we were toohasty and he will try and seal where the leak in first.

In protest I have been out and bought a new loo seat (old one wobbly despite many repairs and new hinges)
So at least one thing in the bathroom is now working.

I will see what happens with the screen.