what is the best way to achieve a leak free seal around a bath

Silcone

Is the bath fitted yet ?

silicone round the edge of the bath & wall before tiling then silicone between the face of the tile & the bath after grouting is complete.

as robson says but fill the bath with water first

Originally Posted by Mike

as robson says but fill the bath with water first

And pjc will / may comment on that lol, yes, I would say the same, the bath should / would move with the weight of water................... over to you Ob1

Why fill the bath with water ? Only if the baths not fitted correctly much better to fit it right Alan in the first place lol and no it shouldn't move with any weight unless you put a tank in it

Alan you should be in bed by now lol

there is always a possibility of the bath 'sinking' slightly with it full of water so it's best (in my opinion) to silicon at its lowest point. maybe you don't agree with me pjc but that's the way i do it

Originally Posted by pjc

Alan you should be in bed by now lol

Ii should ? why, you got a strip o gram coming round for me, lol, for the record am offski soon boss

When the silicone man comes round on site to seal the bath to the wall, they don't fill up with water..

Beam if any of my old fitters when I had the bathroom shop had a bath moving they wouldn't be working for me anymore the Ideal Standard rep used to bring other reps round to my old showroom to watch me jumping up and down in ther acrylic baths when I showed custemers how they shouldn't move if fitted correctly

the silicon man don't come to seal my bath, i do it. the plumber fits the bath and seals it and then i tile and seal it. no fails yet. each to there own if it works

Aren't baths attached to the floor? If the bath is moving then surely it is the floor and it should be strengthened to take the extra weight?

Grumpy it's one of my pet hates as you can gather it an old wife's tale started by a bad plumber when he fitted a bath badly the same as I didn't level the bath so the water can run downhill lol

Originally Posted by pjc

Grumpy it's one of my pet hates as you can gather it an old wife's tale started by a bad plumber when he fitted a bath badly the same as I didn't level the bath so the water can run downhill lol

....

We never fill the bath with water & the mastic man comes & seals the bath after we are done.
If we are on a private job then we silicone the bath before & after tiling ourselves, if you use a good quality silicone then it should never fail this way.

To get back to your bath, you need to grout all the joints right to the end, then after you have washed the grout off and the grout is drying out, you need to run a Stanley knife or a paint scrapper along the joint between the bath and the tiles (as well as all internal angles in the rest of the room), this joint should be completely clear of all grout. Then when the grout is totally dry (not the same day) clean and hoover this joint out and then silicone. Have a look through the link below, its a post I put up a little while ago


Silicone over grout...



When it comes to smoothing the silicone off, I would strongly recommend getting yourself a silicone set from tradetiler (link below)

Silicone set...

not bad from one unregistered post

Why dont we all just start half filling the bath! best of both worlds lol

Charlie, will it be half full or half empty though???????????????

fill your bath up, then once fully weighted, seal around the inside of the bath and wall, just below bath rim, with clear sealant. Once your tiles are in place, to bath height, grout and seal with silicone as normal

Originally Posted by jimmyk07

fill your bath up, then once fully weighted, seal around the inside of the bath and wall, just below bath rim, with clear sealant. Once your tiles are in place, to bath height, grout and seal with silicone as normal

I think it's better if you also get in it once you fill it with water it really pulls it down