Silicone Joint Headache

[Blue Smithy]

Hi All,

Thanks to the info on this site I have managed to tile my bathroom and it looks great - porcelain , finished matt glaze (no sealing required). I also installed a separate shower (tray and screen) and followed the advice of leaving a 3-5mm gap between the tiles and the tray. Also, I installed the tray first and tiled from that, so there is a good 20mm of tile and adhesive overhanging the tray edge.

I then filled the line all around with silicone, first getting it into the gap then finishing off the external bead. Heaven for a few weeks until I started noticing some wetness at the end of the shower tray. I ended up cutting out the silicone to investigate and the gap was damp, so there must have been a leak somewhere along the seal.

Im confident that water is not comming from anywhere else but this seal. I raked and dried out the gap (completely), cleaned with meths and reapplied the silicone..... a few weeks later same problem.

Anybody any ideas? I can only think that I am not cleaning the tiles and tray adequately before siliconing so the bond is weak or that there is movement and the seal is being weakened. I got the missus to have a dry shower while I watched but there was no movement at all with the tray.

Any help and tips would be much appreciated before I take on the sole destroying task of removing and re-applying AGAIN!!!

Cheers

BS

[beno7777]

hi blue smithy. the water may be coming from the seal but it could be geting behind the tiles somewhere else and seepin down! have u siliconed the virtical corners if not as the grout cracked with slight movment of house? it wouldnt take more than a couple of tiny holes or cracks for this to happen

[kilty55]

hi mate,,did you silicone or grout the internal on the shower??? if not siliconed this may be a cause



also did you install the pipework for your shower as this may be the cause?

[Blue Smithy]

Cheers for the replies both,

I siliconed the internal corner, and after inspection its looks to have bonded really well..... thats what led me to think its the shower tray bond.

I'll have a look tonight for any cracks in the grout though... thanks.

Im pretty sure the pipework is ok too. Its installed in a stud wall so I left the plasterboard off for ages to keep any eye on it.... no leaks!

[Big-Smudge]

Cheers for the replies both,

I siliconed the internal corner, and after inspection its looks to have bonded really well..... thats what led me to think its the shower tray bond.

I'll have a look tonight for any cracks in the grout though... thanks.

Im pretty sure the pipework is ok too. Its installed in a stud wall so I left the plasterboard off for ages to keep any eye on it.... no leaks!

I which order did you silicone i.e did you silicone the vertical corner first then wait for that to go off and then silicone around the shower tray.

If so this could be the problem, new silicone will not bond to old silicone even if there's only a 3 hour delay between doing the vertical and horizontal. So where the 3 beads of silicone join right in the corner, there will be a join between the first vertical bead and the shower tray bead. Water will soon find its way in, where you have a 3 way corner this needs to be formed out of one continuous piece of silicone i.e it all needs filling with silicone and all smoothed and formed at the same time.

Cheers
Andy

[Blue Smithy]

You know what Andy, that makes perfect sense to me and is the most plausable problem Ive heard.

I did do the vertical first, and then the horizontals maybe a day later....

At least my silicone removal skills are getting better!!!

Thanks

[Big-Smudge]

You know what Andy, that makes perfect sense to me and is the most plausable problem Ive heard.

I did do the vertical first, and then the horizontals maybe a day later....

At least my silicone removal skills are getting better!!!

Thanks

If you want to take the pain away try these items

This for removal siliconeandgroutremover.jpg

And this for reapplication cornertape_5ms.png

or this SiliconeFormingKit.jpg

Cheers
Andy

[Dave]

Did you silicone the tray/ wall joint as well before you tiled..?...

[Blue Smithy]

I did silicone the gap before thanks. This is where the water is running along to the end of the tray.... otherwise I would probably have never have known it was leaking... gulp!!!

Does anyone know what best solution is to clean the tiles and tray before I re-silicone?

Ive been using meths....!

[sstilingservice]

Hi Blue Smithy
Am I right in thinking that you didn't use a tanking kit ? Coss this could have saved you all this greif !!! for a small amount of outlay. I always strongly recommend them when doing showers because they are a nightmare if you get a leak. If I was you I would remove all silicone from all corners allow then don't use the shower for a while then reseal and cross your fingers.

You could try a silicone eater to remove silicone residue.

[Big-Smudge]

Yes make sure that you remove 100% of the old silicone otherwise as in my last post your new silicone won't stick, i'm afraid that 99% just will not do,

Cheers
Andy

[albyshellshear]

hi blue in order to give advice i would need to see your wife in the shower to see were the water is going only on a profesional scale you understand as i am a profesional (baker but thats beside the point) i can suply my own camera