Leak between bath and taps

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6 Nov 2004
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I've been fitting a new bathroom suite and I thought the bath was done and dusted a few weeks back ... but ... I checked today and discovered that the seal between the shower mixer taps and the plastic bath is not watertight and it leaks through to the underneath of the bath. I've already fitted everything in place - seals etc and am loath to undo it all so I can get access to the taps to try reseating them. Is there anything I can use from the topside to seal the leak - silcone sealant? If have to remove the bath and have another go at seating the taps in, what can I use to get a good seal?

Thanks, Jon.
 
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I've already fitted everything in place - seals etc

What is everything? You could first just try taking the bath panel off and use a tap spanner to tighten the tap nuts - might work :)

What I do after doing any plumbing joints etc is to thoroughly wipe the area with kitchen towel and then wait a few minutes (assuming there is not a torrent of water cascading over me) and then use a wad of coloured toilet paper to dab around the joint - it is pretty apparent if there is a leak as it darkens the paper - if so, tighten a bit more and redo the test.
 
You CAN put silicone round the tap from the top but you need the really clear stuff - "translucent" looks awful. Wickes used to do a transparent one which was not like any other - really wierd smell.

Of course it's hard to do. Everything has to be bone dry and clean, so I'd first go round it with descaler (supermarket liquid type), dry it all, wash with methylated spirits, (The area by the taps, not your face), dry with a hair dryer. Then when cool use the least amount of sealant which will work. If you cut up an old credit card the corners are very good formaking a neat but big-enough radius.

This assumes the taps are done up tight enough that they aren't movable to SHOW a gap.
 
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thanks for the replys guys. I cant get access to the undertaps space now so can't tighten them anymore - they were pretty tight anyway and I was warned not to overdo the plastic nuts. I've tried a thin silcone bead from topside - it seems to be ok now - the holes for the taps were just a bit out from where the mixer tap tails were and a bit on the big side. The wierd thing was that it was watertight for a couple of weeks - ah well!

Jon
 

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