Leaking shower

I'm hoping someone can help me. Having found a puddle on the kitchen floor I traced it back to the shower upstairs.

It only occurs when the shower is in use which leads me to believe it's the shower mixer itself that is leaking. Unfortunately I can't get to it to have a look and/or fix it because the shower is built into the bathroom wall. I'm assuming there must be a trick with these since someone must have installed it there in the first place.

If anyone can advise me i'd appreciate it. I just hope the solution doesnt involve breaking the wall down!

Have you checked the waste trap pipe and connections?
Pete

Throw a few buckets of water down the tray ( without using the shower ). If the leak rears its ugly head, then the waste, trap or waste pipe will be the problem - no need to touch the shower.
If the it doesnt leak, then it is most likely the shower itself. The feeds to the shower are contantly under pressure, so if the leak only occurs during usage, it wont be these.
The pipe that feeds from the shower to the hose oulet, is only under any pressure when in use. Check it out.

then it is most likely the shower itself.

Click to expand...

In other words(?scuse me) down between the walls and the shower tray.

Tile grout

Of course. Excuse me. Silicone and tile grout are also likely suspects.

wow, thanks for all the responses.

The shower is actually above the bath and there's no leaking when I take a bath so it's defintely not the waste water that's to blame.

I'd like to check out the shower itself but because it's built into the wall, I don't know how to get at it. There's no obvious screws on the front. I was hoping someone may know how these showers are usually installed and therefore let me know how I can take it out to investigate.

Many thanks

what sort of a wall is it ? I mean is it a solid wall or just a partition/plasterboard wall ?

If its solid then the pipes are probably chased into the wall. If plasterboard then they may be threaded up from underneath or have been put in while the wall was being put up.

As its over the bath, have you taken the side panels off the bath and had a look around under the bath ? Its quite likely that the pipes supplying the shower also supply the bath and you can see where they go.

Looking underneath will also let you see the edges - With a shower over the bath and a plastic bath there is always some flex which can lead to cracked grout etc and leaks around the top of the bath.

If the shower head is on a flexy pipe what happens if you put the shower head in the bottom of the bath and run it? That would identify if it was a leak from around the bath or really from the pipework.