Water Damage in Bathroom - Advice

steveb1964 · 1 Nov 2018

It seems as though I've had a slow leak in my shower cubical, over a long period of time, more than likely from around the tray and sealent. The insurerance won't pay because it does't look like the water has escaped from a pipe - the only true way to tell is to rip all of the shower board off as the pipes are behind that.....

My question is, what is the best thing to do?

The floor has got wet, as has some of the plasterboard and the shower panels look quite mouldy, could these be cleaned with bleech or something to remove the mould and reused, or is it worth replacing them with new ones?

I'm thinking that I need to rip the shower panels off in the shower, check that it isn't the pipes that are leaking and then cut the plasterboard off where the water has soaked up to, replasterboard and put new shower panels on. I'll also need new flooring as the lino has gone very mouldy.

I've attached some pics, any advice is appreciated.

terryplumb · 1 Nov 2018

You need to take it all apart mate. Remove all damaged plasterboard ,make sure pipeworks sound. Fit new plasterboard . pvc wall panels are relatively cheap ,i would replace those as well. And check the floorboards are sound. I went to a job a few weeks back and could push a screwdriver through the floorboards ,removed them and could do the same to the joist below !! Just like yours appears to be ,no leaking pipes ,all damaged from water escaping out the enclosure ,but had been doing so for a long time.

steveb1964 · 1 Nov 2018

terryplumb said:
You need to take it all apart mate. Remove all damaged plasterboard ,make sure pipeworks sound. Fit new plasterboard . pvc wall panels are relatively cheap ,i would replace those as well. And check the floorboards are sound. I went to a job a few weeks back and could push a screwdriver through the floorboards ,removed them and could do the same to the joist below !! Just like yours appears to be ,no leaking pipes ,all damaged from water escaping out the enclosure ,but had been doing so for a long time.

I thought as much! Thankfully the floor seems to be solid, I've stabbed it quite hard with a screwdriver and it barely makes a dent into it. I'll strip everything back and cut out any damaged plasterboard. I'll see if the showerboards can be cleaned up, but I'm almost resigned to replacing them as well. The only problem with that is one of them is 1200mm wide and goes behind the bath as well and into another panel with the T&G hydrolock so that will be a pain to get out

Thanks for the advice

terryplumb · 1 Nov 2018

Oh ,that would be a pain. Is your shower pipework on the same wall as the bath?

rhinosaw · 1 Nov 2018

If you train the shower hose around the base of the wood panel and top the shower tray can u see underneath what is going on, ie dripping?

steveb1964 · 1 Nov 2018

terryplumb said:
Oh ,that would be a pain. Is your shower pipework on the same wall as the bath?

No, they're on opposite walls. Drawn a rough plan of the bathroom. As I said the floor was very wet and lino was very mouly on the backing, floor still seems solid though. I need to pull the showerboard off thats on the wall with the shower mixer to see the damage behind that and to properly inspect the pipes. The problem board will be the other one, but there doesn't appear to be any water on the floor around that board. If I can get the shower tray out then I will be able to inspect the under side of that board and it may not have to come off with any luck.....

steveb1964 · 1 Nov 2018

rhinosaw said:
If you train the shower hose around the base of the wood panel and top the shower tray can u see underneath what is going on, ie dripping?

I've taken all of the sealent out now, initially I was just resealing it as the seleant had gone mouldy. This is when I found the issue as the back of the sealent was all wet which I thought was strange, that was when I took the shower trim off the tray and saw how wet it was under the tray. I will run the shower and spray it into the bath to see if anymore water drips down, which would then indicate the pipes, it does look like it was coming from the tray though. The waste pipe is sound as there's no wetness round that.

terryplumb · 1 Nov 2018

steveb1964 said:
No, they're on opposite walls. Drawn a rough plan of the bathroom. As I said the floor was very wet and lino was very mouly on the backing, floor still seems solid though. I need to pull the showerboard off thats on the wall with the shower mixer to see the damage behind that and to properly inspect the pipes. The problem board will be the other one, but there doesn't appear to be any water on the floor around that board. If I can get the shower tray out then I will be able to inspect the under side of that board and it may not have to come off with any luck.....

Thanks for the layout. You may well be lucky and not have to touch that side. If the floor on that side is dry ,right upto the corner ,i would be inclined not to. If you have removed sealant on that area ,whats the wall panel like at the bottom ?

steveb1964 · 1 Nov 2018

terryplumb said:
Thanks for the layout. You may well be lucky and not have to touch that side. If the floor on that side is dry ,right upto the corner ,i would be inclined not to. If you have removed sealant on that area ,whats the wall panel like at the bottom ?

I can’t see the bottom of the panel as it’s that close to the shower tray. I need to somehow get the showertray out and then I’ll be able to see the bottom of the panel. The tray isn’t screwed I to the floor, but it’s not shifting! I think the panel on the wall where the mixer tap is needs to come off before the tray will come out.

terryplumb · 1 Nov 2018

Its likely that the 2 sides of the tray have been siliconed to the walls ,if it has no movement. Thats assuming you have removed all visible traces of silicone from around the top of the tray.

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