Bath leak / tile

[KSS_1977]

Hi guys,

Hoping for some guidance here. Had our bath replaced earlier in the year only to find it’s leaking where the tap end meets the tiles. It’s a shower over bath and the bath is P shaped.

Rest of the Bath is water tight and it just appears to be this end. There isn’t much of a gap between the tiles and the bath at the tap end. It’s sitting pretty much flush in the middle.

I’m guessing what’s happened is that because there isn’t much of a gap when someone in standing in the bath and it flexes eventually the seal has broken on the silicone due to there not being much silicon in the gap and the water is running past and down the curve of the bath.

The bath ( at the tap end is only supported in one corner closest to the shower screen)

I’ve made a brace to keep that side of the bath right so there’s no flex (see attached) and am going to attempt to resilicone it.

My main question is if I’ve braced it (which is essentially) the same as battening that side of the bath. Will it matter that there is little to no gap between the tile and end of the bath or will I have to try and modify the tile somehow to create a gap?

There’s a small gap between the Bath and the aqua panel. I could possibly pump some silicone up there so create a barrier from behind - but if a bodge but I really don’t want to have to try to remove the Bath to fix this.

Thanks in advance

 

[oldbutnotdead]

First thought is get whoever fitted the bath back to rectify (you said you 'had the bath replaced').
Second thought (if first thought doesn't work) is temporarily prop the far end of the bath a couple of mm lower than it is now, do the same with the near end, fill the gap with silicon, dress it, leave it for 24 hrs then prop the bath back up as high as possible.

 

[KSS_1977]

Thank you for the reply, it’s going to be tricky but not impossible to move it a few mm. the side that’s against the wall (the long side) opposite has been siliconed in pretty damn good I’m not sure there’s much movement in there.

I guess that’s part of the problem, it’s siliconed all the way around so moving the Bath is going to be hard and potentially could damage it.

I guess the guy that fitted it ran out of silicone where it was needed most! Hence my original thought of packing it from behind as much as possible then bracing it from below (to remove the flex element) then seal the top. After that refit the taps.

Calling this guy back to rectify isn’t an option at the moment ( on holiday) and I kind of need a fix now and not in 2 weeks.

Thank you for the advice, I’ll see if I can get a few mm out of the front legs.

 

[foxhole]

Bath should sit under tiles , has it been butted to them?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Give it a go. Volume of silicon isn't important- if that minimal gap was fully filled with the bath half full it would have been fine. A surface smear with an empty bath-less fine.
If you do end up trying to remove the bath, beware of hidden brackets securing the thing to the wall (one I put in recently specified 2 angle brackets to be fixed behind the tiles, so completely inaccessible if later removal was required. Ditched them in favour of batten along the wall and accessible clips either end).