At what point do you stop chucking money at it?
It's a 18 year old 'estate' house, and neither my husband or I are DIY'ers, particularly on this scale!
We had our corner shower 'quarter circle' glass surround replaced, along with the tray, about 5 years ago. The new tray is plastic.The original tiling remained as it appears to be in good condition. A few months ago I moved some heavy furniture in an adjoining bedroom into which the shower area of our ensuite protrudes, to find the carpet very damp, (and ruined), the skirting board 'blown (about 80cms long), and it all smelled musty.
A bloke came and scraped out old grouting and replaced it. 3 months later, it leaked again. We pulled off the blown skirting but no obvious area of leak seen, just dampness; and we took off the front curved facing in the ensuite to look underneath the shower tray, and it definitely appears it's ^not^ the actual plumbing or drainage; the line of damp seems to be below the L shaped tiled walls, as far as you can see with a torch, and I'm aware of how well water can travel via capillary action!
Anyway, another bloke came (can't find the first and unsure we'd get anywhere with him anyway!) who re-grouted better as we felt you could see fine lines of black in some of the grouting where water might've got through, and redid the silicon where the frame of the glass cubicle meets the tiled wall and meets the tray.
Appeared problem solved. Except, 2 months later, the carpet in the second bedroom is now possibly wetter than before!
The bloke is coming back next week to do some other work, and is obviously anxious to sort our problem with the shower.
Bearing in mind we've already paid out (so we still have a leak despite ££ being spent on it already), so I'm not expecting to pay any more for his labour this time as his 'brief' was ' do what needs doing to stop this shower leaking (within reason!), unless we ask him to basically strip the tiled wall altogether, retile it and put a ceramic tray in. I am wondering if the flexing of the plastic tray may have caused the silicon sealant to break. And I''d imagine that taking the tiles off, bottom row first would eventually reveal a point where there was no evidence of water damage above it? So you could stop there?
OR should he cut out the plasterboard in the adjoining bedroom to look at the back of the board on which the ensuite tiling is glued?
What do you think?
It's a 18 year old 'estate' house, and neither my husband or I are DIY'ers, particularly on this scale!
We had our corner shower 'quarter circle' glass surround replaced, along with the tray, about 5 years ago. The new tray is plastic.The original tiling remained as it appears to be in good condition. A few months ago I moved some heavy furniture in an adjoining bedroom into which the shower area of our ensuite protrudes, to find the carpet very damp, (and ruined), the skirting board 'blown (about 80cms long), and it all smelled musty.
A bloke came and scraped out old grouting and replaced it. 3 months later, it leaked again. We pulled off the blown skirting but no obvious area of leak seen, just dampness; and we took off the front curved facing in the ensuite to look underneath the shower tray, and it definitely appears it's ^not^ the actual plumbing or drainage; the line of damp seems to be below the L shaped tiled walls, as far as you can see with a torch, and I'm aware of how well water can travel via capillary action!
Anyway, another bloke came (can't find the first and unsure we'd get anywhere with him anyway!) who re-grouted better as we felt you could see fine lines of black in some of the grouting where water might've got through, and redid the silicon where the frame of the glass cubicle meets the tiled wall and meets the tray.
Appeared problem solved. Except, 2 months later, the carpet in the second bedroom is now possibly wetter than before!
The bloke is coming back next week to do some other work, and is obviously anxious to sort our problem with the shower.
Bearing in mind we've already paid out (so we still have a leak despite ££ being spent on it already), so I'm not expecting to pay any more for his labour this time as his 'brief' was ' do what needs doing to stop this shower leaking (within reason!), unless we ask him to basically strip the tiled wall altogether, retile it and put a ceramic tray in. I am wondering if the flexing of the plastic tray may have caused the silicon sealant to break. And I''d imagine that taking the tiles off, bottom row first would eventually reveal a point where there was no evidence of water damage above it? So you could stop there?
OR should he cut out the plasterboard in the adjoining bedroom to look at the back of the board on which the ensuite tiling is glued?
What do you think?
