Shower restyled hall ceiling

[foxhole]

I was asked to replace a shower enclosure once , the lady had ripped it out herself and pulled off all the tiles , she pointed to a big stain it had caused on the ceiling .Wasn't too happy when I pointed out there was no leak as all the staining was outside the shower enclosure meaning she had simply failed to close the shower door on a few occasions.

 

[cabinscooter]

The PB, itself will need to be firm and thoroughly dry, and remain dry in the future, even if it means botching the tiles somehow, to prevent any further escape of water - maybe tape plastic sheet over the tiles, to keep them dry, and direct the water to the drain. At least until it can be retiled.

My own bathroom shower tiles were installed by me 40+ years ago, have not received any maintenance at all. So why yours needed work every 18 months, beats me?

For a while, when I was trying to work out if there was a leak, we had a temporary shower curtain on three sides of the alcove so that spray didn't go on the tiles or tray sealant (the curtain rail is out of sight on the photo) . At this point I wasn't even certain there was a leak as the mark on the ceiling looked like a an edge of the boarding. No sign of any leakage. We took the temporary curtain down as it was in the way. A few months later we had the leak.
The shower spray itself has still been in use for hair washing over the adjacent washbasin with no problems, therefore it isn't the supply water plumbing. I've directed water down the waste and no sign of any leaks underneath. So the only thing left is the tiling.
Yes, we moved in here 43 years ago from new and we had various plumbing-related issues right from the beginning and the standard of plumbing was clearly poor in all these houses. For instance, some neighbours had water overflowing from the shower tray when they emptied the bath ! Bear in mind that apart from gaps in the grouting, some of the tiles are cracked. Most of the sanitary ware has now been upgraded and replaced except for the shower !

 

[cabinscooter]

The chap that is doing the retiling we have used before (for a cloakroom refurb) and came highly recommended which proved to be more than justified. He had already done a complete bathroom rebuild (which included moving walls) for our eldest son and then the cloakroom for our other son. The only problem is he always has many months work in hand when asked for a quote so we've had to wait some time. Therefore we are confident that he will do a proper job including prep. on the PB and also it should, hopefully , have dried out by now. He is due in about two weeks time from now.

 

[Notadecor8ter]

I'd be (reluctantly) spending the money. As much as I'm a cost saver myself and like to stretch investments 40 years is a long time for a shower install on Return on Investment

I have had a bath crack myself, luckily It had done it before on a minor level when used as a shower and I'd put collection trays underneath, that has still left borderline damp in floorboards (going to post separately about this actually) so I would imagine that anything thats been soaked wont be drying out easily so anything you are doing with the exception of ripping it out is a bodge to me that wont last long.

 

[cabinscooter]

More evidence of the source of the leak that I haven't mentioned -
Immediately after it happened, after removing the front panel, I examined the underside of the tray with a torch and I could see water at the back of the tray, on the wall and on the timber supports at the back, directly below where the worn tiling and grout is worst. No evidence of leaks from the waste pipe near the front or anywhere else.
When showering, the back wall inevitably got heavily sprayed, a practice which I, at least, tried to avoid once we thought there might be a problem.
Obviously, the additional shower curtain around two sides of the shower recess that I mentioned earlier would have reduced or aleviated the problem but it was a temporary solution anyway and quite inconvenient. When pointed out, it was apparent that some tiles were coming loose it was so bad. Probably wasn't done properly by the builder in the first place, might have lasted another 40 years if it had been.
Fortunately, we do have a bath in another room. I am thinking of putting a second shower over the bath as a back up!