Shower tray unstuck

[Steve_o1]

My first post hopefully on the right place!

Just fitted a low profile grp tray on a bed of bal rapidflex and it has bowed up in the middle and come unstuck. It has Bowed up about 1mm by the middle of the tray 2 days after fitting It’s all tanked and ready to tile. Do I now need to rip it out and start again?



Thanks

Steve

 

[terryplumb]

Dont you mean its bowed up at the edges ? Is it " springy " ,(bouncing )at the edges? Is there going to be an enclosure sitting on all edges ? And finally ,is the tray moving other than mentioned above ?

 

[Steve_o1]

Sorry I didn’t describe it very well, the tray is between 2 stud walls and will have a sliding door on the front edge. Initially it had slight movement around the centre but barely detectable but now it has come unstuck from the front edge in the middle which is what the picture is of and the edge that will have the door. I am repairing an existing enclosure that has never been any good. It has been repaired 3 times already for leaks albeit before we bought the house. The stud walls are really too far apart leaving a 15mm gap all round the tray which made it difficult to tank. I think the mistake I have made is placing a weight on tray while the adhesive set. I also used tile adhesive to fill the 15mm gaps to walls as the tanking will not stick to silicone and it’s barely possible to get a good enough bead into the tray even with 12mm travertine tiles. The tray edges by the back wall and stud walls all see firm for now anyway. There is slight deflection in the centre but about 1mm and then you can feel it hit the solid bed.

Thanks

 

[terryplumb]

I think you may have done too many things wrong for this to work well . what is the tray sitting on ,floorboards ,chipboard ,plywood ? Could you not have fitted plasterboard to one wall to reduce the width ? How thick a bed of adhesive did you put down ( i assume it was a flexible, powder adhesive , not familiar with bal stuff ) ? I suspect you may not have mixed it properly or not enough applied. Was it a rapid set ?

 

[Steve_o1]

It’s on marine ply. It’s a powdered flexible adhesive but is rapid set as I was using it for travertine. I used a 9mm notched trowel. The job escalated from a simple re-grout as I found more and more wrong. stud walls are marine ply I only removed the lower half of the tiles as all the others seemed sound and leaking was last tiles and around tray. In hindsight it would have been easier to rip it all out from the start but you don’t know that at the start.

 

[terryplumb]

Is the underside of the tray totally flat ,did you put a level across it ? Is the ply totally flat ? If not a solid bed would have been better. I dont think you have any other option but to take out and Start again.
What area of the country are you in ?

 

[Steve_o1]

The ply is flat. I didn’t put a level on the underside of tray before bedding it didn’t occur to me to need to, assumed it would be flat. It is level now. Movement is max 1 mm and only in the middle and front edge down to the tile adhesive.

Sole destroying to rip it out, I used sbr on it, will rip the ply apart I expect and it was a real pain to fit the ply

 

[terryplumb]

Well i suppose you could crack on and see how it goes ,keeping a close eye on it . Is there no access below ,or have you put in an access panel. As long as you monitor it for leaks i supposed the worst case scenario is you have to bite the bullet further down the line.

 

[Steve_o1]

There’s no real access. Only from removing a light fitting in the kitchen beneath it to view it. It won’t leak to the kitchen unless the waste leaks. I tanked the ply floor and the tanked the tray aswell. As it’s the 4th repair that i know of I was belt and braces in that respect. It’s more whether the small flex when I shower everyday annoys me, I’m a bit of a perfectionist, knowing it’s not right if it’s obvious everyday.... The tray I took out was dot and dabbed on silicone if you stood on a corner it would flex a huge amount and before then the original builder had just stuck it on the chipboard floor. It’s leaked all it’s life by the look of it. It’s a 90’s extension.

 

[terryplumb]

Good luck with it mate ,hope it all comes good.

 

[Steve_o1]

Thanks, I hate repairing others mess, much nicer start a fresh, just this started a small repair an escalated at every step. Should have ripped the whole bathroom out, patching in the tiles won’t be fun either.

 

[noseall]

My own tray did the same. I managed to squirt some CT1 under the leading edges and then put a bead around the outer edge for good measure. I managed to re-seat the tray without any foreign bits getting trapped beneath. The weight of the cubicle and tiles did the rest. No probs two years on.