Tiling / Sealing Advice - Window recess in shower

[DIY_Beginner]

Hello,
I would like some advice on tiling in my shower window recess please.

Untitled

• DIY_Beginner
• 1 Mar 2009
• 1

Untitled

• DIY_Beginner
• 1 Mar 2009
• 1

The recess gets water in as the shower is to the left of the picture. This creates a lot of mould and unpleasant looking marks on the grout / sealant. This is particularly noticeable where the back of the tiles meet the bottom of the window. There is a c.0.5cm gap currently filled with grout / sealant. In addition, where the water runs down, it has marked the border tiles where the tiles meet the bath.
Please could you advise a solution to:
(1) The recess - what is the best way of "sealing" this so that the mould does not regrow
(2) The recess - should I retile this so there is a slight slope to the front to allow all water to run off?
(3) The border tiles - is there something i can do to "protect" these from the water which appears to drip down from the ledge?
I hope the pictures help. Thank you very much in advance.

 

[gcol]

There's not a great deal you can do about the border tiles - small tiles mean more grout which is not the best idea around showers. About the best you could do is make the window bottom slope in towards the bath and seal the grout joints with grout sealer.

 

[Symptoms]

beginner - as you already have a uPVC window why not fit a uPVC window board. Bond this over the tiles (or take the tiles off) so that it has a slight fall (slope); these boards can be obtained with a 'drip' edge which, if you get a board wide enough, will cast the water off the lower wall. Obviously seal the edges of this window board with a quality sanitary silicon. One of the problems of tiling window ledges is that the grout lines could eventually get grubby.