Shower enclosure leak - likely source?

[markharro]

Jeez some days you really do lose the will to live. After literally months getting this shower operational my partner noticed that about one inch of grout where one vertical grout line hits the shower tray was appearing permanently wet. We suspected that the silicone around the try was the culprit. She has now scrapped off the silicone to find the back of it is wet over quite a length!! would even a small breach in the silicone allow this to happen?

 

She did the siliconing herself and I thought at the time that she had used a very narrow bead around the shower tray. Should we take it all out right around the tray and apply a thicker bead?

 

@Nickfromwales what do you recommend to get the silicone out and to clean up before reapplying thanks

[Nickfromwales]

Capillary action will suck the water in for miles, it's a git. Water is also a git. This is why I go bonkers on waterproofing with my bathroom / wetroom installs.

 

For this, you need to stop using the shower so it can dry out, and strip out all of the silicone; use a plastic tool to get the worst of it taken out, and then CT1 Multi-Solve to break down and emulsify any remnants. You spray it on, leave it to soak in for 5 mins, then use the plastic scraper and / or a cotton cloth (like a dishcloth) to get rid of the remining snots. You'll need a couple of applications to get this back to a blank canvas (eg zero evidence of there ever having been any silicone there whatsoever).

 

Get a hoover and suck the tiny bit of residual water out from under / behind the tile, as that needs to go, if you have compressed air this works better to blow it out and dry it all out, but not everyone does. Then leave for 24hrs to dry out; I'd put a small desk fan in there and have it blowing down at the gap where the tiles meet the tray to speed this up.

 

Once you're happy it's dry and clean, you can reapply some fresh, quality silicone sealant.

 

It doesn't look like there's been much gap left between the tiles and the tray, as otherwise I would be saying to first inject some clear CT1 into that gap, and wipe it back to almost nothing, and THEN silicone over the top of that.

 

Do you think there's any gap there that you could get some CT1 in to?