Shower silicone

[DavidFrancis]

In his latest blog @Stones said he's renewing the silicone in his shower (maybe one year after the house was finished).  How often do people replace (or fiddle with) the silicone in their showers/baths?

 

I've never really considered this as a regular maintenance task and only do something if it looks like it's deteriorating.

[Jeremy Harris]

I think it depends a lot on your water quality and a host of other things, like the type of shampoo or soap used  When we had sealant exposed around the shower/bath it was a very regular job to clean off the pink fungal (?) growth on the stuff, then gradually it would get black growth that could initially be cleaned off with a bit of diluted bleach, then it would get so bad, after around three years or so, that I'd have to rip the sealant out and replace it.  The type of sealant used seemed to make little difference, with the ones advertised as being resistant to fungal growth being little different to the others.

 

In the end I just fitted PVC trims so there is virtually no sealant on view at all, and that seems to have made keeping that area clean a lot easier.  We still get a bit of the pink stuff, but never seem to get the much harder to remove black stuff.

[Stones]

For me, it's very much a case of keeping it looking good, and making sure that everything is sound.  I was caught out many years ago when a shower leaked at the tile / tray junction because the sealant had come away, I think due to a combination of age and regular cleaning.

 

For the sake of 15 minutes to clean the old off and run a new bead of sealant round, it isn't really a problem.  

[AliG]

We normally find it starts to leak after 7 or 8 years.

 

First it starts to look bad as it gets black marks on it. Eventually you may want to replace as it looks nicer.

 

Secondly it starts to deteriorate and the seal breaks. If you don't see this and have an upstairs shower you may not know until there is water coming through the ceiling. It's a lot less hassle to replace mastic than fix a ceiling. I'd try and keep an eye on it and try and replace it as soon as you think the seal is deteriorating.

[Crofter]

Ideally the visible silicone bead is pretty much for aesthetics and to make cleaning easier- the tray/wall junction should be sealed properly before the tiles go on. I took advice from a Welsh bloke and used a tanking kit with a rubber tape, plus some CT1. The white silicone simply hides this.

[AliG]

Good point, every house I have had before this one was built by a mass market builder and they don't tank the showers, they just tile and seal them.

[DavidFrancis]

Thanks for the replies.  I just wondered if I ought to be a little more "pro-active" on this front.

 

My question was partly brought on by having a small leak in our upstairs shower.  The leak was between the tray and the wall but behind the frame of the shower enclosure, where it had either never been properly sealed or the seal had disintegrated.  Because the leak was so small it never made it as far as the ceiling below but had started to rot the top of a floor joist.  Only noticed when giving the outside of the tray a clean and the abutting ends of the skirting had gone soft.

[James H]

10 minutes ago, DavidFrancis said:

 

My question was partly brought on by having a small leak in our upstairs shower.  The leak was between the tray and the wall but behind the frame of the shower enclosure, where it had either never been properly sealed or the seal had disintegrated.  Because the leak was so small it never made it as far as the ceiling below but had started to rot the top of a floor joist.  Only noticed when giving the outside of the tray a clean and the abutting ends of the skirting had gone soft.

 

 We often find this when there is a small movement in the tray when stood on, which breaks the joint. Solution is to have no movement in the tray and the joints wide enough to take movement.

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, DavidFrancis said:

The leak was between the tray and the wall but behind the frame of the shower enclosure, where it had either never been properly sealed or the seal had disintegrated

The number one F@@@ up by sooooo many 'bathroom fitters' and kept me in work for a good few years alone. 

The tray gets fitted, then the cubicle, and then the cubicle gets sealed up, as per the manufacturers instructions e.g. all around the outside and down to the tray, then around the outer edge of the cubicle to the tray so nowhere for the water to go other than in the tray. 

The tiles then get sealed to the tray all the way up to the cubicle and then there's big smiles all round and money changes hands. Then the trouble starts, from the very first shower. 

Water hits the shower cubicle junction with the wall profile. Water goes straight inside and runs down to the bottom. Some runs out of the gap between the tray and the bottom of the cubicle and into the tray to drain away, and the rest goes into the gap behind the wall profile between the tray and the tiles ( which didn't get sealed prior to the fitting of the wall profile ). That acts like a guttering and transports the water right around the underside of the tiles and out to the front of the tray where the tile sits on it.

Acrylic tile adhesive reconstitutes with constant damp / immersion ( one of the reasons I don't use it in bathrooms ever ) so the water eventually gets behind / below the tray and from the front, all appears like new.

Then the dining room ceiling caves in 3 years later .