shower leak dammit
 

My shower tray leaks at one corner where the metal framed glass panel
joins the wall. The leak reappears on the kitchen ceiling, but not the
bathroom floor.

No amount of sealing seems to work. I suspect the metal frame work
fills with water and slowly drains down after a shower.

I vaguely recall you should seal only one side of the base of the metal
frame.

Any tips?

shower leak dammit
 

andyv wrote:
My shower tray leaks at one corner where the metal framed glass panel
joins the wall. The leak reappears on the kitchen ceiling, but not the
bathroom floor.

No amount of sealing seems to work. I suspect the metal frame work
fills with water and slowly drains down after a shower.

I vaguely recall you should seal only one side of the base of the
metal frame.

Any tips?

The only sure way of sealing this is to take the whole thing off and re-seat
it again, or even better, buy a new one and fit that.
The chances are that when you remove it there will be a gap somewhere (maybe
in the tiles/joints or in the shower tray itself) and then you can do it
properly...IME many months / years are spent attempting to patch these
things up and all the while they just get steadily worse - any longer and
you may have to replace the kitchen ceiling, which also means a full
re-decorate of that room into the bargain.

On the plus side, you can claim on your house insurance if this is the case,
but only usually for the damage caused and not the actual fixing of the leak

shower leak dammit
 

On Wed, 17 May 2006 03:16:13 -0700, andyv wrote:

My shower tray leaks at one corner where the metal framed glass panel
joins the wall. The leak reappears on the kitchen ceiling, but not the
bathroom floor.

No amount of sealing seems to work. I suspect the metal frame work
fills with water and slowly drains down after a shower.

Yes, what I think you may have is this:

/|
/| ------------\
/|| -----------------
/|| |
/|| |
wall /|| | frame
/|| |
/|| |
/|| -----------------
/| ------------/
/| channel

The frame fits snugly, but not watertightly, into the channel which is
fixed to the wall. Water gets into the channel from the channel/frame
joint inside the shower. If you've sealed the bottom of the channel to the
tray on the inside then it builds up inside the channel and runs out
through the channel/frame joint on the outside. It may help to make a gap
for the water to run out of the channel where it meets the tray inside the
enclosure.

shower leak dammit
 

Phil L wrote:
andyv wrote:
My shower tray leaks at one corner where the metal framed glass panel
joins the wall. The leak reappears on the kitchen ceiling, but not the
bathroom floor.

No amount of sealing seems to work. I suspect the metal frame work
fills with water and slowly drains down after a shower.

I vaguely recall you should seal only one side of the base of the
metal frame.

Any tips?

The only sure way of sealing this is to take the whole thing off and re-seat
it again, or even better, buy a new one and fit that.
The chances are that when you remove it there will be a gap somewhere (maybe
in the tiles/joints or in the shower tray itself) and then you can do it
properly...IME many months / years are spent attempting to patch these
things up and all the while they just get steadily worse - any longer and
you may have to replace the kitchen ceiling, which also means a full
re-decorate of that room into the bargain.

On the plus side, you can claim on your house insurance if this is the case,
but only usually for the damage caused and not the actual fixing of the leak


FWIW I had a nasty wet patch appearing on the base of a wall the other
side of which was a shower..

Turned out that the hole through which the shower head feed came had a
gap due to tile unevenness and water was draining behind it into the
wall. Silicone fixed it.

So make sure the leak isn't somewhere equally obscure..

shower leak dammit
 

This latter situation may well be the problem. I've no way of knowing
whether the base of the channel where it joins the wall was properly
sealed , and I think I will have to resort to removing it from the wall
to check.

With regard to allowing a gap to let water run out, the shower was
originally installed with sealant around the outside of the base of the
enclosure. I'd assumed this was to let any water run back into the
shower tray, but in fact it seems that this is a good way for it to get
into the frame. It runs down the glass, finds the gap then seems to go
in. I filled it both sides but this didn't help however and I've taken
the inner sealant off again.

shower leak dammit
 

On Thu, 18 May 2006 01:51:22 -0700, andyv wrote:

With regard to allowing a gap to let water run out, the shower was
originally installed with sealant around the outside of the base of the
enclosure. I'd assumed this was to let any water run back into the
shower tray, but in fact it seems that this is a good way for it to get
into the frame. It runs down the glass, finds the gap then seems to go
in. I filled it both sides but this didn't help however and I've taken
the inner sealant off again.

It will inevitably get into the wall channel from inside so seems to me
the trick is to let it out on the inside too.

There can be other non-obvious ways for water to escape. PITA I'm afraid.