the silicon around my bath and shower is degrading rapidly after only 12
months, in fact the shower is gone altogether. can anyone recommend a
suitable replacement that will last linger than 1 year ?

Les

In article ,
in2minds wrote:
the silicon around my bath and shower is degrading rapidly after only 12
months, in fact the shower is gone altogether. can anyone recommend a
suitable replacement that will last linger than 1 year ?

It would, as it's an extremely brittle material.

You need to use silicone. ;-)

If it is silicone, in which way has it degraded? It certainly tends to get
dirty quickly, but should still function for many a year.

--
*There are two kinds of pedestrians... the quick and the dead.

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

"in2minds" wrote in message
...
the silicon around my bath and shower is degrading rapidly after only 12
months, in fact the shower is gone altogether. can anyone recommend a
suitable replacement that will last linger than 1 year ?

Les



I used SILIRUB 2/S a neutral silicone by Soudal when I fitted my
bathroom/shower six years ago, still looks like new.

Brad.


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in2minds wrote:

the silicon around my bath and shower is degrading rapidly after only 12
months, in fact the shower is gone altogether. can anyone recommend a
suitable replacement that will last linger than 1 year ?

Les




SiliconE?

:-)

it seems to have shrunk and lost it's grip on the tiles/bath/shower base

Les

"in2minds" wrote in message


it seems to have shrunk and lost it's grip on the tiles/bath/shower base

You'll have to razor blade what you can off and get the finish as smoth
and clean as you can. You probably had grease or something on the places
you applied it. There are different grades of mastic for batrooms, some
of which are not silicon and there are a variety of "modules" that
describe how it functions. You want one that is fungicidal as well as
quite hard when set. The acrylic ones go fairly hard. They are not
considered as good as the silicon ones though. I'm not sure there is a
good reason for that.


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in2minds wrote:

it seems to have shrunk and lost it's grip on the tiles/bath/shower base

Sounds like one of two possibilities - either the product you used last
time was not "real" silicone and an inferior "mastic", or it was not
installed correctly. Correctly installed silicone should last for at
least ten years.

Things to remember when installing - Firstly, surfaces want to be clean
and dry and free from grease. Secondly (and the most usual cause of
failure) is not observing the limitations of the product - it is only
supposed to work when the total movement between the sealed surfaces
does not exceed 10% to 15% of the total sealant thickness. So if your
fitting is able to move 1mm with respect to the wall - then you would
need a 10mm bead of sealant to be able to repeatedly absorb the movement
without it failing over time.

One trick that can help (especially with baths) is to fill them with
water before sealing, and keep them full until the sealant is set. That
way the sealant is unlikely to be stretched as much under use, and will
spend most of its time under slight compression. So with a shower tray
you could pile in a few bags of sand or something else heavy into the
tray before sealing.

To remove the original sealant you can get a "silicone eater" product
from Screwfix that will help (but only if the original sealant was real
silicone)



--
Cheers,

John.

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On Sun, 05 Oct 2003 22:39:41 +0100, dave wrote:

Anyone tried germanium? :-))

Presumably you mean germanione ? I wonder if it exists ?
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In message , dave
writes
On Sun, 05 Oct 2003 12:53:51 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in2minds wrote:

the silicon around my bath and shower is degrading rapidly after only 12
months, in fact the shower is gone altogether. can anyone recommend a
suitable replacement that will last linger than 1 year ?

Les




SiliconE?

:-)
Anyone tried germanium? :-))

Are they annuals or perennials
--
geoff

"in2minds" wrote in message
...
it seems to have shrunk and lost it's grip on the tiles/bath/shower base

Les



Doesn't sound like it's shrunk, sounds like you have had movement of the
bath and shower tray