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A year ago I helped out a neighbour and resealed their shower. The tray has a gap of 5-10mm in one corner to the tiles. I filled with sealant and it's worked up till now. I'm not a bathroom fitter. The gap at it's widest is about 3" long and then narrows down.
Is filling with sealant the way to go or are their better options, assuming it's not a refit of the shower or base. I think the base is pretty sturdy and secure and the tiles are in good nick, as is the grouting.
Cheers
Any thoughts on this...
http://www.byretech.com/acatalog/ShowerSeal-Ultra-10---3-Sides.html
Apparently the stuff people use(d) for DIY tyre inserts is actually intended for such purposes, it is called "backer rod" or similar.
I'm confused - have you already done the work?
I did this recently when one side of shower tray was slightly lower meaning there was a tapering gap between the tiles.
As above, backer rod is made for this purpose. In my case, the gap wasn't quite enough to need anything bought - I just built it up with a few layers of sealant. It probably took longer than bathroom fitters would be happy with (a few layers with a couple of hours in between) and backer rod would have allowed the job to be done at the first pass with sealant. But it seems fine.
Yep, I did it a year or so ago, as per superficial, building the sealant up in a few layers on the widest gap area. But it looks like it's just peeling away v slightly and allowing water through.
I'll check out the backer rod.
My bodge (and no doubt frowned upon by you professionals) was to use expanding foam glue to fill the gap, so it all had something solid to sit on.
Then put a thick layer of silicone to get it watertight.
Then tidied it up with that white PVC L shape profile stuck on with more silicone.
Doesn't look too bad, it's all hidden by the PVC strip, plus is totally water tight.
That big a gap is a bit of a bodge with silicone. I'd be more concerned that the tray was flexing or moving whilst someone is standing in it. Properly applied silicone sealer can last a long time if the preparation is good & not allowed to go mouldy. Have a look on Youtube for guidance on how to get the best results. Especially important on a gap that big. I use a Cramer profiling kit to get a nice profile on the bead. I'd start by getting someone to step into the tray whilst you look at the edges of the tray & see if it's sagging whilst weighted. If it's moving more silicone isn't the answer.
Cured silicon won't stick to itself properly so multiple layers won't work well.
Backerrod to backfill allows the silicon to be installed at a thickness where the material will still be able to flex slightly.
A big monolithic piece won't flex and will then fail where it bonds the other surfaces.
Also, that uneven gap... Presumably it's not the tile that wanders up away from the bath but the bath the drops down off level? Does water end up pooling here?
You also want to caulk the bath with the tub loaded..full of water works.
Fill the gap with bits of screwed up paper then silicon on top was the technique used by the previous owner of my old house. Paper was still dry when I ripped it out so must have worked.
https://www.teleseal.co.uk/teleseal.html
I'd probably fill the gap then put this over the top. Worked for me after having silicone fail repeatedly.
Thanks all. It's a shower tray, with a 5-10mm gap for about 3" (the tiling isn't dead true).
I removed the sealant as it looked as though it was failing, and seems dry behind. There's a little area of grouting that's cracked, first grouting horizontal level from the bottom (if that makes sense). The tile has a very slight movement if pushed so possibly water seeping in behind, puddling on the kitchen ceiling and eventually causing a drip. So I removed the tile, again dry behind.
No sign of water leaks or signs of damp in water tank cupboard, loft.
Can't say I'm enjoying being lumbered with this!!