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I'm having a bit of trouble resealing my bath at the tap/shower end. It only lasts a few weeks before it separates from the bath. I cleaned the tiles with white spirit and then IPA before applying the silicone and I fill the bath up to the overflow before hand. Is there anything else I should be doing? A better option than silicone perhaps?
Stixall works better than standard silicon.
I'm sure there's a few other.
Have a thumb though a toolstation catalogue.
what silicone are you using?
Probably movement in the bath. I was re doing a shower once a year then I fitted this stuff
https://www.teleseal.co.uk/teleseal.html
it has been fine ever since. Probably about 5 years now.
Silly question, but are you filling the bath then sealing?
No reason it should come away like that. I normally clean the area and then dry it out. Plumbers gold is quite good stuff. Don't resort to soap or oils rather get a finishing tool to get a good finish.
Sounds like your bath needs support under that side. Some plastic baths need support all the way round because they flex too much. No amount of silicone/fixall/bath seal strip will fix it permanently until it has support. I usually screw battens to the wall to prevent this. Bit difficult to do after the bath has been fitted but if you can take the bath panel off, you could make up a square frame of suitable sized timber at the correct height to jam it up. Even a square of plywood would do. Get forever white silicone from toolstation and a finishing tool.
All surfaces must be bone dry after cleaning/prep and before silicone application. Especially the grout lines.
What Supremebean says, needs some support, buy a low modulus silicon too and use a Cramer Fuji silicon tool, brilliant kit (watch the video on youtube)
Make sure you do a big enough silicone bead that allows for expansion and contraction, the manufacturer should indicate the minimum size - width x depth. Not all silicones are created equal either and I'd make sure I was using a good quality product like Arbo (12 year guarantee I believe).
Had this problem too. I filled the bath and stood in it as well to apply the sealant after experiencing a similar problem. Went for Mapei Mapesil from Screwfix and put a nice thick 8mm bead around the bath using this tool:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-smoothing-tools-straight-joints/92313
The bath sinks by about 5mm when full and the silicone is still stuck after 18 months. The correct tool makes a huge difference. If you can practice with it on something first it'll help, but it's so much better than a soapy finger.