Best way of sealing a bath?

[A.Clews]

I sealed my bath surround some 15 years ago by jamming tightly-rolled-up plastic bags down the gap between bath and wall, before using loads of silicone sealant to complete the seal. That all appeared to work wonderfully, but the other day I removed the bath's side panel - for the first time in about a year - in order to remove the drainage trap to unblock it, and found that the wooden frame supporting the bath at the head end was soaking wet and beginning to show signs of rot. I should also add that I'd had a power shower installed 3 years ago, which probably hastened the failure of the seal...

Clearly the seal needs renewing, but I wondered if there are any tips to make a really good, long-lasting seal? I should also add that the wall tiles continue down behind the sides of the bath by about an inch, if I remember correctly (can't see for sure without removing the old seal).

Thanks for any advice....

[Usenet Nutter]

Well I s'pose the first thing is to try and avoid having any gap betwixt bath and tiles but presumably in your case that's not possible. When I had my previous bath the two walls ( one long ,one short) were not at right angles to each other so it meant there was quite a large gap so what I did was secure the bath,fill the gap with loads of silicone ( I happened to have several tubes handy) and then got a plastic trim ( heavy duty stuff from Homebase..I think Trend /Trent ? made it ..possibly it was intended for above a row of tiles as a substitute for border tiles ....it was about 3-4 cm deep and I siliconed it across between bath and wall (using a mitred join at the meetings of the walls) so it sat at about 45 degrees from vertical and this allowed the water to run off in to the bath .

[Alan]

In message , [e-mail] wrote

Fill the bath with water before sealing it.

[A.Clews]

Thus spake Alan ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

Yes, I learned that last time.

[The Medway Handyman]

You can buy an 'L' shaped plastic extrusion with flexible edges in B&Q

which will cover fairly large gaps. I use Evode Nail & Seal to stick it down. They do corner & end caps as well.

[Jules]

Always been told that myself and always done it - but isn't there a danger that the sealant bond will be damaged when the bath's emptied and raises back up to its 'empty height' (and the sealant is compressed)?

In a lot of setups the bath forms a sliding joint against a wall, rather than the wall protruding over the bath a little, so (unavoidable) compression or tension seems equally bad.

I've wondered before if it's better to half-fill the bath so that it's halfway between its maximum and minimum height...

[The Natural Philosopher]

What I have always done to date is first of all level the wall, typically with an MDF sheet plus battens if the wall is seriously bowed, then butt the bath hard up to that, then silicone to it and then TILE OVER the seal.

This has proven to be 100% effective

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its a lot better to use car body filler and bits of scrap timber to stop the bloody thing flexing in the first place, or buy a better bath..

[Lobster]

[...]

That's exactly what I do... seems do work fine.

David

[A.Clews]

Thus spake The Natural Philosopher ( [e-mail]) unto the assembled multitudes:

My bath is 8mm-thick GRP and on a sturdy support frame, so there is hardly any movement or flexion to speak of. The seal has after all lasted some 15 years, so I guess I can't have done too badly last time around.