Rubber strip for front edge of bath

[David W.E. Roberts]

Hi,

trivial question but Google is being unhelpful.

Our newly installed bath is nice and level - which means that any splashing from the power shower onto the edge of the bath is distributed evenly between the tile side and the floor side.

Next time (hah) I think I will put a very slight slope towards the wall (at the risk of a slightly skew tile line at the bath ends) to ensure that all the water drains to the tile side.

Not wishing to un-tile to adjust the legs on the bath, I need a very small ridge along the floor side of the top edge of the bath (if you follow me) to dissuade the water from trickling over.

Some kind of strip, white rubber or similar, which could be fitted using silicone sealant.

I have seen various (not very attractive) plastic right angles for sealing between the bath and tiles and I don't really want a wide plastic strip as I think it would look ugly.

A nice half oval strip of white flexible rubber would be nice.

^ strip -------- bath side top | | bath outside

Hope the dodgy ASCII art explains.

Anyone come across such stuff, or another suitable alternative?

TIA Dave R

[Steve Firth]

3M sell a strip which is a white plastic layer with a bead of white mastic on the back. Cut to length press into place and it forms a neat seal which moves with the bath as required but is protected from dirt and fingers by the plastic strip.

[BillR]

Normal people would use a shower curtain or bath screen to stop the water going on the floor :-)

[David W.E. Roberts]

Ho ho ha ha bloody ha.

[BillR]

Have I misunderstood? you have a power shower over a bath without shower curtain or screen and you want to put a strip of plastic along the bath edge to encourage the water not to go on the floor?

[Chris J Dixon]

Well, it works on Design Wars :-)

Only seen snatches of it, but didn't somebody say, "They could have put up a shower curtain"? There was also an aside about trouble with the hot water - bet they didn't put in a bigger tank for that giant bath.

Chris

[David W.E. Roberts]

Ah! Thought you were just being unhelpful and sarcastic at a time of travail.

Yes, I have (see previous posts e.g. Message-ID:

with subject Shower screen grumble...) worked out that if you have a power shower the water does not stay in the area of the bath by some form of arcane magic.

I now have a shower curtain (having been caught out by the pictures of shower screens suggesting that they were much taller than in actuality).

A shower curtain keeps flying water in the bath area, and protects the exposed (floor) side of the bath. As would a shower screen.

However it does not protect the tiled head of the bath (where the shower head is) nor the tiled side of the bath nor some of the tiled end of the bath.

Water runs down the tiles, or settles directly on the rim of the bath in these areas.

Because the bath is level, the water on the rim can flow in all directions, including towards the floor side of the bath, where it runs round the ends of the shower curtain and down the the bath panel onto the floor.

My 'next time' fix would be to slope the bath towards the tiled wall a little so any water on the rim ran inwards, then drained into the bath.

Being reluctant to hack off the tiles and re-slope the bath now, I am looking for a neat alternative to stop water on the rim of the bath running off the edge onto the floor.

Cloths placed at strategic locations, as long as regularly squeezed, can do this but they are unsightly and can be forgotten by those not initiated into arcane showering rituals.

I was looking for something which could be used to produce a slight ridge (couple of mm would do) along the exposed edge of the bath so that any water would run into the bath instead of down the bath panel.

Preferably white rubber for softness and the inconspicuous look.

Another response has pointed me to a 3M product (which I haven't located yet).

Cheers Dave R

[BillR]

I hate shower screens after fitting an expensive on in my on-suite.

I guess your bath must have a very rounded top edge. The new steel baths I fitted have quite a flat edge, they don't flex either.

[S Viemeister]

I have seen in one of the catalogues, a white plastic, self-adhesive corner piece. It attaches to the top edge of the tub, and the side of the wall/enclosure, and is specifically designed to solve the problem you describe.

Sheila

[Terry]

Because of similar problems with water onto the floor and rot etc., twice over the last 33 years, we have recently refitted our bath-shower using one of those fiberglass/acrylic enclosures. It is well shaped to avoid such problems and we are pleased with it. We had to settle for a three piece one because of access into the bathroom. We had to remove the door box and door frame to get the three pieces into the bathroom individually and fit them together. My daughter has substantial shower curtain liner of sort of rubbery material in her almost identical tub enclosure. Even without the usual magnets used in liners for steel tubs, it sticks when wet and sometimes it seems almost electrostatically, very well to the inside wall of the tub; prevents outspray and virtually eliminates any water on the edge of the tub at all. The decorative sheet of the curtains hangs outside the tub. One can buy shower glass or plastic shower/tub doors (equiv. about 85-100 UK) One type runs in channels which are siliconed to edge of the bathtub and tend to fill up and get 'grotty'. Another type free hangs from above with maybe a vinyl rubber edging just brushing the tub. We don't like either type and having found out how easy it is to reach in and wipe down the smooth contours of the new enclosure we like them even less. Recommend serious consideration of substantila shower curtain; before this we used to anchor, not but effectively, our el cheapo plastic shower curtain liner in place with plastic bottles of hair shampoo. Terry.

[Mike Blanche]

Called "dripguard"... plumbworld.co.uk have them.

No experience but will be trying one to solve a shower-over-bath problem of my own.

mike