The plastic seal round the edge of a bath isnt sealing as theres no downward force on it. This seems to be due to the bath moving slightly, which has now been sorted out. But the strip needs silicone under it to seal it to the bath, and there's where the trouble starts. Putting silicone under the plastic strip looked like it was working fine. Smooth it down and think great, job done. Take a close look a bit later and the silicone is now full of gaps. It looks like silicone had been falling down over the curved bath edge before it set, out of sight where its hard to see how to prevent it. Any clever ideas on how to make this work?
Fill most of the gap where it is sliding first ! Also, make sure you silicone right under the front of the strip, and wipe off the excess that squidges out. Simon.
Presumably the bath is against a wall, and the sealing strip is between the wall and the bath. There will be a valley where the roll edge of the bath goes down towards the wall. Presumably the silicone is sliding into this gap. Fill the valley with something (small bit of low expansion foam, cheap silicone, or anything). Not fill the gap under the bath !!
If my presumablies are wrong, I've no idea what you are up to !
I can understand the void under the bath being vast, but behind the bath ? If there is nothing behind the bath, what are you sealing the bath to ?
You may be having a problem with the silicone adhering, due to old soap residue etc. Try to clean the bath rim and under the strip. Someone else may have an idea of what to clean it with. Simon.
If it's not sealed to the wall then the water will get down the back of it - not underneath it.
If it were mine I would do it properly once and for all and this requires more than merely poking a silicone nozzle underneath and hoping for the best.
1) remove all strips.
2) thouroughly clean around edge of bath with a scrubbing brush and bath cleaner, rinse, allow to dry.
3) clean around edge of bath with rag dipped in nailpolish remover, allow to dry.
4) fill bath to overflow with cold water
5) use as much silicone sealant as is neccesary to fill all visible gaps.
6) apply a fairly thick bead of silicone over this and press the sealing strip into it, leave for 24 hrs minimum.
7) empty bath and cut off any excess sealant with a sharp blade
I had a problem with our bath seal many years ago. The stuff that had been put on at installation was breaking up.
I found some silicone seal and cut it to length and mitred the corners and stuck it down with Dow Corning RTV 732. What I didn't know at the time, was it yellows with age, but that seal never leaked again.
Try and find your local sealant trade store and ask them for something like RTV 732 that doesn't yellow.
Clean the bath with a soap and then again with a detergent and then again with a solvent. Our bath was steel, but if your isn't, then be careful of which solvent you use. Others on the ng will be more knowledgeable about this than me.
Not quite. The situation is this: The new plastic sealing strip is embedded under the tiles, and I'm not interested in retiling a section. The bath it turned out wasnt well enough fixed, and its moved a bit, and the sealant strip doesnt seal. Trying to sort the bath's support frame proved fruitless, so the bath edges have been concreted in place. Normally all would be well now, just add silicone, but it seems the bath top profile makes it impossible for silcone put under the sealing strip to stay in place, and theres really no access behind there.
What I'm planning to do is inject no more nails as a temporary barrier to stop the silicone dropping out. Nomo is as thick and sticky as anything I can think of.
Not quite. The situation is this: The new plastic sealing strip is embedded under the tiles, and I'm not interested in retiling a section. The bath it turned out wasnt well enough fixed, and its moved a bit, and the sealant strip doesnt seal. Trying to sort the bath's support frame proved fruitless, so the bath edges have been concreted in place. Normally all would be well now, just add silicone, but it seems the bath top profile makes it impossible for silcone put under the sealing strip to stay in place, and theres really no access behind there.
What I'm planning to do is inject no more nails as a temporary barrier to stop the silicone dropping out. Nomo is as thick and sticky as anything I can think of.
NT
PS I dont need advice on cleaning the surfaces.
I'd have thought expanding foam would be easier than 'no more nails', at least it's easy to scrape off excess: nmn is awful chewing gum like stuff that never works the way you want and then you can't get it off either.
I had a similar problem recently - which is why earlier I put in the note to keep the supply key for the road handy. I had been tidying up the plumbing of the loo, which is partitioned from the bath. But whoever had originally installed the bath had not bothered to move the supply valve which entered the house in the far corner where he had tiled in the bath. To make matters worse, he had tapped the supply for the loo off this valve, which meant modifying the supply side, with a home made fitting that had required him to pare down a piece of copper pipe to the thickness of foil! When yours truly had finished redoing the loo, unaware of how little was supporting the supply valve (which itself could only be reached by dislocating one's shoulder behind the bath) I went to turn on the water, and the supply valve just fell right off. This was about 1am on a very cold night. You never saw anyone panic so much trying to find garage and shed keys, torches, and eventually the key for the supply in the road! Luckily the road supply had been recently replaced and that valve turned right off - often they don't.
And you never saw anyone rip a bath out so quick either! Once I'd redone the supply valve and got it pointed in the right direction, the bath had to go back, and, of course, the tiler had not put much adhesive under the bottom tiles, so when I managed to screw the bath back firmly (with screws that are also almost impossible to reach and turn), it cracked the tiles... And so on!
I did end up with a slightly bigger gap at some places - the wall not being flat or square - but just kept on with the sealer until it didn't look too bad. You may find, in the long run it is easier to remove your old seal and just use silicone for the lot.
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