OT: shower leak

[Larry Blanchard]

Some of you may remember that a while back I posted about a plumbing problem in a shower enclosure. Couldn't find the leak and neither could the plumber. Simple reason - it wasn't in the pipes!

Now I knew absolutely nothing about tile setting. But I accidentally ran across a reference to sealing the grout. I knew the shower had been re- grouted just before we bought the house. But I didn't know if it had been sealed. So I ran a garden hose in through a window and sprayed it on the walls. Eureka - it leaked!

Went to Home Depot and bought some spray cans of sealer, covered everything I didn't want to seal, and liberally sprayed the walls. The shower no longer leaks and I now know a little bit more about tile than I did.

All problems are obvious *after* the solution is found :-).

[-MIKE-]

Don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but if the shower is leaking through the grout, there are bigger problems than grout sealer. The purpose of grout sealer is really to prevent mold in the grout. The wall behind the tile should be water proof to begin with. One should be able to spray water onto a properly prepared subsurface for tile, without tile, and not have any leaks. In other words the subsurface should be waterproof.

I don't remember your first post about this, so I can't speak to your specific problem.

Where was the water leaking? Into the walls and down through the floor?

[krw]

What he said. Sorry.

[Larry Blanchard]

Yes, after I started looking I learned that as well. But this house was built in 1956. I don't know if the same building codes were in effect back then. But I do know the walls are still standing. At my age, they don't have to last a whole lot longer :-). And no damage is visible from the basement below the shower.

But even if the subsurface isn't waterproof, the sealer is keeping it dry so that would seem to eliminate the problem.

OTOH, I also replaced the caulking between the walls and the shower pan, so that may have been the problem instead of the grout. Either way the leak is gone so we're happy.

[hubops]

... ya think .. John T.

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[Ed Pawlowski]

Probably was. Keep an eye on it after you shower a couple of times. When you add the weight of you and a couple of girl friends it can separate and leak.

[Larry Blanchard]

At my age? If it'd get 2 girlfriends in the shower with me it can leak till the cows come home!

[Larry Blanchard]

Actually, I don't. The old caulking looked fine. But as I said, I'm no expert so you could easily be right.

[krw]

If I got two girlfriends in the shower with me, I wouldn't worry about the leak either. My wife would make sure of that!

[Swingman]

Yep. Why gawd made "RedGard":

Even if it's blue: