Leaking shower

[DrewM]

I've got a leaking shower cubicle. After running the shower for about 30 seconds, a steady stream of water starts dripping from somewhere near the back wall.

The shower fitting itself is on a side wall, so I don't think this is a problem with the pipes. I've resealed around the shower basin with silicon sealant, but the drip keeps coming.

I reckon it's getting in through the grout somewhere. Plausible?

I'm a complete novice when it comes to things like this - is the best plan to re-grout the tiles on that wall? If so, is that an easy job, and can anyone recommend a good source of instructions?

Thanks

Drew

[Tony Collins]

What I did when I had this problem:

Got some granite effect vinyl flooring, and glued it on over the tiles - one piece for each wall of the cubicle. Seal up each corner, and around the shower tray and jobs a goodun. Glued it on with standard vinyl flooring adheseive. It looked good, relatively few points to seal, and is even warm to the touch.

I never trust grout anymore.

[BigWallop]

If it's dripping into the room below, then check your waste outlet pipework. The joints on the plastic pipes that take the water away down the plughole are leaking.

[Sparks]

Before you start ripping tiles off, I would make 100% sure it isn't the waste!

You say it only takes about 30 seconds to start - try blocking the drain in the shower with a plug or something, and see if it still leaks - if not, let the water in the tray go, and then get the mop ;)

Sparks...

[DrewM]

Ripping tiles off? Yikes, is that what I'll need to do?

It can't be the waste, unless I have special water than can run up hill :)

Thanks,

Drew

[BigWallop]

How do you mean " run up hill" ? The water could be puddling under the shower tray, and when it reaches a certain level, or gets to an easy flow out point, it will drip through. So it could be your waste pipe.

[DrewM]

The point from which the water drips is higher than the plug hole. The waste pipe, by necessity runs downwards. Water isn't pooling inside the shower, and gravity prevents it from pooling on the underside of the basin.

Consider the shower basin to be this shape:

--x--\ /----- \________________y___/

Where Y is the plug hole, and X is the approximate point of dripping.

Drew

[BigWallop]

So the drip is going into the shower tray and not through the floor into a room below ?

[DrewM]

No, the drip is from the underside of the tray onto the floor (and through the boards).

Drew

[Huge]

Possibly.

I ended up stripping the cubicle and tray out of the shower in our main bathroom before I found the leak(s).

[Huge]

This is where my showere was leaking, at the joint between the tray and the tiled walls. And until I took the tray out, cleaned the tray and the tiles meticulously and resealed everything, I couldn't get it to stop.